Kahu-Jo-Darro, also known as Mirpur Khas stupa, is an ancient Buddhist stupa found at the Mirpurkhas archaeological site in Sindh, Pakistan. The site is spread over . Excavations completed before 1910 revealed this large brick-based stupa and numerous terracotta reliefs now displayed in major world museums.Relief Panel: 5th century - 6th Century from Mirpur Khas Pakistan, Victoria & Albert Museum, UK The Mirpur Khas site is notable because historic Indian and Arab coins were found during its excavation. This has led scholars such as Derryl MacLean to suggest that Buddhism was thriving in Sindh region around the 10th-century and became extinct in these parts of the west and northwest South Asia after the Islamic conquest.
Early estimates placed the site in the 4th to 5th-century. The stupa is now dated between the 5th to early 6th-century, because its artwork is more complex and resembles those found in the dated sites such as the Ajanta and Bhitargaon in India. The terracotta discoveries here include intricately and elegantly carved Buddha images as well as several Hindu artworks such as of Brahma. These different terracotta artwork found here have been variously dated between the 6th to 10th centuries, and include the notable 7th-century painted image of Avalokitesvara Padmapani. The artwork is similar to those seen at Sarnath and at Mathura. Clay tablets containing the Buddhist formula "Ye Dharma Hetu" in 7th-8th century script were also found.The Indian Historical Quarterly - Volumes 32-33, 1956, Page 182
General John Jacob, the acting British Commissioner in Sindh, was the first official to be attracted to the site in the 19th century. His excavations found a vase of fine earthenware containing some pieces of crystal and amethyst, which was sent to the Karachi Museum.Revised lists of antiquarian remains in the Bombay Presidency: and the native states of Baroda, Palanpur, Radhanpur, Kathiawad, Kachh, Kolhapur, and the southern Maratha minor states, Volume 16 of [Reports]: New imperial series, Archaeological Survey of India, James Burgess, Henry Cousens, Printed at the Government central press, 1897, p. 215 The stupa was decorated using terracotta sculptures representing the Buddha.Vakataka - Gupta Age Circa 200-550 A.D, edited by Ramesh Chandra Majumdar, Anant Sadashiv Altekar, Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 1967, p. 435
According to Henry Cousens, the Kahu-Jo-Daro site was significantly damaged when railway contractors in colonial-era Sindh carted off large quantities of the ancient bricks to use them as track ballast. The Kahu-Jo-Daro site was occupied by local villagers through the early 2000s, when the Pakistani government relocated the residents out of the complex to another site.MIRPURKHAS: Kahu Jo Daro affectees complain of harassment, The Dawn (Nov 20, 2007) The stupa's condition has further deteriorated, as the practice of stealing the bricks for local construction has furthered the destruction.Sindh, Past, Present and Future, Fahmåidah Husain, University of Karachi. Shāha ʻAbdullat̤īfu Bhiṭāʼī Caʼir, University of Sind. Institute of Sindology, Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai Chair, University of Karachi, 2006, p. 230
The Prince of Wales Museum describes the style of the Mirpur Khas stupa as a conflation of the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara, and Gupta art:
See also Brahma from Mirpur-Khas Devnimori
References
External links Saving Kahoo-jo-Daro