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I'm on the mighty Indus River, | 0:00:07 | 0:00:10 | |
which gave its name to the whole Indian subcontinent. | 0:00:10 | 0:00:13 | |
And I'm beginning a journey deep into Ancient India. | 0:00:13 | 0:00:17 | |
A journey that will take me back 5,000 years into the past, | 0:00:17 | 0:00:21 | |
to discover some of its most hidden treasures. | 0:00:21 | 0:00:23 | |
I'll be travelling back in time to the ancient civilisation that | 0:00:28 | 0:00:31 | |
first grew up on the shores of the Indus. | 0:00:31 | 0:00:34 | |
I'll be revealing the lost Buddhist culture of northern Pakistan. | 0:00:34 | 0:00:38 | |
And luxuriating in the extraordinary | 0:00:38 | 0:00:41 | |
architectural flowering of the Mughal Empire... | 0:00:41 | 0:00:43 | |
and the exuberant temples of South India. | 0:00:43 | 0:00:47 | |
All of which produced some phenomenal artworks. | 0:00:47 | 0:00:49 | |
As an art historian and museum curator, | 0:00:54 | 0:00:56 | |
I've looked after these treasures for most of my life. | 0:00:56 | 0:00:59 | |
In this series, I want to explore their stories | 0:00:59 | 0:01:02 | |
and the people who created them. | 0:01:02 | 0:01:05 | |
I'm beginning my journey in Lahore, home to over five million people | 0:01:15 | 0:01:19 | |
and the vibrant, beating heart of modern Pakistan. | 0:01:19 | 0:01:24 | |
Today we think of Pakistan as an Islamic country, | 0:01:24 | 0:01:27 | |
and indeed it was religion that was the cause of | 0:01:27 | 0:01:31 | |
its violent severance from Greater India in 1947. | 0:01:31 | 0:01:34 | |
What was India's loss was the birth of a new nation, | 0:01:36 | 0:01:39 | |
the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. | 0:01:39 | 0:01:42 | |
But what I want to explore is this country's very rich, | 0:01:42 | 0:01:45 | |
more complex and diverse past, which is often forgotten. | 0:01:45 | 0:01:49 | |
A time when women were celebrated, the Buddha was worshipped | 0:01:51 | 0:01:55 | |
and the Mughal Empire recreated paradise on Earth. | 0:01:55 | 0:01:58 | |
So to do that, I need to go to the remains of a city that makes | 0:02:07 | 0:02:10 | |
Lahore look as if it was built just yesterday. | 0:02:10 | 0:02:13 | |
A site that is not just one of the most ancient in Pakistan, | 0:02:13 | 0:02:16 | |
but in the whole world. | 0:02:16 | 0:02:18 | |
SHE SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE | 0:02:21 | 0:02:25 | |
There's always a great sense of adventure to arrive | 0:02:27 | 0:02:30 | |
at a station in the subcontinent early in the morning. | 0:02:30 | 0:02:33 | |
With coolies carrying people's luggage, | 0:02:33 | 0:02:35 | |
people have got places to go, | 0:02:35 | 0:02:37 | |
just like I have. | 0:02:37 | 0:02:38 | |
Pakistan was born less than 70 years ago. | 0:02:47 | 0:02:50 | |
A much younger country than India. | 0:02:50 | 0:02:52 | |
So it is perhaps ironic that it was the birthplace | 0:02:52 | 0:02:55 | |
of a far older civilisation. | 0:02:55 | 0:02:56 | |
I spent years at the British Museum looking after treasures | 0:03:00 | 0:03:03 | |
from the Indian subcontinent. | 0:03:03 | 0:03:06 | |
But I've never made this particular journey before. | 0:03:06 | 0:03:09 | |
It will take me to the cradle of Ancient India. | 0:03:09 | 0:03:12 | |
So I've just got off the train at Harappa, we are almost 200km | 0:03:30 | 0:03:33 | |
outside Lahore at this tiny station, I seem to be the only person here. | 0:03:33 | 0:03:37 | |
But it was here, about 100 years ago, that under the British, | 0:03:37 | 0:03:41 | |
railway workers were creating a passageway to dig this railway, | 0:03:41 | 0:03:46 | |
to create this railway, and stumbled upon what appeared to be | 0:03:46 | 0:03:50 | |
a very ancient mound of terracotta bricks. | 0:03:50 | 0:03:53 | |
"How convenient", the workers must have thought, | 0:03:56 | 0:03:59 | |
and just used the bricks to help make the railway embankment. | 0:03:59 | 0:04:03 | |
But when archaeologists were eventually called in, | 0:04:03 | 0:04:05 | |
they made one of the great discoveries of the 20th century. | 0:04:05 | 0:04:09 | |
What they found defied belief. | 0:04:17 | 0:04:19 | |
In this quiet and neglected corner of Pakistan, an enormous city - | 0:04:19 | 0:04:24 | |
stretching for miles - | 0:04:24 | 0:04:26 | |
began to emerge from beneath the dusty plains. | 0:04:26 | 0:04:29 | |
It's thought the city of Harappa | 0:04:35 | 0:04:37 | |
was large enough to house up to 80,000 people. | 0:04:37 | 0:04:40 | |
This city was at the height of its success in 2,200 BC. | 0:04:43 | 0:04:48 | |
It's not until the late 19th century, over 4,000 years later, | 0:04:48 | 0:04:53 | |
that European cities reached anything like the scale and order. | 0:04:53 | 0:04:58 | |
Even more extraordinary than its size | 0:04:58 | 0:05:01 | |
was the realisation of quite how old it was. | 0:05:01 | 0:05:05 | |
When the archaeologist John Marshall came here in 1921, | 0:05:05 | 0:05:09 | |
he was the first person who fully appreciated the significance | 0:05:09 | 0:05:13 | |
and the actual antiquity of what this site potentially had to offer. | 0:05:13 | 0:05:17 | |
So I brought with me a copy of the Illustrated London News | 0:05:19 | 0:05:22 | |
from 1924, which was | 0:05:22 | 0:05:24 | |
actually when Marshall announced to the world effectively what he | 0:05:24 | 0:05:28 | |
had discovered and the significance of it, and it begins... | 0:05:28 | 0:05:33 | |
"Not often has it been given to archaeologists, as it was given to | 0:05:33 | 0:05:36 | |
"Schliemann at Tiryns or Mycenae, or to Stein in the deserts of | 0:05:36 | 0:05:40 | |
"Turkestan, to light upon the remains of | 0:05:40 | 0:05:43 | |
"a long forgotten civilisation. | 0:05:43 | 0:05:46 | |
"It looks, however, at this moment, as if we were on the threshold | 0:05:46 | 0:05:50 | |
"of such a discovery in the plains of the Indus." | 0:05:50 | 0:05:53 | |
Marshall was trying to rewrite the story of Ancient India with one | 0:05:56 | 0:06:00 | |
that began here in the subcontinent, | 0:06:00 | 0:06:03 | |
not one that had somehow been imported from Europe | 0:06:03 | 0:06:06 | |
or the Middle East, as previous archaeologists had imagined. | 0:06:06 | 0:06:09 | |
A history that was India's own, | 0:06:11 | 0:06:14 | |
a new beginning, if you like, for India's ancient past. | 0:06:14 | 0:06:17 | |
The thing that strikes me immediately, | 0:06:19 | 0:06:21 | |
walking through these ruins, | 0:06:21 | 0:06:23 | |
is how clearly this was laid out on a grid pattern like a modern city. | 0:06:23 | 0:06:28 | |
These people really understood their right angles. | 0:06:28 | 0:06:31 | |
But what is extraordinary is what isn't here. | 0:06:31 | 0:06:34 | |
For a civilisation on this scale, | 0:06:34 | 0:06:36 | |
contemporary with the pyramids, | 0:06:36 | 0:06:39 | |
is there isn't any grand monument to a single ruler, there isn't | 0:06:39 | 0:06:43 | |
any celebration of military might or a ruling theocracy. | 0:06:43 | 0:06:47 | |
This was clearly, in a contemporary sense, | 0:06:47 | 0:06:49 | |
a much more egalitarian society. | 0:06:49 | 0:06:53 | |
This is not the only city built by what came to be called | 0:06:57 | 0:07:00 | |
the Indus Valley Civilisation, | 0:07:00 | 0:07:03 | |
after the mighty river that threaded them together. | 0:07:03 | 0:07:06 | |
Many others were later found, built to a similar template. | 0:07:07 | 0:07:10 | |
And yet more remain to be excavated, | 0:07:12 | 0:07:14 | |
still buried under mounds in the desert. | 0:07:14 | 0:07:17 | |
This was an empire, albeit one without any rulers, | 0:07:18 | 0:07:22 | |
and it is an empire that is still giving up its secrets. | 0:07:22 | 0:07:25 | |
Gosh, so this was only excavated five or six days before? | 0:07:26 | 0:07:31 | |
-Yeah. -Still fresh with the mud. -Yeah. | 0:07:31 | 0:07:34 | |
You can see the accentuation of the breasts, the navel, | 0:07:34 | 0:07:37 | |
the wide hips. | 0:07:37 | 0:07:40 | |
This is a civilisation, like many ancient cultures, | 0:07:40 | 0:07:43 | |
that celebrated fertility, for very obvious reasons, | 0:07:43 | 0:07:46 | |
and these figures appear all over the Indus Valley. | 0:07:46 | 0:07:49 | |
'These were people who liked their bling, | 0:07:51 | 0:07:53 | |
'and some of the jewellery found here reveals | 0:07:53 | 0:07:55 | |
'the use of sophisticated manufacturing techniques.' | 0:07:55 | 0:07:59 | |
So this delicate bead... made of carnelian was considered | 0:07:59 | 0:08:04 | |
a highly precious stone and were traded really far and wide. | 0:08:04 | 0:08:09 | |
What's really remarkable about them is the technology they had, | 0:08:09 | 0:08:14 | |
using diamonds to drill these | 0:08:14 | 0:08:17 | |
very uniform holes through. | 0:08:17 | 0:08:20 | |
So they would then string them together and produce these | 0:08:20 | 0:08:23 | |
elaborate necklaces for elite citizens to wear. | 0:08:23 | 0:08:27 | |
'Unlike Pakistan today, this seems to have been a culture that | 0:08:29 | 0:08:32 | |
'valued, even worshipped, powerful women. | 0:08:32 | 0:08:36 | |
'And nowhere can this be seen better than in one tiny figure, | 0:08:36 | 0:08:40 | |
'a priceless treasure from the era known as The Dancing Girl... | 0:08:40 | 0:08:44 | |
'with the stance of an impudent teenager.' | 0:08:44 | 0:08:47 | |
She has all the poise of Degas' Little Dancer, | 0:08:48 | 0:08:52 | |
and some have described her as the Mona Lisa of ancient Indian art. | 0:08:52 | 0:08:57 | |
Now, the original is priceless, | 0:08:57 | 0:09:01 | |
and she sits here behind bulletproof glass, which...even being | 0:09:01 | 0:09:06 | |
a museum curator, on this occasion, I'm not able to access. | 0:09:06 | 0:09:11 | |
So I have here a replica in my hand, | 0:09:11 | 0:09:14 | |
and close up you can see... | 0:09:14 | 0:09:18 | |
what's really interesting about her is her stance. | 0:09:18 | 0:09:22 | |
For a young woman at this very early date, | 0:09:22 | 0:09:27 | |
she stands incredibly confidently with her hand on her hip, | 0:09:27 | 0:09:31 | |
her head held high, decorated with bangles. | 0:09:31 | 0:09:36 | |
There is a confidence and poise about her, which is | 0:09:36 | 0:09:39 | |
really surprising to some of our more traditional conceptions | 0:09:39 | 0:09:44 | |
and notions of women in South Asia. | 0:09:44 | 0:09:47 | |
The Dancing Girl is unusual and almost unique. | 0:09:54 | 0:09:58 | |
At Harappa, what has been found far more commonly are these | 0:09:58 | 0:10:01 | |
mysterious seals carved in reverse, presumably so they could act | 0:10:01 | 0:10:06 | |
as a stamp, leaving a clear image in wax, | 0:10:06 | 0:10:09 | |
perhaps to seal a transaction. | 0:10:09 | 0:10:12 | |
One of the most amazing features of these tiny seals that were found | 0:10:12 | 0:10:17 | |
at Harappa was that nearly 50% of them represented the unicorn, | 0:10:17 | 0:10:23 | |
which is a mythological animal that we usually associate with | 0:10:23 | 0:10:27 | |
medieval Europe, but actually it first originated here. | 0:10:27 | 0:10:31 | |
And clearly had great spiritual significance for these people, | 0:10:31 | 0:10:36 | |
because it appears over and over again, | 0:10:36 | 0:10:39 | |
but then completely disappeared from this region | 0:10:39 | 0:10:43 | |
and travelled through Mesopotamia into | 0:10:43 | 0:10:45 | |
Ancient Greece and into the legends of Europe | 0:10:45 | 0:10:48 | |
that we've all grown up with. | 0:10:48 | 0:10:50 | |
This is the first time I've ever held a seal from | 0:10:54 | 0:10:57 | |
the Indus Valley Civilisation of this scale, | 0:10:57 | 0:11:01 | |
and holding it at this range, | 0:11:01 | 0:11:03 | |
you can really get a sense of | 0:11:03 | 0:11:04 | |
the very, very fine craftsmanship they used. | 0:11:04 | 0:11:07 | |
You can see all the individual hooves. On the reverse, of course, | 0:11:07 | 0:11:12 | |
is this very practical, pragmatic handle that would have been | 0:11:12 | 0:11:16 | |
used to make the imprint of the sealing, | 0:11:16 | 0:11:20 | |
to mark a commodity that would have been traded, | 0:11:20 | 0:11:23 | |
so competently manufactured at such an early date, that it has survived | 0:11:23 | 0:11:27 | |
5,000 years for us to find today and for me to hold in this moment. | 0:11:27 | 0:11:32 | |
So why did this remarkable civilisation disappear | 0:11:36 | 0:11:40 | |
without trace for thousands of years? | 0:11:40 | 0:11:44 | |
It's hard to believe, in the heat and dust | 0:11:44 | 0:11:46 | |
of the excavated city, that a great tributary of the Indus | 0:11:46 | 0:11:50 | |
once flowed here, which supplied the city with a wealth of water. | 0:11:50 | 0:11:55 | |
There was in fact an indoor bathroom for almost every home, | 0:11:55 | 0:11:58 | |
and a sophisticated drainage system. | 0:11:58 | 0:12:00 | |
But over the millennia, the river changed course, | 0:12:03 | 0:12:06 | |
leaving the city and its farmlands without water. | 0:12:06 | 0:12:09 | |
It's no wonder then that this civilisation eventually collapsed. | 0:12:10 | 0:12:15 | |
The great River Indus dominates the history of civilisation here. | 0:12:19 | 0:12:23 | |
And as the river shifted course, whole cities came and went. | 0:12:23 | 0:12:27 | |
It was here that the next great empire emerged in the Indus Valley, | 0:12:35 | 0:12:39 | |
with consequences which would last for 1,000 years. | 0:12:39 | 0:12:43 | |
So this is the place, in 326 BC, | 0:12:49 | 0:12:52 | |
where that Macedonian megalomaniac Alexander the Great | 0:12:52 | 0:12:57 | |
crossed the river as he attempted to conquer India. | 0:12:57 | 0:13:00 | |
He didn't actually know where he was going, | 0:13:00 | 0:13:03 | |
he arrived with no language, no maps, and in fact Alexander was | 0:13:03 | 0:13:06 | |
so lost that he thought he had arrived | 0:13:06 | 0:13:10 | |
at a distant source of the Nile, | 0:13:10 | 0:13:13 | |
after having seen crocodiles in the Indus. | 0:13:13 | 0:13:16 | |
He was simply driven by a testosterone-fuelled obsession | 0:13:20 | 0:13:22 | |
to outdo the legendary Darius of Persia | 0:13:22 | 0:13:26 | |
and find this fabled land to the East, | 0:13:26 | 0:13:29 | |
which was known only by rumour. | 0:13:29 | 0:13:32 | |
Alexander was a master of self-pathologising. | 0:13:32 | 0:13:35 | |
You have to hand it to him. | 0:13:35 | 0:13:37 | |
A bit like Winston Churchill, he made absolutely sure that history | 0:13:37 | 0:13:41 | |
would be kind to him by writing the history himself, or at least | 0:13:41 | 0:13:45 | |
ensuring that his own biographers came along on his journey with him. | 0:13:45 | 0:13:50 | |
One of his historians, Arrian, wrote, | 0:13:54 | 0:13:56 | |
"When Alexander arrived at the River Indus, | 0:13:56 | 0:13:59 | |
"he found gifts of silver, gold and elephants from Taxilus the Indian. | 0:13:59 | 0:14:04 | |
"And that prince sent word he would surrender to him Taxila, | 0:14:04 | 0:14:08 | |
"the largest city near the River Indus." | 0:14:08 | 0:14:11 | |
Nearby was the ancient city of Taxila, a thriving cosmopolitan | 0:14:25 | 0:14:29 | |
centre, which was just like the Paris or Mumbai of its time. | 0:14:29 | 0:14:32 | |
It was a complete cacophony of different languages, | 0:14:32 | 0:14:35 | |
customs and influences. | 0:14:35 | 0:14:37 | |
Trusting no-one, Alexander marched into Taxila, ready for battle... | 0:14:40 | 0:14:44 | |
WOMAN SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE | 0:14:47 | 0:14:50 | |
..but the governor welcomed him with a tribute of silver. | 0:14:50 | 0:14:53 | |
Bribery will get you everywhere, | 0:14:53 | 0:14:55 | |
and Alexander had made his first ally near the Indus. | 0:14:55 | 0:14:59 | |
So I'm being made into a Pakistani lady. Never a bad thing. | 0:14:59 | 0:15:03 | |
Everything the Greeks encountered was new, fresh and exotic. | 0:15:09 | 0:15:12 | |
The markets would have held spices | 0:15:12 | 0:15:14 | |
and foodstuffs unrecognisable to them. | 0:15:14 | 0:15:17 | |
THEY CONVERSE IN LOCAL LANGUAGE | 0:15:18 | 0:15:20 | |
Tamarind. | 0:15:20 | 0:15:23 | |
'It was journalistic gold dust. | 0:15:23 | 0:15:25 | |
'Alexander's historians were able to give a vivid | 0:15:25 | 0:15:27 | |
'and sensational account of an ancient society that had previously | 0:15:27 | 0:15:32 | |
'been unreported and obscure.' | 0:15:32 | 0:15:34 | |
In the dusty and crowded marketplace, | 0:15:36 | 0:15:38 | |
in the summer heat of Taxila, Alexander and his men | 0:15:38 | 0:15:41 | |
encountered strange customs, languages and influences. | 0:15:41 | 0:15:46 | |
It was here that they came across the naked holy men, | 0:15:46 | 0:15:49 | |
the Buddhist monks, | 0:15:49 | 0:15:51 | |
and where they first encountered the doctrine of the Buddha. | 0:15:51 | 0:15:54 | |
The Greeks and their new allies rebuilt | 0:15:58 | 0:16:01 | |
the ancient city of Taxila nearby. | 0:16:01 | 0:16:03 | |
SHE SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE | 0:16:03 | 0:16:05 | |
But this was to be like no other city that India | 0:16:05 | 0:16:08 | |
had ever seen before. | 0:16:08 | 0:16:09 | |
Today, the city is known as Sirkap. | 0:16:13 | 0:16:15 | |
It's actually vast, spread over a really big area. | 0:16:19 | 0:16:24 | |
And very quickly it appears... | 0:16:24 | 0:16:26 | |
..there is a main boulevard, | 0:16:28 | 0:16:30 | |
the high-street... | 0:16:30 | 0:16:33 | |
and that the city was actually planned... | 0:16:33 | 0:16:36 | |
very much like a Hellenistic city would have been, | 0:16:36 | 0:16:39 | |
so the stamp is clearly here. | 0:16:39 | 0:16:42 | |
It's quite amazing, actually, how many walls are still standing. | 0:16:42 | 0:16:46 | |
How neatly ordered they are, and I suspect there would have been | 0:16:46 | 0:16:50 | |
a subterranean level, much like you would have found in ancient Athens. | 0:16:50 | 0:16:55 | |
It is a quiet, peaceful, very overgrown place now. | 0:16:59 | 0:17:02 | |
But it appears here... there were shops... | 0:17:05 | 0:17:09 | |
there, residences. | 0:17:09 | 0:17:10 | |
There was a great sense of order to it clearly. | 0:17:12 | 0:17:15 | |
Which is unusual in a typical city of the subcontinent, | 0:17:15 | 0:17:20 | |
which has a completely different way of organising space, | 0:17:20 | 0:17:24 | |
and that's the thing I find really striking here. | 0:17:24 | 0:17:27 | |
The thing to remember, I think, is Alexander's arrival... | 0:17:27 | 0:17:32 | |
was really a moment and just the start of this long relationship | 0:17:32 | 0:17:38 | |
between India and Greek culture | 0:17:38 | 0:17:42 | |
and Hellenistic culture, which went on for several hundred years. | 0:17:42 | 0:17:46 | |
And one result of that Greek invasion | 0:17:49 | 0:17:51 | |
was the effect it had on the local legend of Buddhism, | 0:17:51 | 0:17:54 | |
which now changed dramatically in its art and architecture. | 0:17:54 | 0:17:58 | |
So in amongst these low-lying stone walls is a really complete example | 0:18:01 | 0:18:07 | |
of an early Buddhist temple, | 0:18:07 | 0:18:10 | |
which has all the hallmarks of Greek influence. | 0:18:10 | 0:18:13 | |
You've got the stupa in the middle, | 0:18:13 | 0:18:15 | |
the steps leading up to it, | 0:18:15 | 0:18:16 | |
this motif here actually shows a double-headed eagle. | 0:18:16 | 0:18:20 | |
You can see these beautifully carved acanthus leaves | 0:18:20 | 0:18:23 | |
at the top of each of these columns. | 0:18:23 | 0:18:26 | |
So all around in the detail, you can see the fusion, | 0:18:26 | 0:18:30 | |
the Hellenistic influence, | 0:18:30 | 0:18:33 | |
with the traditional, local religion of Buddhism. | 0:18:33 | 0:18:37 | |
It's beautiful, actually. | 0:18:38 | 0:18:41 | |
This, of course, is the path the devotee would taken, | 0:18:46 | 0:18:49 | |
in a clockwise motion around the stupa, | 0:18:49 | 0:18:53 | |
in the hope of accruing good karma, | 0:18:53 | 0:18:56 | |
which is of course good for all of us. | 0:18:56 | 0:18:58 | |
When the Greeks arrived, Buddhism had already been established for | 0:19:03 | 0:19:06 | |
some centuries since the death of the Buddha himself in around 480 BC. | 0:19:06 | 0:19:11 | |
But their arrival had a fundamental impact | 0:19:13 | 0:19:15 | |
on the way the Buddha was now portrayed. | 0:19:15 | 0:19:17 | |
Although we are used to seeing the Buddha represented | 0:19:20 | 0:19:23 | |
in human form, in the very earliest manifestations | 0:19:23 | 0:19:27 | |
he was actually represented by his absence. | 0:19:27 | 0:19:31 | |
He was represented in symbolic form, like this magnificent footprint | 0:19:31 | 0:19:34 | |
decorated with symbols of Buddhism, which celebrated | 0:19:34 | 0:19:40 | |
aspects of the Buddha's life, rather than showing him in human form. | 0:19:40 | 0:19:45 | |
And then something really interesting | 0:19:45 | 0:19:47 | |
and dramatic starts to happen in this region after | 0:19:47 | 0:19:51 | |
the invasion of Alexander the Great, and that is the representation | 0:19:51 | 0:19:56 | |
of the Buddha as a real, living person in human form. | 0:19:56 | 0:20:00 | |
It's hard to exaggerate how important a moment | 0:20:04 | 0:20:07 | |
this was in the history of Buddhism. | 0:20:07 | 0:20:10 | |
For the first time, the Buddha was given features. | 0:20:10 | 0:20:13 | |
He had died too long before for anyone to remember what | 0:20:13 | 0:20:16 | |
he really looked like, | 0:20:16 | 0:20:18 | |
so the features he was given were idealised ones, and the new ideal | 0:20:18 | 0:20:23 | |
came from this innovative Indo-Greek culture that took Buddhism | 0:20:23 | 0:20:27 | |
from its home on the North Indian plain | 0:20:27 | 0:20:29 | |
and embedded it onto a completely new form, | 0:20:29 | 0:20:32 | |
one that we might find more recognisable today. | 0:20:32 | 0:20:36 | |
Here are youthful Buddhas with hair arranged in wavy curls that | 0:20:37 | 0:20:41 | |
resemble Greek sculptures of Apollo. | 0:20:41 | 0:20:44 | |
The monastic robe covering both shoulders is arranged in | 0:20:44 | 0:20:47 | |
heavy, naturalistic folds, reminiscent of a classical toga, | 0:20:47 | 0:20:51 | |
and compared to other more rotund Buddhas, | 0:20:51 | 0:20:54 | |
he has the toned body of a Greek athlete. | 0:20:54 | 0:20:57 | |
To see more examples of this rare and early Buddhist art, | 0:21:06 | 0:21:10 | |
I've been invited to a private museum with a fabulous collection | 0:21:10 | 0:21:13 | |
that the same family has safeguarded for over seven generations. | 0:21:13 | 0:21:18 | |
-Hello. -Hello. | 0:21:18 | 0:21:20 | |
Nice to meet you. I've heard a lot about you. | 0:21:20 | 0:21:23 | |
-You're welcome to Fakir Khana Museum. -Thank you, thank you. | 0:21:23 | 0:21:27 | |
-This is a very beautiful room. -You want to have a look at my collection? | 0:21:27 | 0:21:32 | |
Absolutely, that would be great. | 0:21:32 | 0:21:34 | |
Wow. | 0:21:42 | 0:21:44 | |
'It's a treasure trove of rare and wonderful objects gathered | 0:21:44 | 0:21:47 | |
'from all the great civilisations that have arisen along the Indus. | 0:21:47 | 0:21:51 | |
'Including the Indo-Greek culture inspired by Alexander's arrival, | 0:21:53 | 0:21:57 | |
'that became known as Gandhara.' | 0:21:57 | 0:22:01 | |
-What's in here? -It's... -Goodness me. -..Gandhara. | 0:22:01 | 0:22:05 | |
This Gandhara is in limestone. | 0:22:05 | 0:22:08 | |
-It has a Greek influence. -Yep. -Like this one. | 0:22:08 | 0:22:13 | |
Why these Buddhas are so special, | 0:22:13 | 0:22:14 | |
you know, why these Gandharas are so special, | 0:22:14 | 0:22:17 | |
because the skills are so high. They have made beautiful faces. | 0:22:17 | 0:22:21 | |
And look at this piece. | 0:22:21 | 0:22:23 | |
It is a broken piece, but look at the beautiful smile of Buddha. | 0:22:23 | 0:22:27 | |
His lips and smile, you know. | 0:22:27 | 0:22:30 | |
OK, I'm going to show you something very special of my collection. | 0:22:32 | 0:22:35 | |
It is a hidden collection, you know. | 0:22:35 | 0:22:37 | |
I've never opened it for anybody else. Especially for today, | 0:22:37 | 0:22:40 | |
I'm going to do it for you. | 0:22:40 | 0:22:41 | |
The special thing I'm going to show you... | 0:22:54 | 0:22:56 | |
no other museum has this kind of thing. | 0:22:56 | 0:22:59 | |
This is the original ring of Raja Porus. | 0:22:59 | 0:23:02 | |
-Porus? -Yes. -As in the man... -Who fought against... | 0:23:04 | 0:23:07 | |
-Alexander the Great in 326. -Yeah. | 0:23:07 | 0:23:11 | |
-Gosh. -This is done in pure silver. | 0:23:11 | 0:23:14 | |
This is incredibly exciting, | 0:23:14 | 0:23:16 | |
-I'm actually holding the ring... -Yes. | 0:23:16 | 0:23:18 | |
-..worn by Porus. -Yes. | 0:23:18 | 0:23:21 | |
That's magnificent. | 0:23:21 | 0:23:22 | |
-Can I put it on? -You may. | 0:23:24 | 0:23:26 | |
-You can see that the physiognomy is actually very different. -Definitely. | 0:23:27 | 0:23:31 | |
-It's... -Indic. -Indic. -Yeah. | 0:23:31 | 0:23:35 | |
And he has the turban on his head, big earrings. | 0:23:35 | 0:23:40 | |
-Big earrings, everything, sunflower. -And wearing the sunflower, yes. | 0:23:40 | 0:23:45 | |
So how did you come across the ring of Porus? | 0:23:45 | 0:23:48 | |
-Don't ask me all these questions. -Family secret. -Family secret. | 0:23:48 | 0:23:52 | |
HORNS BEEP FRANTICALLY | 0:23:56 | 0:23:58 | |
This was not a one-way exchange in Gandhara. | 0:24:02 | 0:24:04 | |
The Greeks themselves took gold, silver and Sindh cotton | 0:24:04 | 0:24:08 | |
back to Europe, along what started to become a thriving trade route. | 0:24:08 | 0:24:12 | |
But more importantly, they also took with them a myth and a name. | 0:24:14 | 0:24:19 | |
The River Indus was the whole subcontinent for | 0:24:19 | 0:24:22 | |
the European imagination, as India. | 0:24:22 | 0:24:24 | |
And the stories that went back with Alexander and his men | 0:24:24 | 0:24:26 | |
of a wild, fabulous place filled with mystics, seers and gold | 0:24:26 | 0:24:32 | |
were to influence the European view of India for thousands of years. | 0:24:32 | 0:24:36 | |
In some ways, you could say we are still unpicking | 0:24:39 | 0:24:41 | |
the reality from that myth. | 0:24:41 | 0:24:44 | |
For it was after the arrival of Alexander and the long | 0:24:44 | 0:24:47 | |
Indo-Greek culture that followed that the idea of India was born. | 0:24:47 | 0:24:52 | |
Alexander began his chaotic trek back to Europe in 325 BC, | 0:24:56 | 0:25:02 | |
leaving behind him an Indo-Greek culture | 0:25:02 | 0:25:04 | |
which took on a life of its own. | 0:25:04 | 0:25:06 | |
It was a golden age for the growth of Buddhism. | 0:25:08 | 0:25:11 | |
A great Buddhist monastery was built here in Taxila, | 0:25:15 | 0:25:18 | |
at the crossroads of Asia. | 0:25:18 | 0:25:20 | |
So this would have been the original living quarters of the monks, | 0:25:22 | 0:25:26 | |
and you can see the cells all around the central courtyard, | 0:25:26 | 0:25:30 | |
which would have been filled with water and overlain with lotuses. | 0:25:30 | 0:25:35 | |
It would have been a very peaceful site. | 0:25:35 | 0:25:38 | |
But I suppose the thing to remember is that this wasn't a | 0:25:41 | 0:25:45 | |
closed monastic life in the way we think of it today. | 0:25:45 | 0:25:49 | |
But actually this was a centre of learning, which was very open, | 0:25:49 | 0:25:54 | |
very much like the great universities of the modern world. | 0:25:54 | 0:25:57 | |
Students at the university | 0:26:00 | 0:26:01 | |
came from Persia in the west, | 0:26:01 | 0:26:03 | |
India to the south | 0:26:03 | 0:26:05 | |
and from the north | 0:26:05 | 0:26:06 | |
along the silk route. | 0:26:06 | 0:26:07 | |
Perhaps most important of all came | 0:26:07 | 0:26:09 | |
inquisitive Chinese pilgrims, | 0:26:09 | 0:26:11 | |
many of whom who took | 0:26:11 | 0:26:12 | |
Buddhist scriptures back with them | 0:26:12 | 0:26:14 | |
to China. | 0:26:14 | 0:26:15 | |
These were the monks' domestic quarters. | 0:26:17 | 0:26:20 | |
Quite intimate little cells, actually very cool | 0:26:22 | 0:26:25 | |
in the heat of the day, overshadowed by trees, surrounding trees. | 0:26:25 | 0:26:29 | |
And two tiny little niches, | 0:26:29 | 0:26:32 | |
one of which would perhaps have been for a candle and some prayer beads. | 0:26:32 | 0:26:36 | |
And another one perhaps for Willie Dalrymple's latest novel. | 0:26:36 | 0:26:39 | |
Having worked in centres of learning for most of my life, | 0:26:41 | 0:26:45 | |
I actually find it really moving to think of the monks | 0:26:45 | 0:26:49 | |
living and working here, transcribing Buddhist scriptures | 0:26:49 | 0:26:53 | |
into manuscripts and preserving them over hundreds and hundreds of years. | 0:26:53 | 0:26:57 | |
They've opened up the cell for me, so that I can see | 0:26:59 | 0:27:01 | |
a replica of one of the finest of the Buddha statues, which survived | 0:27:01 | 0:27:06 | |
intact for centuries because it was protected from the elements. | 0:27:06 | 0:27:10 | |
Inside this quiet side chapel, tucked away in this corner... | 0:27:11 | 0:27:16 | |
..is this really beautiful, calm image of the Buddha seated in prayer | 0:27:18 | 0:27:23 | |
The original has actually been removed to the museum at Taxila, | 0:27:23 | 0:27:28 | |
but this was one of the Buddha images that Sir John Marshall | 0:27:28 | 0:27:32 | |
was really moved by when he came upon it back in the 1930s. | 0:27:32 | 0:27:38 | |
So you can see here how art began to be used to | 0:27:38 | 0:27:43 | |
spread the message of Buddhism | 0:27:43 | 0:27:45 | |
through the creation of sensuous form. | 0:27:45 | 0:27:48 | |
I find it tragic that so many of the Buddha sculptures here have | 0:27:57 | 0:28:00 | |
been vandalised and now need to be protected from Islamic extremists, | 0:28:00 | 0:28:05 | |
while some heads have had to be removed to museums | 0:28:05 | 0:28:08 | |
for their own safety. | 0:28:08 | 0:28:09 | |
This really dramatic representation of the Buddha | 0:28:28 | 0:28:33 | |
shows him during the six years he undertook fasting | 0:28:33 | 0:28:37 | |
as part of his journey to reach nirvana. | 0:28:37 | 0:28:40 | |
And you can see it is actually a complete | 0:28:40 | 0:28:43 | |
masterpiece of Buddhist sculpture. | 0:28:43 | 0:28:46 | |
It is made out of single piece of schist, and you can see how | 0:28:46 | 0:28:49 | |
the full-bodied form has completely withered away | 0:28:49 | 0:28:54 | |
and shown his ribs protruding, his arteries, his veins, | 0:28:54 | 0:28:58 | |
the robes are slipping off him. | 0:28:58 | 0:29:00 | |
And in particular, if you look at his face, | 0:29:00 | 0:29:03 | |
the eyes are completely sunken. The cheeks are sallow, but there is | 0:29:03 | 0:29:07 | |
a certain serenity to his expression. | 0:29:07 | 0:29:11 | |
This is not the expression of a dying man, | 0:29:11 | 0:29:13 | |
this is the expression of a man who is on a path, | 0:29:13 | 0:29:16 | |
looking for something. If you look very carefully into his eyes, | 0:29:16 | 0:29:20 | |
they are actually open, they are actually looking at you | 0:29:20 | 0:29:24 | |
as you stand before him. | 0:29:24 | 0:29:26 | |
And beneath you can see the narrative sequence, | 0:29:26 | 0:29:30 | |
the story that tells that actually | 0:29:30 | 0:29:32 | |
he realised this wasn't the way to enlightenment, | 0:29:32 | 0:29:36 | |
and that he ended up begging for food to feed himself, | 0:29:36 | 0:29:40 | |
and continued on his journey to nirvana. | 0:29:40 | 0:29:42 | |
In other regions of South Asia, Buddhism ultimately survived | 0:29:53 | 0:29:56 | |
only in small pockets, whereas this area surrounding | 0:29:56 | 0:30:00 | |
the high Indus had a different kind of sacred landscape altogether. | 0:30:00 | 0:30:05 | |
Here, more than 3,000 Buddhist institutions | 0:30:05 | 0:30:08 | |
flourished across Gandhara. | 0:30:08 | 0:30:10 | |
It is a very calm place to be here early in the morning | 0:30:11 | 0:30:15 | |
in northern Pakistan. | 0:30:15 | 0:30:17 | |
And there's a sense of sadness at how remote | 0:30:18 | 0:30:22 | |
these sites are today. | 0:30:22 | 0:30:24 | |
Given how important they were in transmitting this | 0:30:24 | 0:30:30 | |
incredible world religion right across Asia. | 0:30:30 | 0:30:33 | |
And the world has not only forgotten, but I suspect | 0:30:33 | 0:30:36 | |
it doesn't really know that Buddhism, as we know it today, | 0:30:36 | 0:30:40 | |
actually emanated from this part of the world, | 0:30:40 | 0:30:44 | |
right here in Pakistan. | 0:30:44 | 0:30:45 | |
And Pakistan gets a hard rap for exporting | 0:30:45 | 0:30:49 | |
Islamic fundamentalism, which I think is really quite unfair | 0:30:49 | 0:30:52 | |
and a very limited view of this rich country. | 0:30:52 | 0:30:56 | |
So why was it that Buddhism spread from here | 0:31:02 | 0:31:04 | |
to the four corners of Asia? | 0:31:04 | 0:31:06 | |
Because this area of Pakistan | 0:31:08 | 0:31:10 | |
was at the heart of one of the busiest trade routes in Asia, | 0:31:10 | 0:31:13 | |
market towns like these exchanged art, ideas | 0:31:13 | 0:31:17 | |
and cultural influence just as easily as they did | 0:31:17 | 0:31:20 | |
textiles, ivory and spices. | 0:31:20 | 0:31:23 | |
And as the merchant class grew more prosperous, | 0:31:23 | 0:31:26 | |
they could afford to turn their attention to manufacturing. | 0:31:26 | 0:31:29 | |
These images of the Buddha were being mass-produced to | 0:31:34 | 0:31:37 | |
cater for expanding markets in the Far East. | 0:31:37 | 0:31:40 | |
The irony is, of course, | 0:31:40 | 0:31:42 | |
that a religion based on principles of austerity | 0:31:42 | 0:31:45 | |
and rejection of the self, its ego and material wealth | 0:31:45 | 0:31:49 | |
now found itself enveloped in decidedly commercial concerns. | 0:31:49 | 0:31:54 | |
The craftsmen of Taxila have always known what sells. | 0:32:03 | 0:32:07 | |
It may not be serene statues of the Buddha any more, | 0:32:07 | 0:32:11 | |
but instead we've got shiny, glittering disco leopards, | 0:32:11 | 0:32:15 | |
which would not look out of place in a Duran Duran video. | 0:32:15 | 0:32:17 | |
The one other thing you see when you're travelling around Pakistan | 0:32:21 | 0:32:25 | |
are these incredible bursts of colours, | 0:32:25 | 0:32:28 | |
which are these painted trucks. | 0:32:28 | 0:32:30 | |
And I'm here at the moment in a yard where they not only make | 0:32:30 | 0:32:34 | |
the trucks and repair them, but also take great care to decorate them. | 0:32:34 | 0:32:40 | |
It's slightly intimidating, it's a very male environment. | 0:32:40 | 0:32:43 | |
There aren't any Page Three pin-ups, | 0:32:43 | 0:32:46 | |
but what there are, are these magnificently-worked trucks. | 0:32:46 | 0:32:51 | |
This is one of my absolute favourites. | 0:32:51 | 0:32:54 | |
It's got all the scale of an American juggernaut, | 0:32:54 | 0:32:57 | |
but look at the difference. | 0:32:57 | 0:32:59 | |
Every inch of this vehicle has been decorated, painted, made colourful. | 0:32:59 | 0:33:04 | |
It is glittering in the sunlight. Here, in the centre, | 0:33:04 | 0:33:08 | |
you've got Father of the Nation, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, | 0:33:08 | 0:33:11 | |
flanked by the Pakistani flag. | 0:33:11 | 0:33:14 | |
And everywhere there is colour, symbols of fish, | 0:33:14 | 0:33:19 | |
which they particularly like here because it gives them | 0:33:19 | 0:33:23 | |
lots of opportunity to provide texture | 0:33:23 | 0:33:27 | |
and colour and pattern. | 0:33:27 | 0:33:30 | |
You don't see a lot of colour in what people wear. | 0:33:30 | 0:33:34 | |
The men are dressed in quite earthy colours, | 0:33:34 | 0:33:37 | |
and the woman may be brightly dressed, | 0:33:37 | 0:33:39 | |
but many of them are covered in the veil, and then you see this | 0:33:39 | 0:33:43 | |
incredible burst of colour along the road for everyone to enjoy. | 0:33:43 | 0:33:48 | |
There's a lot of detail on the outside, | 0:33:48 | 0:33:51 | |
there's these wonderful tassels. | 0:33:51 | 0:33:53 | |
And then when you look on the inside, | 0:33:53 | 0:33:56 | |
an absolute driver's boudoir. | 0:33:56 | 0:33:59 | |
I wanted to have a look in one of the actual workshops, | 0:34:01 | 0:34:04 | |
where a lot of the crafting of these designs actually takes place. | 0:34:04 | 0:34:08 | |
I like to think that these skills | 0:34:18 | 0:34:20 | |
are an echo of the Taxila craftsman of old. | 0:34:20 | 0:34:23 | |
Their fine work with gold, silver and precious stones helped | 0:34:23 | 0:34:26 | |
build ancient trade routes here, and thus the spread of Buddhism. | 0:34:26 | 0:34:30 | |
Yet however successful abroad, by the eighth century, Buddhism had | 0:34:36 | 0:34:40 | |
all put disappeared in Pakistan itself. | 0:34:40 | 0:34:43 | |
So why is their virtually no trace of it in the country | 0:34:43 | 0:34:46 | |
that was for so long its home? | 0:34:46 | 0:34:49 | |
It's not in Pakistan but in China | 0:34:52 | 0:34:54 | |
and the Far East that Gandharan civilisation | 0:34:54 | 0:34:57 | |
made its greatest impact, and its influence can still be felt today. | 0:34:57 | 0:35:02 | |
Through the early Chinese pilgrims that came here, | 0:35:03 | 0:35:06 | |
Buddhism established a firm foothold in Imperial China. | 0:35:06 | 0:35:11 | |
So it was natural that in later centuries Chinese monks would | 0:35:11 | 0:35:14 | |
want to return to see the source of their Buddhism. | 0:35:14 | 0:35:18 | |
What they found, however, left them saddened. | 0:35:18 | 0:35:21 | |
By the time this monastery and stupa at Bombala were built, | 0:35:27 | 0:35:31 | |
more than 500 years after Alexander, Buddhism in northwest India | 0:35:31 | 0:35:35 | |
was being eclipsed by more intruders from Central Asia. | 0:35:35 | 0:35:38 | |
For the stories of grandeur also brought a series of invaders, | 0:35:39 | 0:35:44 | |
like the White Huns, upon the region, | 0:35:44 | 0:35:46 | |
and eventually the grand city of Taxila was brought to its knees. | 0:35:46 | 0:35:50 | |
In the seventh century, | 0:35:53 | 0:35:55 | |
when the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang came to Taxila to find | 0:35:55 | 0:35:59 | |
the source of the Buddhism that had transformed China, it lay desolate | 0:35:59 | 0:36:03 | |
and in a state of half ruin, a mere shadow of its former glory. | 0:36:03 | 0:36:07 | |
He described the monasteries as "filled with shrubs | 0:36:13 | 0:36:17 | |
"and solitary to the last degree, wasted and desolate", | 0:36:17 | 0:36:21 | |
and the monks as "indolent and given to indulgence and debauchery." | 0:36:21 | 0:36:25 | |
And in some ways one could say the old tolerance of Taxila, | 0:36:27 | 0:36:31 | |
the cosmopolitan university open to all faiths, | 0:36:31 | 0:36:34 | |
also now lies in ruins. | 0:36:34 | 0:36:37 | |
There's a lovely echo around the valley here, | 0:36:44 | 0:36:46 | |
and you can just imagine how it would have sounded | 0:36:46 | 0:36:49 | |
when all the Buddhist monks here would have been chanting. | 0:36:49 | 0:36:53 | |
It does feel desolate. | 0:36:59 | 0:37:01 | |
It feels like you've happened upon something that's hidden away | 0:37:01 | 0:37:04 | |
that was once a great civilisation, | 0:37:04 | 0:37:08 | |
much of it is still to be excavated, | 0:37:08 | 0:37:12 | |
and there's a sense of desertion here, | 0:37:12 | 0:37:14 | |
which is really quite poignant. | 0:37:14 | 0:37:16 | |
There are real contemporary echoes today, | 0:37:21 | 0:37:24 | |
in terms of the desecration of Buddhist monuments in Bamiyan | 0:37:24 | 0:37:28 | |
and also in this region, by the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban. | 0:37:28 | 0:37:32 | |
Greater Pakistan is probably confused by its Buddhist history, | 0:37:38 | 0:37:43 | |
only because there's been a state-sponsored Islamic agenda here, | 0:37:43 | 0:37:48 | |
which really denies the texture and longevity of this land, | 0:37:48 | 0:37:54 | |
which was always a frontier province, | 0:37:54 | 0:37:56 | |
it was always many different groups of people, and you can't | 0:37:56 | 0:38:00 | |
really undo and unpick that complexity without leaving a vacuum. | 0:38:00 | 0:38:06 | |
The invaders who destroyed the old Buddhist cultures were | 0:38:19 | 0:38:22 | |
followed out of the Afghan mountains centuries later by more horsemen | 0:38:22 | 0:38:25 | |
from the north, who brought with them a new religion. | 0:38:25 | 0:38:29 | |
Islam. | 0:38:32 | 0:38:34 | |
CALL TO PRAYER | 0:38:34 | 0:38:35 | |
And to explore the Muslim legacy they left behind, I've come back | 0:38:37 | 0:38:41 | |
to the city they founded, | 0:38:41 | 0:38:43 | |
the cultural centre of modern Pakistan - Lahore. | 0:38:43 | 0:38:46 | |
I've just arrived in Lahore, it's the middle of Eid, | 0:38:48 | 0:38:51 | |
the greatest celebration - it's sort of Christmas, Easter | 0:38:51 | 0:38:55 | |
and everything rolled into one. | 0:38:55 | 0:38:56 | |
There's great excitement on the streets, children out playing, | 0:38:56 | 0:39:00 | |
big national holiday, and it's just wonderful to be here. | 0:39:00 | 0:39:03 | |
It's the best time of year in the Muslim calendar. | 0:39:13 | 0:39:16 | |
Although perhaps not if you're a goat or a cow that's being | 0:39:16 | 0:39:19 | |
fattened up for the occasion. | 0:39:19 | 0:39:21 | |
CALL TO PRAYER | 0:39:26 | 0:39:28 | |
I love being in this city. | 0:39:45 | 0:39:46 | |
The sights, the smells, the sounds, it's like an assault | 0:39:46 | 0:39:49 | |
on the senses, but it really, really brings you alive. | 0:39:49 | 0:39:52 | |
Around 1000 AD, the Muslim sultan Mahmud of Ghazni gained control | 0:40:04 | 0:40:09 | |
of the Indus Valley, and Lahore rose up as a great city under his rule. | 0:40:09 | 0:40:14 | |
Scholars and poets gathered from as far away as Iraq and Samarkand | 0:40:15 | 0:40:19 | |
and made Lahore a city of music and the arts. | 0:40:19 | 0:40:23 | |
HE SINGS IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:40:23 | 0:40:26 | |
'Today, Ali Sethi typifies a younger group of Pakistani artists | 0:40:26 | 0:40:31 | |
'who are rediscovering how much their country's past | 0:40:31 | 0:40:34 | |
'still has to say to them.' | 0:40:34 | 0:40:36 | |
Is there something about the fact that it's a song of suffering | 0:40:36 | 0:40:40 | |
-that draws people do it? -Yeah, absolutely. | 0:40:40 | 0:40:42 | |
Every person that I've ever heard singing it, | 0:40:42 | 0:40:44 | |
like, sublimates or channels, whatever it is they're feeling, | 0:40:44 | 0:40:48 | |
whatever pain or angst or, like, you know, | 0:40:48 | 0:40:52 | |
achy emotion they're feeling, into this song. | 0:40:52 | 0:40:55 | |
And I've heard, you know, traditional musicians, | 0:40:55 | 0:40:58 | |
people you would call minstrels, | 0:40:58 | 0:41:00 | |
singing it with tattered clothes at shrines in deserts, | 0:41:00 | 0:41:04 | |
and I've heard kids in jeans and t-shirts, | 0:41:04 | 0:41:08 | |
with joints in their hands, singing this, you know, | 0:41:08 | 0:41:12 | |
with great feeling and fervour, and taking great ownership of it. | 0:41:12 | 0:41:16 | |
And that seems to me to be a great miracle of life here, | 0:41:16 | 0:41:21 | |
is that despite so much... | 0:41:21 | 0:41:25 | |
truncation, and so much revisionism, | 0:41:25 | 0:41:29 | |
you know, and so much loss of | 0:41:29 | 0:41:32 | |
what ought to have been memorialised, | 0:41:32 | 0:41:34 | |
-there is still this... -Persistence. | 0:41:34 | 0:41:37 | |
..persistence. This really amazing persistence of things that | 0:41:37 | 0:41:41 | |
are ancient and that are very strong and that continue to live in us, | 0:41:41 | 0:41:47 | |
and that we continue to, sort of, | 0:41:47 | 0:41:49 | |
pour into newer forms, ever newer forms | 0:41:49 | 0:41:52 | |
and styles and situations, and yet we're not conscious of those things. | 0:41:52 | 0:41:57 | |
Politically, we are very young, and culturally we're very old. | 0:41:57 | 0:42:02 | |
So what does that make us? | 0:42:02 | 0:42:04 | |
Interesting. It makes Pakistan very interesting. | 0:42:04 | 0:42:07 | |
I agree, I agree. | 0:42:07 | 0:42:09 | |
THEY SING IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:42:10 | 0:42:13 | |
To see how Islam has lasted for 1,000 years in Lahore, | 0:42:17 | 0:42:21 | |
I've come to this ancient shrine. | 0:42:21 | 0:42:23 | |
Even though Taliban suicide bombers killed 42 worshipers | 0:42:25 | 0:42:28 | |
here in 2010, the congregation still comes to praise Islam | 0:42:28 | 0:42:32 | |
in verse, song and dance. | 0:42:32 | 0:42:34 | |
You know, spiritual music is very powerful, | 0:42:37 | 0:42:41 | |
and I think all the people who go to shrines, | 0:42:41 | 0:42:46 | |
they lose themselves. | 0:42:46 | 0:42:51 | |
It's like going into another space and... | 0:42:51 | 0:42:53 | |
-It's like a trance. -It's a trance, it's the trance music. | 0:42:53 | 0:42:57 | |
I've seen 500 people going into a trance for hours. | 0:42:57 | 0:43:01 | |
You get caught up in the energy of it as well. There's a momentum. | 0:43:09 | 0:43:13 | |
You get caught up in the energy, | 0:43:13 | 0:43:15 | |
and the best thing is that they do it not alone. | 0:43:15 | 0:43:19 | |
They're doing it with friends, and hundreds of them doing it. | 0:43:19 | 0:43:24 | |
And it's like headbanging | 0:43:24 | 0:43:26 | |
or something that you do at a rock concert. | 0:43:26 | 0:43:29 | |
Yeah, yeah, yeah. | 0:43:29 | 0:43:31 | |
SONG ENDS | 0:43:34 | 0:43:36 | |
By the 10th century, Lahore was being described as a place | 0:43:46 | 0:43:50 | |
with impressive palaces, large markets and huge orchards. | 0:43:50 | 0:43:54 | |
500 years later, | 0:43:56 | 0:43:58 | |
this thriving cultural hub of a city became a natural choice | 0:43:58 | 0:44:02 | |
for a capital for the greatest of Muslim connoisseurs - the Mughals. | 0:44:02 | 0:44:06 | |
For this is where Islam from Persia met | 0:44:08 | 0:44:11 | |
the land beyond the Indus, to recreate a paradise on earth. | 0:44:11 | 0:44:15 | |
Lahore is often described as the city of gardens, | 0:44:17 | 0:44:21 | |
of gardens watered by the Indus. | 0:44:21 | 0:44:23 | |
The city reached the peak of its glory during the Mughal rule. | 0:44:26 | 0:44:30 | |
Not only did they build lavish monuments | 0:44:30 | 0:44:32 | |
and splendid gardens, they bestowed upon Lahore | 0:44:32 | 0:44:35 | |
customs and traditions that have echoed down the ages. | 0:44:35 | 0:44:38 | |
And it's Islam which is often credited with introducing | 0:44:43 | 0:44:47 | |
a new concept to Pakistan, | 0:44:47 | 0:44:49 | |
the concept of purdah. | 0:44:49 | 0:44:51 | |
Purdah or purd-ah was originally a Persian word | 0:44:56 | 0:44:59 | |
that came to India with the Mughals, | 0:44:59 | 0:45:02 | |
and means veil or curtain, and was a way for a wife to show | 0:45:02 | 0:45:07 | |
complete loyalty to her husband. | 0:45:07 | 0:45:09 | |
Eventually it was also taken up by high-class Hindu woman | 0:45:09 | 0:45:13 | |
as a form of protection. | 0:45:13 | 0:45:15 | |
Previously in the subcontinent, all women were uncovered | 0:45:15 | 0:45:20 | |
from the waist up, | 0:45:20 | 0:45:22 | |
as we've seen previously in the Dancing Girl of Mohenjo-daro. | 0:45:22 | 0:45:26 | |
And here we have these wonderful architectural metaphors | 0:45:26 | 0:45:30 | |
for the veil in these jali screens, | 0:45:30 | 0:45:34 | |
which would have been a way to separate the women from the | 0:45:34 | 0:45:37 | |
world outside, but also for them to create their own world within. | 0:45:37 | 0:45:41 | |
So what lay behind these walls was | 0:45:41 | 0:45:43 | |
often very intriguing to the commoner. | 0:45:43 | 0:45:46 | |
The politics of the harem was much more complex than we might imagine. | 0:45:46 | 0:45:51 | |
Nowhere can this be seen better than in the relationship | 0:45:56 | 0:45:59 | |
between the Mughal emperor Jahangir and his charismatic wife Nur Jahan. | 0:45:59 | 0:46:04 | |
MUSIC: Wonderwall by Ryan Adams | 0:46:04 | 0:46:08 | |
Born on a caravan travelling from Tehran to India, | 0:46:08 | 0:46:12 | |
she became the last but most beloved wife of the Emperor. | 0:46:12 | 0:46:16 | |
Jahangir's two brothers had died of alcoholism and, as Crown Prince, | 0:46:16 | 0:46:21 | |
he was not much better himself, | 0:46:21 | 0:46:23 | |
being heavily addicted to opium. | 0:46:23 | 0:46:25 | |
So when he came to the throne, | 0:46:27 | 0:46:28 | |
he depended completely on his favourite wife to run | 0:46:28 | 0:46:31 | |
the kingdom, while he built rock star extravaganzas like this - | 0:46:31 | 0:46:35 | |
a minaret in which to keep one of his favourite pet deer. | 0:46:35 | 0:46:39 | |
It's perhaps a little unfair to | 0:46:39 | 0:46:41 | |
think of Jahangir as the Noel Gallagher of the Mughal Empire, | 0:46:41 | 0:46:46 | |
because, despite being a playboy, | 0:46:46 | 0:46:49 | |
he had many other qualities. | 0:46:49 | 0:46:52 | |
This was, of course, the long summer of the Mughal Empire, | 0:46:52 | 0:46:56 | |
and in that time he patronised the arts, | 0:46:56 | 0:46:59 | |
he built beautiful buildings and he was a very just emperor. | 0:46:59 | 0:47:04 | |
And he had Nur Jahan by his side, | 0:47:04 | 0:47:06 | |
with whom he had this complex, romantic, intimate relationship, | 0:47:06 | 0:47:13 | |
which involved, obviously, love, but also political power, | 0:47:13 | 0:47:17 | |
and in a sense they ruled the empire together. | 0:47:17 | 0:47:21 | |
Just a step behind the magnificent public balcony where the Emperor sat | 0:47:36 | 0:47:40 | |
to give audience is this darker chamber, which was actually | 0:47:40 | 0:47:46 | |
the nerve centre of power. | 0:47:46 | 0:47:49 | |
And who was here? It was Nur Jahan, his beloved wife, the Empress, | 0:47:49 | 0:47:52 | |
the Mughal empress. | 0:47:52 | 0:47:54 | |
And she actually held a lot of power in the Mughal court | 0:47:54 | 0:47:58 | |
and made many of the decisions. | 0:47:58 | 0:48:00 | |
So she was effectively standing just over his shoulder | 0:48:00 | 0:48:03 | |
whispering in his ear, directing him | 0:48:03 | 0:48:05 | |
while he was holding court to his public just beyond. | 0:48:05 | 0:48:09 | |
So this series of chambers, private chambers, | 0:48:13 | 0:48:17 | |
was actually built for Nur Jahan by Jahangir, | 0:48:17 | 0:48:22 | |
and she traversed these spaces in privacy, | 0:48:22 | 0:48:27 | |
but completely connected to the public government | 0:48:27 | 0:48:31 | |
imperial decisions that he was making just a few feet away. | 0:48:31 | 0:48:36 | |
So, despite the dust and graffiti of centuries, | 0:48:36 | 0:48:40 | |
including King Jahangir's phone number, | 0:48:40 | 0:48:45 | |
you can really get a sense of how magnificent | 0:48:45 | 0:48:47 | |
these private quarters would have been. | 0:48:47 | 0:48:51 | |
I mean, there's still a lot of intricate paintwork | 0:48:51 | 0:48:54 | |
to be seen down here, | 0:48:54 | 0:48:56 | |
and there's an image of the sun-god right in the centre up there. | 0:48:56 | 0:49:00 | |
So you have to imagine that these internal chambers would have | 0:49:04 | 0:49:07 | |
been really sumptuous. | 0:49:07 | 0:49:10 | |
The floors were laid with marble, | 0:49:10 | 0:49:11 | |
they would have been covered with Persian and Mughal carpets, | 0:49:11 | 0:49:15 | |
and the walls would have been very, very colourful, | 0:49:15 | 0:49:20 | |
a rich palette of colours, which would have painted the stuccowork. | 0:49:20 | 0:49:23 | |
And here in particular, you see a very Persian motif of the | 0:49:23 | 0:49:27 | |
vase of flowers, which, of course, | 0:49:27 | 0:49:30 | |
the Mughals brought with them to India. | 0:49:30 | 0:49:34 | |
I particularly love this space | 0:49:35 | 0:49:38 | |
because if you look up, the ceiling is covered with mirrors. | 0:49:38 | 0:49:42 | |
And there's also a little bit of restoration work that's taken place | 0:49:42 | 0:49:46 | |
which shows you the depth of colour | 0:49:46 | 0:49:49 | |
that actually there would have been | 0:49:49 | 0:49:52 | |
during the time that Nur Jahan would | 0:49:52 | 0:49:54 | |
have been walking through these rooms. | 0:49:54 | 0:49:56 | |
And there are remnants, still, of gold paint and blue, | 0:49:56 | 0:50:00 | |
to be seen on the stuccowork above the doorway here. | 0:50:00 | 0:50:05 | |
And if you imagine that all of this Technicolor would have been, | 0:50:05 | 0:50:09 | |
with the lighting, | 0:50:09 | 0:50:11 | |
would have shone off and reflected from the mirrors | 0:50:11 | 0:50:14 | |
that are overhead. This really would have been a sumptuous | 0:50:14 | 0:50:18 | |
interior chamber for the Empress Nur Jahan. | 0:50:18 | 0:50:20 | |
Her grip on the reins of imperial power was absolute. | 0:50:24 | 0:50:28 | |
But such were the rules of purdah, that no other men ever got to see | 0:50:28 | 0:50:31 | |
her face. Not even, bizarrely, the artist who painted her portrait. | 0:50:31 | 0:50:36 | |
So, Salima, this is a very intimate image of the private quarters... | 0:50:38 | 0:50:43 | |
Yes. | 0:50:43 | 0:50:44 | |
..of a high-class lady. | 0:50:44 | 0:50:46 | |
Yes, and preparing herself for her toilette, | 0:50:46 | 0:50:50 | |
and obviously preparing herself for something important. | 0:50:50 | 0:50:52 | |
And when you consider that it is invariably a male artist who | 0:50:52 | 0:50:56 | |
is doing this and with no access... | 0:50:56 | 0:51:00 | |
So there would have been no access, certainly not this kind? | 0:51:00 | 0:51:02 | |
Absolutely. No, no. | 0:51:02 | 0:51:04 | |
No access at all. So this is kind of second-hand information which | 0:51:04 | 0:51:07 | |
was fed to the artist and presumably... | 0:51:07 | 0:51:10 | |
Through who? | 0:51:10 | 0:51:12 | |
Presumably through the informants. | 0:51:12 | 0:51:14 | |
So there's a lot of imagination, | 0:51:16 | 0:51:19 | |
a little bit of fantasy, which is involved in this. | 0:51:19 | 0:51:23 | |
But then the other ways in which, presumably, | 0:51:23 | 0:51:26 | |
they got to know what women did, what they got up to. | 0:51:26 | 0:51:29 | |
So you find you do have works... I mean, for example, | 0:51:29 | 0:51:32 | |
that one, in which there's a rival life | 0:51:32 | 0:51:35 | |
going on in the women's quarters. | 0:51:35 | 0:51:38 | |
Amongst the women themselves. | 0:51:38 | 0:51:40 | |
Yeah, and they are enjoying themselves. | 0:51:40 | 0:51:43 | |
They have some of the same pastimes as men, actually. | 0:51:43 | 0:51:46 | |
-They're smoking, they're... -Drinking. | 0:51:46 | 0:51:49 | |
Uh, I don't know whether they were drinking the same things, | 0:51:49 | 0:51:52 | |
but presumably they were having a jolly good time. | 0:51:52 | 0:51:55 | |
Jahangir's reign was a golden age that only came to an end | 0:52:03 | 0:52:06 | |
with his death in 1627. | 0:52:06 | 0:52:08 | |
The tomb that was built for him was magnificent in its ostentation. | 0:52:10 | 0:52:13 | |
The building was clad in zigzags of white and yellow marble, | 0:52:19 | 0:52:23 | |
and there was once an ornate pavilion built here on the roof. | 0:52:23 | 0:52:27 | |
But not far away is the much smaller mausoleum of Nur Jahan. | 0:52:29 | 0:52:33 | |
She had tried to intervene with Jahangir's succession, | 0:52:35 | 0:52:38 | |
and as a consequence was confined to Lahore for the rest of her days. | 0:52:38 | 0:52:43 | |
She lies not alongside the love of her life, but beside her daughter, | 0:52:43 | 0:52:48 | |
in an unassuming tomb she had to build for herself. | 0:52:48 | 0:52:51 | |
She left a message that expresses her sorrow. | 0:52:56 | 0:53:00 | |
Nobody would come to light a lamp, | 0:53:00 | 0:53:03 | |
no moths would come to burn their wings on such lamps, | 0:53:03 | 0:53:07 | |
and no cuckoos would even sing within the tombs | 0:53:07 | 0:53:12 | |
of Nur Jahan and her daughter. | 0:53:12 | 0:53:14 | |
But to remember Nur Jahan best, I've been allowed to | 0:53:28 | 0:53:32 | |
return to the beautiful Palace Of Mirrors in the | 0:53:32 | 0:53:35 | |
women's quarters of the Lahore Fort, | 0:53:35 | 0:53:37 | |
at night, when it's empty and deserted. | 0:53:37 | 0:53:40 | |
This surely is her true spiritual resting place - | 0:53:51 | 0:53:55 | |
as a woman who patronised the arts | 0:53:55 | 0:53:57 | |
and helped make Lahore a glittering centre for artists and writers. | 0:53:57 | 0:54:03 | |
As it still is. | 0:54:03 | 0:54:04 | |
OVERLAPPING CHATTER | 0:54:08 | 0:54:11 | |
THEY SPEAK OWN LANGUAGE | 0:54:12 | 0:54:16 | |
Hi, I'm Sona. | 0:54:16 | 0:54:17 | |
Hello, how are you? | 0:54:17 | 0:54:21 | |
Lahore is a very spiritual city | 0:54:21 | 0:54:24 | |
because here you find all the arts. | 0:54:24 | 0:54:27 | |
It is also a city of music and of politics. | 0:54:28 | 0:54:33 | |
If this wasn't a dry country, | 0:54:40 | 0:54:42 | |
I could have sworn there was something in this orange juice, | 0:54:42 | 0:54:45 | |
but it's at parties like this that you can really sense that | 0:54:45 | 0:54:49 | |
visual artists, writers, poets in Pakistan today are | 0:54:49 | 0:54:54 | |
really engaging with the rich cultural past | 0:54:54 | 0:54:57 | |
and unpicking it and exposing it, | 0:54:57 | 0:54:59 | |
and exploring it, to reveal that this isn't just a country | 0:54:59 | 0:55:04 | |
with a 50-year Islamic history, but something much, much deeper. | 0:55:04 | 0:55:08 | |
So what I've done is... She has raised all the funding. | 0:55:08 | 0:55:12 | |
One of the artists at the party has produced a work that has | 0:55:12 | 0:55:15 | |
become famous and which explores the tensions | 0:55:15 | 0:55:17 | |
between old and new Pakistan, | 0:55:17 | 0:55:21 | |
and its relationship with the West. | 0:55:21 | 0:55:23 | |
I've been particularly drawn to this remarkable series | 0:55:24 | 0:55:29 | |
that you did called The Veil. | 0:55:29 | 0:55:31 | |
Can you tell me, firstly, what inspired you? | 0:55:31 | 0:55:34 | |
What was the moment that made you choose this subject? | 0:55:34 | 0:55:39 | |
I was intrigued to see in this post-9/11 period, to see | 0:55:40 | 0:55:47 | |
Western media in particular, whenever there was a mention of | 0:55:47 | 0:55:51 | |
a Muslim country, it will be referenced | 0:55:51 | 0:55:55 | |
with the image of a veiled woman. | 0:55:55 | 0:55:58 | |
So, in a way, I think it kind of reduces | 0:55:58 | 0:56:02 | |
the representation of women from a certain part of the world, | 0:56:02 | 0:56:07 | |
which made me think of another simplification of the woman | 0:56:07 | 0:56:11 | |
in the minds of the men, especially, from the non-Western world, | 0:56:11 | 0:56:17 | |
because of their exposure to pornography. | 0:56:17 | 0:56:19 | |
So in this work Rashid has used this process of photomontage, | 0:56:21 | 0:56:26 | |
where, when you enter the room, | 0:56:26 | 0:56:29 | |
you encounter one particular image | 0:56:29 | 0:56:32 | |
which on this occasion is a series of burqa-clad women, | 0:56:32 | 0:56:36 | |
completely veiled, including the face. | 0:56:36 | 0:56:38 | |
And then when you come in closer, | 0:56:38 | 0:56:40 | |
you're opened up to a whole other landscape. | 0:56:40 | 0:56:43 | |
The pixelations are tiny images of pornography, | 0:56:43 | 0:56:47 | |
which are captured from the internet, | 0:56:47 | 0:56:50 | |
and widely disseminated all over the world. | 0:56:50 | 0:56:53 | |
So he's playing on that idea of contradictions | 0:56:53 | 0:56:57 | |
of the perceptions that we have in this apparent distinctions | 0:56:57 | 0:57:00 | |
between what goes on in the East and the West. | 0:57:00 | 0:57:04 | |
Pakistan has a population of over 200 million people, | 0:57:08 | 0:57:12 | |
greater than Russia. Its position at the crossroads of Asia | 0:57:12 | 0:57:16 | |
makes it crucial to world politics. | 0:57:16 | 0:57:19 | |
And yet my journey through the country has been | 0:57:19 | 0:57:21 | |
a reminder of how little outsiders know about its complicated past, | 0:57:21 | 0:57:27 | |
and equally complicated present. | 0:57:27 | 0:57:28 | |
Today, Pakistan is searching for its identity. | 0:57:30 | 0:57:33 | |
Not because it doesn't have one, but because this civilisation, | 0:57:33 | 0:57:38 | |
this 5,000-year-old civilisation, is so textured and multilayered. | 0:57:38 | 0:57:43 | |
And some of that history is shared and contested with | 0:57:43 | 0:57:48 | |
its neighbour India, but a lot of isn't, | 0:57:48 | 0:57:50 | |
because this was always a frontier land between India to the south, | 0:57:50 | 0:57:54 | |
China to the North, Afghanistan, Iran and Ancient Babylon and Greece. | 0:57:54 | 0:58:00 | |
And running through this, like an artery, nourishing civilisations | 0:58:00 | 0:58:04 | |
that have lived here, has been the River Indus. | 0:58:04 | 0:58:08 | |
In the next episode of Treasures Of The Indus, I'll explore | 0:58:10 | 0:58:14 | |
what happened when the Islamic conquerors who swept into | 0:58:14 | 0:58:17 | |
Lahore in the 16th century travelled even farther down into India, | 0:58:17 | 0:58:23 | |
when the Islam of the Mughals collided | 0:58:23 | 0:58:25 | |
with the kingdoms of Hindustan | 0:58:25 | 0:58:27 | |
and created some of the finest architecture | 0:58:27 | 0:58:30 | |
the world has ever seen. | 0:58:30 | 0:58:32 |