THE KURAIZ-TIRAH RELIQUARY ASSEMBLAGE: A PRELIMINARY STUDY OF A KUSHAN-PERIOD BUDDHIST RELIC DEPOSIT FROM THE TIRAH VALLEY, NORTHWESTERN PAKISTAN

Abstract

This article presents a preliminary documentation and contextual study of the Kuraiz-Tirah relic casket assemblage, recovered from a disturbed stupa chamber in the Tirah Valley, District Khyber, northwestern Pakistan. The study is based on available photographic and video records of the chamber, the recovery position of the objects, the opening sequence, and the nested reliquary contents. The assemblage includes a stupa-shaped reliquary with an inscription around the basal register, a large circular lidded relic casket, an amber/white crystal reliquary with a crystal lid, a small gold relic casket, ash material, a gold coin of Kanishka II, and a decorated bronze cylindrical reliquary with figural panels and a stepped pinnacle.The photographic record indicates that the principal objects were found together inside a prepared chamber after the removal of covering slabs or layers. The stupa-shaped reliquary functioned as an architectural outer container for a nested deposit, while the circular lidded casket and crystal reliquary represent successive stages of sacred containment. The bronze cylindrical casket preserves a complex figural program, including a seated Buddha in abhaya mudrā and associated figures identified in the photographic record as Brahma and Indra, together with other relief panels that may reflect the wider Kushan religious and iconographic vocabulary.Because the assemblage was not recovered through controlled excavation and the objects are not presently available for direct examination, all conclusions remain provisional. Nevertheless, the combination of chamber context, stupa-shaped form, inscriptional band, nested crystal and gold reliquaries, ash material, Kushan coinage, and figural bronze casket suggests that the Kuraiz-Tirah assemblage may represent one of the most important newly documented Buddhist reliquary deposits from the Khyber–Tirah frontier. If confirmed through epigraphic, and scientific study, it may significantly expand the known geography of Kushan-period Buddhist relic practice in Gandhara.