Excavation at Charg Paṭai (Lower Dir)—Context, Iconography and Dating of the Sculptures

During excavations of the Buddhist site of Char Paṭai (Both are Pashto words, Pashto—a local vernacular, and means “chicken field”. “charg” denotes chicken and “paṭai” signifies agricultural field) located in the Lower Dir district, a good number of sculptures were recovered. The site, now extinct, was located inside a valley (Fig. 6.2) 15 kms northwest of Cakdara and 2 kms north of the village of Khanpur, on the right bank of the Swat River (Farid Khan 1990: 171). It was excavated from 8.11.1981 to 2.12.1981 (Information from the personal diary of late Daud Kamal, Draughtsman in the Department of Archaeology, University of Peshawar) by late Daud Kamal (draughtsman) and late Asad Ali (photographer) from the Department of Archaeology of the University of Peshawar.