Editing Peshawar (section)

=== Ancient history ===
Peshawar alongside the modern day [[Gandhara]] region were found in the Vedic Scripture as Pushkalavati.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Caroe |first1=Olaf |title=Book on The Pathans – 550 BC |date=1957 |publisher=Macmillan Company |isbn=978-0-19-577221-0 |url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/392583.The_Pathans_550_B_C_A_D_1957}}</ref>

==== Foundation ====
Peshawar was founded as the city of ''Puruṣapura'',<ref name="Hiro2012" /><ref name="Chandra1977">{{cite book |last1=Chandra |first1=Moti |title=Trade And Trade Routes In Ancient India |publisher=Abhinav Publications |isbn=9788170170556 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rDL4kA7SWkEC&dq=ancient+peshawar&pg=PA10 |access-date=24 March 2017 |year=1977 |archive-date=7 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307070259/https://books.google.com/books?id=rDL4kA7SWkEC&dq=ancient+peshawar&pg=PA10 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Rishi1982">{{cite book |last1=Rishi |first1=Weer Rajendra |title=India & Russia: Linguistic & Cultural Affinity |date=1982 |publisher=Roma Publications |language=English |quote=The capital of Kushan Empire was Purushpura, the modern Peshawar.}}</ref> on the Gandhara Plains in the broad [[Valley of Peshawar]] in 100 CE.<ref name="Heitzman2008">{{cite book |last1=Heitzman |first1=James |title=The City in South Asia |date=2008 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-134-28962-2 |language=English |quote=Taxila long played the role of the eastern capital, in the region known as Gandhara, alongside the region's western capital Pushkaravati or Charsadda, which attracted traders along the northern bank of the Khyber River until its eclipse by the city of Purushapura (later Peshawar) established by the second century CE (Deloche 1993, 1: 31–2).}}</ref><ref name="Sandhu2000">{{cite book |last1=Sandhu |first1=Gurcharn Singh |title=A military history of ancient India |date=2000 |publisher=Vision Books |page=24 |language=English}}</ref> It may have been named after a Hindu raja who ruled the city who was known as Purush.<ref name="Jaffar1952" /> The city likely first existed as a small village in the fifth century BCE,<ref name="Grandeur">{{cite book |last1=Samad |first1=Rafi U. |title=The Grandeur of Gandhara: The Ancient Buddhist Civilization of the Swat, Peshawar, Kabul and Indus Valleys |date=2011 |publisher=Algora Publishing |isbn=978-0-87586-859-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pNUwBYGYgxsC&dq=purushapura&pg=PA119 |access-date=28 November 2021 |archive-date=7 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307070314/https://books.google.com/books?id=pNUwBYGYgxsC&dq=purushapura&pg=PA119 |url-status=live }}</ref> Puruṣapura was founded near the ancient Gandharan capital city of [[Pushkalavati]], near present-day [[Charsadda]].<ref name="Pakhtunkhwa">{{cite web |url=http://pakhtunkhwa.com/html/body_nwfp_in_search_of_a_name.html |title=NWFP in search of a name |work=pakhtunkhwa.com |access-date=24 January 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160131042427/http://pakhtunkhwa.com/html/body_nwfp_in_search_of_a_name.html |archive-date=31 January 2016}}</ref><ref name="books.google.com" />

==== Greek rule ====
In the winter of 327–26 BCE, [[Alexander the Great]] subdued the Valley of Peshawar during his [[Indian campaign of Alexander the Great|invasion of the Indus Valley]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fuller |first1=J.F.C. |title=The Generalship Of Alexander The Great |date=2004 |publisher=Da Capo Press |isbn=978-0-306-81330-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kDy97Y6lZGUC&q=peshawar&pg=PA71 }}{{Dead link|date=February 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> as well as the nearby [[Swat (Pakistan)|Swat]] and [[Buner Valley|Buner]] valleys.<ref>{{cite book |last=Luniya |first=Bhanwarlal Nathuram |title=Life and Culture in Ancient India: From the Earliest Times to 1000 AD |year=1978 |publisher=Lakshmi Narain Agarwal |lccn=78907043}}</ref> Following Alexander's conquest, the Valley of Peshawar came under the suzerainty of [[Seleucus I Nicator]], founder of the [[Seleucid Empire]]. A locally-made vase fragment that was found in Peshawar depicts a scene from [[Sophocles]]' play ''[[Antigone (Sophocles play)|Antigone]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tarn |first1=William Woodthorpe |title=The Greeks in Bactria and India |date=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-00941-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-HeJS3nE9cAC&q=purushapura+bactria |access-date=28 March 2017 |archive-date=14 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414155821/https://books.google.com/books?id=-HeJS3nE9cAC&q=purushapura+bactria |url-status=live }}</ref>

==== Mauryan empire ====
[[File:Takht-e-bahi.jpg|thumb|The nearby [[Takht-i-Bahi]] monastery was established in 46 CE,<ref name="H. Bivar 1983, p.197">A. D. H. Bivar, "The History of Eastern Iran", in Ehsan Yarshater (ed.), ''The Cambridge History of Iran,'' Vol.3 (1), ''The Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian Periods,'' London, Cambridge University Press, 1983, p.197.</ref> and was once a major centre of Buddhist learning.]]
Following the [[Seleucid–Mauryan war]], the region was ceded to the [[Mauryan Empire]] in 303 BCE.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}} Around 300 BCE, the Greek diplomat and historian [[Megasthenes]] noted that Purushapura was the western terminus of a Mauryan road that connected the city to the empire's capital at ''[[Pataliputra]]'', near the city of [[Patna]] in the modern-day Indian state of [[Bihar]].<ref name="Pandey1963">{{cite book |last1=Pandey |first1=Mithila Sharan |title=The Historical Geography and Topography of Bihar |date=1963 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |page=198 |language=en |quote=Under the Mauryas, when Pataliputra was the capital of the whole empire, a road ran from Tamralipti, which was probably then on or very near the coast, to Purushapura in the north-west.}}</ref><ref name="silk road">{{cite book |last1=Elisseeff |first1=Vadime |title=The Silk Roads: Highways of Culture and Commerce |date=1998 |publisher=Berghahn Books |isbn=978-1-57181-222-3 |pages=175}}</ref>

As Mauryan power declined, the [[Greco-Bactrian Kingdom]] based in modern Afghanistan declared its independence from the Seleucid Empire, and quickly seized ancient Peshawar around 190 BCE.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}} The city was then captured by [[Gondophares]], founder of the [[Indo-Parthian Kingdom]]. Gondophares established the nearby ''[[Takht-i-Bahi]]'' monastery in 46 CE.<ref name="H. Bivar 1983, p.197" />

==== Kushan empire ====
[[File:KanishkaCasket.JPG|thumb|left|150px|Peshawar's [[Kanishka stupa]] once kept sacred [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] relics in the [[Kanishka casket]].]]

In the first century of the [[Common Era]], Purushapura came under control of [[Kujula Kadphises]], founder of the [[Kushan Empire]].<ref name="Abrams2000">{{cite book |last1=Abrams |first1=Harry N. |title=The Year One: Art of the Ancient World East and West |date=2000 |publisher=[[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] |isbn=978-0-87099-961-1 |pages=133 |language=en |quote=The late-first—early-second-century-A.D. rule of Kanishka, the third Kushan emperor, was administered from two capitals, Purushapura (Peshawar), near the Khyber Pass, and Mathura, in northern India.}}</ref> The city was made the empire's winter capital.<ref name="Le" /> The Kushan's summer capital at ''Kapisi'' (modern [[Bagram]], [[Afghanistan]])<ref name="Chandra">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rDL4kA7SWkEC&dq=ancient+peshawar&pg=PA10 |title=Trade And Trade Routes In Ancient India |last1=Chandra |first1=Moti |publisher=Abhinav Publications |year=1977 |isbn=9788170170556 |access-date=24 March 2017 |archive-date=7 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307070306/https://books.google.com/books?id=rDL4kA7SWkEC&dq=ancient+peshawar&pg=PA10 |url-status=live }}</ref> was seen as the secondary capital of the empire,<ref name="Le" /> while Puruṣapura was considered to be the empire's primary capital.<ref name="Le">{{cite book |last1=Le |first1=Huu Phuoc |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9jb364g4BvoC&q=hephthalite+peshawar&pg=PA51 |title=Buddhist Architecture |date=2010 |publisher=Grafikol |isbn=978-0-9844043-0-8 |pages=51 |access-date=24 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307070259/https://books.google.com/books?id=9jb364g4BvoC&q=hephthalite+peshawar&pg=PA51 |archive-date=7 March 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref> Ancient Peshawar's population was estimated to be 120,000, which would make it the seventh-most populous city in the world at the time.<ref>{{cite web |title=Top 10 Cities of the Year 100 |url=http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa011201b.htm |work=Education > Geography (sourced from Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth: An Historical Census by Tertius Chandler. 1987, St. David's University Press) |publisher=About.com |access-date=13 December 2012 |first=Matt |last=Rosenberg |author2=Tertius Chandler |year=2012 |archive-date=5 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131005065844/http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa011201b.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Grandeur" /> As a devout Buddhist, the emperor built the grand ''Kanishka [[Mahavihara]]'' monastery.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wink |first1=Andre |title=Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World: Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam 7th-11th Centuries |date=2002 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-0-391-04173-8}}</ref> After his death, the magnificent [[Kanishka stupa]] was built in Peshawar to house Buddhist relics. The golden age of Kushan empire in Peshawar ended in 232 CE with the death of the last great Kushan king, [[Vasudeva I]].

Around 260 CE, the armies of the [[Sasanid Empire|Sasanid]] Emperor [[Shapur I]] launched an attack against Peshawar,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Puri |first1=Baij Nath |title=Buddhism in Central Asia |date=1987 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=9788120803725}}</ref> and severely damaged Buddhist monuments and monasteries throughout the Valley of Peshawar.<ref name="Grandeur" /> Shapur's campaign also resulted in damage to the city's monumental stupa and monastery.<ref name="Grandeur" /> The Kushans were made subordinate to the Sasanids and their power rapidly dwindled,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wink |first1=Andre |title=Al-Hind: The Slavic Kings and the Islamic conquest, 11th–13th centuries |date=2002 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-0-391-04174-5}}</ref> as the Sasanids blocked lucrative trade routes westward out of the city.<ref name="Grandeur" />

Kushan Emperor [[Kanishka III]] was able to temporarily reestablish control over the entire Valley of Peshawar after Shapur's invasion,<ref name="Grandeur" /> but the city was then captured by the Central Asian [[Kidarites|Kidarite kingdom]] in the early 400s CE.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ahmad |first1=Hasan Dani |title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The crossroads of civilizations: A.D. 250 to 750 |date=1999 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publ |isbn=9788120815407 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FcKtIPVQ6REC&q=Huna&pg=PA116 |access-date=29 March 2017 |archive-date=7 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307070303/https://books.google.com/books?id=FcKtIPVQ6REC&q=Huna&pg=PA116 |url-status=live }}</ref>

==== White Huns ====
The [[Hephthalite Empire|White Huns]] devastated ancient Peshawar in the 460s CE,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Saletore |first1=Bhasker Anand |title=India's Diplomatic Relations with the East |date=1960 |publisher=Popular Book Depot}}</ref> and ravaged the entire region of Gandhara, destroying its numerous monasteries.<ref name="Basic Books">{{cite book |last1=Wriggins |first1=Sally |title=The Silk Road Journey With Xuanzang |date=2008 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0-7867-2544-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eSYKO5zLgZkC&q=xuanzang+peshawar&pg=PT60 |access-date=29 March 2017 |archive-date=7 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307070303/https://books.google.com/books?id=eSYKO5zLgZkC&q=xuanzang+peshawar&pg=PT60 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Kanishka stupa was rebuilt during the White Hun era with the construction of a tall wooden superstructure, built atop a stone base,<ref name="Le" /> and crowned with a 13-layer copper-[[gilding|gilded]] ''[[Chatra (umbrella)|chatra]]''.<ref name="Le" /> In the 400s CE, the [[China|Chinese]] Buddhist [[pilgrim]] ''[[Faxian]]'' visited the structure and described it as "the highest of all the towers" in [[Jambudvipa|the "terrestrial world"]],<ref name="Le" /> which ancient travelers claimed was up to {{cvt|560|ft|m}} tall,<ref name="Le" /> though modern estimates suggest a height of {{cvt|400|ft|m}}.<ref name="Le" />

In 520 CE the Chinese monk [[Song Yun]] visited Gandhara and ancient Peshawar during the White Hun era, and noted that it was in conflict with nearby ''Kapisa''.<ref name="autogenerated1962">{{cite book |last1=Cotton |first1=James |title=Imperial Gazetteer of India:Gazetteers of British India, 1833–1962 Volume 20 of Imperial Gazetteer of India |url=https://archive.org/details/imperialgazettee20grea |date=1908 |publisher=Clarendon}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Dani |first1=Ahmad Hasan |title=Peshawar: Historic City of the Frontier |url=https://archive.org/details/peshawarhistoric0000dani |url-access=registration |date=1995 |publisher=Sang-e-Meel Publications |isbn=9789693505542}}</ref> The Chinese monk and traveler [[Xuanzang]] visited ancient Peshawar around 630 CE,<ref>{{cite book |last1=hastings |first1=captain e. g. g. |title=report of the regular settlement of the peshawar district of the punjab |date=1878 |publisher=Oxford University |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7JoIAAAAQAAJ&q=sung+yun+peshawar&pg=PA312 |access-date=29 March 2017 |archive-date=7 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307070311/https://books.google.com/books?id=7JoIAAAAQAAJ&q=sung+yun+peshawar&pg=PA312 |url-status=live }}</ref> after ''Kapisa'' victory, and expressed lament that the city and its great Buddhist monuments had decayed to ruin<ref>{{cite book |last1=Zhang |first1=Guiyong |title=Chinese History: Middle ages |date=1978 |publisher=China Academy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PQdGAAAAMAAJ&q=peshawar+middle+ages |access-date=24 March 2017 |archive-date=7 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307070311/https://books.google.com/books?id=PQdGAAAAMAAJ&q=peshawar+middle+ages |url-status=live }}</ref>—although some monks studying [[Theravada Buddhism]] continued to study at the monastery's ruins.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Heirman |first1=Ann |last2=Bumbacher |first2=Stephan Peter |title=The Spread of Buddhism |date=2007 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=9789047420064}}</ref> Xuanzang estimated that only about 1,000 families continued in a small quarter among the ruins of the former grand capital.<ref name="Basic Books" />