Gandhāran stucco sculptures from Sultan Khel (former Khyber Agency) in the collection of Peshawar Museum: a study in three parts

The Peshawar Museum of Pakistan was inaugurated in the Victoria Memorial hall of Peshawar by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in 1907, and since then, it has achieved a worldwide reputation for housing one of the best collections of Gandhāran Buddhist sculptures. The antiquities of the Museum have chiefly come from archaeological excavations and explorations of ancient sites and monuments of the former North-West Frontier Province, however, the number of artefacts has also been supplemented by the sculptures donated by the civil and military officials of the British Indian Empire. Most of the donated and gifted sculptures were collected in military operations or punitive expeditions, or purchased from the local people, as well as confiscated under the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act of 1904.