Rabatak Inscription - Discovery

Discovery

The Rabatak inscription was found near the top of an artificial hill (actually a Kushan site) along the main Kabul-Mazar highway, to the southeast of the Rabatak pass which is currently the border between Baghlan and Samangan provinces. It was found by Afghan mujahideen digging a trench at the top of the site, along with several other stone sculptural elements such as the paws of a giant stone lion, which have disappeared since. An English relief worker of the Halo Trust demining organization working in this province reported the discovery and photographed the inscription. This photograph was sent to the British Museum, where its significance as an official document of the Kushan kings, naming four of these kings, was recognised by Joe Cribb. He determined it was a probably an inscription similar to the famous one found at Surkh Kotal by the Delegation Archeologique Francaise en Afghanistan in the 1950s. He shared the photograph with one of the few people able to read the Bactrian language, Professor Nicholas Sims-Williams from the School of Oriental and African Studies. More photographs arrived from the charity workers of the Halo Trust and a first translation was made and published by Cribb and Sims-Williams in 1996.

(Translation by Nicholas Sims-Williams) . . . of the great salvation, Kanishka the Kushan, the righteous, the just, the autocrat, the god

• worthy of worship, who has obtained the kingship from Nana and from all the gods, who has
• inaugurated the year one as the gods pleased. And he *issued a Greek *edict (and) then he put it into Aryan.

In the year one it has been proclaimed unto India, unto the *whole of the realm of the *kshatriyas, that (as for) them - both the (city of) . . . and the (city of) Saketa, and the (city of) Kausambi, and the (city of) Pataliputra, as far as the (city of) Sri-Campa - whatever rulers and other *important persons (they might have) he had submitted to (his) will, and he had submitted all India to (his) will. Then King Kanishka gave orders to Shafar the karalrang *at this . . . to make the sanctuary which is called B . . . ab, in the *plain of Ka . . ., for these gods, (of) whom the . . . *glorious Umma leads the *service here, (namely:) the *lady Nana and the lady Umma, Aurmuzd, the gracious one, Sroshard, Narasa, (and) Mihr. And he likewise gave orders to make images of these gods who are written above, and he gave orders to make (them) for these kings: for King Kujula Kadphises (his) great grandfather, and for King Vima Taktu, (his) grandfather, and for King Vima Kadphises (his) father, and *also for himself, King Kanishka. Then, as the king of kings, the devaputra . . . had given orders to do, Shafar the karalrang made this sanctuary. the karalrang, and Shafar the karalrang, and Nukunzuk the worship the (king's) command. (As for) *these gods who are written here - may they the king of kings, Kanishka the Kushan, for ever healthy, *secure, (and) victorious. And the devaputra, the *ruler of all India from the year one to the year *one *thousand, had *founded the sanctuary in the year one, then *also to the . . . year. . . according to the king's command . . . (and) it was given also to the . . ., (and) it was given also to the . . ., (and) also to . . . the king gave an *endowment to the gods, and . . . (1996)

Because of the civil war in Afghanistan years passed before further examination could be accomplished. In April 2000 the English historian Dr. Jonathan Lee, a specialist on Afghan history, travelled with Robert Kluijver, the director of the Society for the Preservation of Afghanistan's Cultural Heritage, from Mazar-i Sharif to Pul-i Khumri, the provincial capital of Baghlan, to locate the stone. It was eventually found in a store at the Department of Mines and Industry. Dr. Lee took photographs which allowed Prof. Sims-Williams to publish a more accurate translation, which was followed by another translation once Professor Sims-Williams had examined the stone in person (2008).

In July 2000 Robert Kluijver travelled with a delegation of the Kabul Museum to Pul-i Khumri to retrieve the stone inscription (weighing between 500 and 600 kilograms). It was brought by car to Mazar-i Sharif and flown from there to Kabul. At the time the Taliban had a favorable policy toward the preservation of Afghan cultural heritage, including pre-Islamic heritage. The inscription, whose historical value had meanwhile been determined by Prof. Sims-Williams, became the centrepiece of the exhibition of the (few) remaining artifacts in the Kabul Museum, leading to a short-lived inauguration of the museum on 17 August 2000. Senior Taliban objected to the display of pre-Islamic heritage, which led to the closing of the museum (and the transfer of the Rabatak inscription to safety), a reversal of the cultural heritage policy and eventually the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamyan and other pre-Islamic statuary (from February 2001 onwards).

Today the Rabatak inscription is again on display in the reopened Afghan National Museum or Kabul Museum.

The Rabatak site, again visited by Robert Kluijver in March 2002, has been looted and destroyed (the looting was performed with bulldozers), reportedly by the local commander at Rabatak.