1 00:00:07,400 --> 00:00:09,760 I'm on the mighty Indus River, 2 00:00:09,760 --> 00:00:13,440 which gave its name to the whole Indian subcontinent. 3 00:00:13,440 --> 00:00:16,880 And I'm beginning a journey deep into Ancient India. 4 00:00:16,880 --> 00:00:20,760 A journey that will take me back 5,000 years into the past, 5 00:00:20,760 --> 00:00:23,480 to discover some of its most hidden treasures. 6 00:00:27,720 --> 00:00:31,040 I'll be travelling back in time to the ancient civilisation that 7 00:00:31,040 --> 00:00:33,960 first grew up on the shores of the Indus. 8 00:00:33,960 --> 00:00:38,600 I'll be revealing the lost Buddhist culture of northern Pakistan. 9 00:00:38,600 --> 00:00:41,480 And luxuriating in the extraordinary 10 00:00:41,480 --> 00:00:43,680 architectural flowering of the Mughal Empire... 11 00:00:43,680 --> 00:00:46,840 and the exuberant temples of South India. 12 00:00:46,840 --> 00:00:49,560 All of which produced some phenomenal artworks. 13 00:00:53,960 --> 00:00:56,560 As an art historian and museum curator, 14 00:00:56,560 --> 00:00:59,320 I've looked after these treasures for most of my life. 15 00:00:59,320 --> 00:01:02,680 In this series, I want to explore their stories 16 00:01:02,680 --> 00:01:05,000 and the people who created them. 17 00:01:15,360 --> 00:01:19,440 I'm beginning my journey in Lahore, home to over five million people 18 00:01:19,440 --> 00:01:24,280 and the vibrant, beating heart of modern Pakistan. 19 00:01:24,280 --> 00:01:27,680 Today we think of Pakistan as an Islamic country, 20 00:01:27,680 --> 00:01:31,680 and indeed it was religion that was the cause of 21 00:01:31,680 --> 00:01:34,440 its violent severance from Greater India in 1947. 22 00:01:35,720 --> 00:01:38,760 What was India's loss was the birth of a new nation, 23 00:01:38,760 --> 00:01:41,960 the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. 24 00:01:41,960 --> 00:01:45,000 But what I want to explore is this country's very rich, 25 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:48,680 more complex and diverse past, which is often forgotten. 26 00:01:50,720 --> 00:01:55,000 A time when women were celebrated, the Buddha was worshipped 27 00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:58,520 and the Mughal Empire recreated paradise on Earth. 28 00:02:06,760 --> 00:02:10,240 So to do that, I need to go to the remains of a city that makes 29 00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:13,120 Lahore look as if it was built just yesterday. 30 00:02:13,120 --> 00:02:16,320 A site that is not just one of the most ancient in Pakistan, 31 00:02:16,320 --> 00:02:17,960 but in the whole world. 32 00:02:21,640 --> 00:02:24,640 SHE SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE 33 00:02:26,880 --> 00:02:29,920 There's always a great sense of adventure to arrive 34 00:02:29,920 --> 00:02:33,000 at a station in the subcontinent early in the morning. 35 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:35,240 With coolies carrying people's luggage, 36 00:02:35,240 --> 00:02:36,840 people have got places to go, 37 00:02:36,840 --> 00:02:38,520 just like I have. 38 00:02:46,760 --> 00:02:49,840 Pakistan was born less than 70 years ago. 39 00:02:49,840 --> 00:02:52,440 A much younger country than India. 40 00:02:52,440 --> 00:02:54,760 So it is perhaps ironic that it was the birthplace 41 00:02:54,760 --> 00:02:56,520 of a far older civilisation. 42 00:03:00,440 --> 00:03:03,320 I spent years at the British Museum looking after treasures 43 00:03:03,320 --> 00:03:05,680 from the Indian subcontinent. 44 00:03:05,680 --> 00:03:09,280 But I've never made this particular journey before. 45 00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:12,560 It will take me to the cradle of Ancient India. 46 00:03:30,040 --> 00:03:33,640 So I've just got off the train at Harappa, we are almost 200km 47 00:03:33,640 --> 00:03:37,440 outside Lahore at this tiny station, I seem to be the only person here. 48 00:03:37,440 --> 00:03:41,560 But it was here, about 100 years ago, that under the British, 49 00:03:41,560 --> 00:03:46,280 railway workers were creating a passageway to dig this railway, 50 00:03:46,280 --> 00:03:50,320 to create this railway, and stumbled upon what appeared to be 51 00:03:50,320 --> 00:03:53,600 a very ancient mound of terracotta bricks. 52 00:03:56,360 --> 00:03:59,280 "How convenient", the workers must have thought, 53 00:03:59,280 --> 00:04:03,000 and just used the bricks to help make the railway embankment. 54 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:05,480 But when archaeologists were eventually called in, 55 00:04:05,480 --> 00:04:08,760 they made one of the great discoveries of the 20th century. 56 00:04:16,800 --> 00:04:19,560 What they found defied belief. 57 00:04:19,560 --> 00:04:24,240 In this quiet and neglected corner of Pakistan, an enormous city - 58 00:04:24,240 --> 00:04:25,760 stretching for miles - 59 00:04:25,760 --> 00:04:28,960 began to emerge from beneath the dusty plains. 60 00:04:34,920 --> 00:04:37,360 It's thought the city of Harappa 61 00:04:37,360 --> 00:04:39,920 was large enough to house up to 80,000 people. 62 00:04:43,160 --> 00:04:48,640 This city was at the height of its success in 2,200 BC. 63 00:04:48,640 --> 00:04:53,320 It's not until the late 19th century, over 4,000 years later, 64 00:04:53,320 --> 00:04:58,360 that European cities reached anything like the scale and order. 65 00:04:58,360 --> 00:05:01,440 Even more extraordinary than its size 66 00:05:01,440 --> 00:05:05,240 was the realisation of quite how old it was. 67 00:05:05,240 --> 00:05:09,200 When the archaeologist John Marshall came here in 1921, 68 00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:13,000 he was the first person who fully appreciated the significance 69 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:17,160 and the actual antiquity of what this site potentially had to offer. 70 00:05:19,120 --> 00:05:22,160 So I brought with me a copy of the Illustrated London News 71 00:05:22,160 --> 00:05:24,600 from 1924, which was 72 00:05:24,600 --> 00:05:28,640 actually when Marshall announced to the world effectively what he 73 00:05:28,640 --> 00:05:32,720 had discovered and the significance of it, and it begins... 74 00:05:32,720 --> 00:05:36,640 "Not often has it been given to archaeologists, as it was given to 75 00:05:36,640 --> 00:05:40,640 "Schliemann at Tiryns or Mycenae, or to Stein in the deserts of 76 00:05:40,640 --> 00:05:43,640 "Turkestan, to light upon the remains of 77 00:05:43,640 --> 00:05:46,200 "a long forgotten civilisation. 78 00:05:46,200 --> 00:05:50,440 "It looks, however, at this moment, as if we were on the threshold 79 00:05:50,440 --> 00:05:53,160 "of such a discovery in the plains of the Indus." 80 00:05:56,440 --> 00:06:00,360 Marshall was trying to rewrite the story of Ancient India with one 81 00:06:00,360 --> 00:06:03,080 that began here in the subcontinent, 82 00:06:03,080 --> 00:06:05,840 not one that had somehow been imported from Europe 83 00:06:05,840 --> 00:06:09,280 or the Middle East, as previous archaeologists had imagined. 84 00:06:11,640 --> 00:06:13,720 A history that was India's own, 85 00:06:13,720 --> 00:06:17,040 a new beginning, if you like, for India's ancient past. 86 00:06:18,840 --> 00:06:21,040 The thing that strikes me immediately, 87 00:06:21,040 --> 00:06:22,720 walking through these ruins, 88 00:06:22,720 --> 00:06:27,760 is how clearly this was laid out on a grid pattern like a modern city. 89 00:06:27,760 --> 00:06:31,440 These people really understood their right angles. 90 00:06:31,440 --> 00:06:33,880 But what is extraordinary is what isn't here. 91 00:06:33,880 --> 00:06:36,440 For a civilisation on this scale, 92 00:06:36,440 --> 00:06:38,800 contemporary with the pyramids, 93 00:06:38,800 --> 00:06:42,840 is there isn't any grand monument to a single ruler, there isn't 94 00:06:42,840 --> 00:06:46,840 any celebration of military might or a ruling theocracy. 95 00:06:46,840 --> 00:06:49,520 This was clearly, in a contemporary sense, 96 00:06:49,520 --> 00:06:53,000 a much more egalitarian society. 97 00:06:57,360 --> 00:07:00,560 This is not the only city built by what came to be called 98 00:07:00,560 --> 00:07:03,000 the Indus Valley Civilisation, 99 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:05,720 after the mighty river that threaded them together. 100 00:07:07,080 --> 00:07:10,280 Many others were later found, built to a similar template. 101 00:07:12,120 --> 00:07:14,480 And yet more remain to be excavated, 102 00:07:14,480 --> 00:07:16,720 still buried under mounds in the desert. 103 00:07:18,560 --> 00:07:22,000 This was an empire, albeit one without any rulers, 104 00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:25,280 and it is an empire that is still giving up its secrets. 105 00:07:26,640 --> 00:07:30,720 Gosh, so this was only excavated five or six days before? 106 00:07:30,720 --> 00:07:33,840 Yeah. Still fresh with the mud. Yeah. 107 00:07:33,840 --> 00:07:37,440 You can see the accentuation of the breasts, the navel, 108 00:07:37,440 --> 00:07:39,800 the wide hips. 109 00:07:39,800 --> 00:07:43,240 This is a civilisation, like many ancient cultures, 110 00:07:43,240 --> 00:07:46,640 that celebrated fertility, for very obvious reasons, 111 00:07:46,640 --> 00:07:49,480 and these figures appear all over the Indus Valley. 112 00:07:50,880 --> 00:07:53,520 'These were people who liked their bling, 113 00:07:53,520 --> 00:07:55,520 'and some of the jewellery found here reveals 114 00:07:55,520 --> 00:07:59,080 'the use of sophisticated manufacturing techniques.' 115 00:07:59,080 --> 00:08:04,240 So this delicate bead... made of carnelian was considered 116 00:08:04,240 --> 00:08:09,520 a highly precious stone and were traded really far and wide. 117 00:08:09,520 --> 00:08:13,960 What's really remarkable about them is the technology they had, 118 00:08:13,960 --> 00:08:17,080 using diamonds to drill these 119 00:08:17,080 --> 00:08:20,040 very uniform holes through. 120 00:08:20,040 --> 00:08:23,320 So they would then string them together and produce these 121 00:08:23,320 --> 00:08:27,000 elaborate necklaces for elite citizens to wear. 122 00:08:29,080 --> 00:08:32,360 'Unlike Pakistan today, this seems to have been a culture that 123 00:08:32,360 --> 00:08:35,920 'valued, even worshipped, powerful women. 124 00:08:35,920 --> 00:08:39,840 'And nowhere can this be seen better than in one tiny figure, 125 00:08:39,840 --> 00:08:44,360 'a priceless treasure from the era known as The Dancing Girl... 126 00:08:44,360 --> 00:08:46,760 'with the stance of an impudent teenager.' 127 00:08:48,440 --> 00:08:52,280 She has all the poise of Degas' Little Dancer, 128 00:08:52,280 --> 00:08:57,560 and some have described her as the Mona Lisa of ancient Indian art. 129 00:08:57,560 --> 00:09:01,000 Now, the original is priceless, 130 00:09:01,000 --> 00:09:06,640 and she sits here behind bulletproof glass, which...even being 131 00:09:06,640 --> 00:09:11,080 a museum curator, on this occasion, I'm not able to access. 132 00:09:11,080 --> 00:09:14,640 So I have here a replica in my hand, 133 00:09:14,640 --> 00:09:18,000 and close up you can see... 134 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:21,840 what's really interesting about her is her stance. 135 00:09:21,840 --> 00:09:26,800 For a young woman at this very early date, 136 00:09:26,800 --> 00:09:30,960 she stands incredibly confidently with her hand on her hip, 137 00:09:30,960 --> 00:09:35,880 her head held high, decorated with bangles. 138 00:09:35,880 --> 00:09:39,080 There is a confidence and poise about her, which is 139 00:09:39,080 --> 00:09:43,920 really surprising to some of our more traditional conceptions 140 00:09:43,920 --> 00:09:47,440 and notions of women in South Asia. 141 00:09:54,120 --> 00:09:57,880 The Dancing Girl is unusual and almost unique. 142 00:09:57,880 --> 00:10:01,640 At Harappa, what has been found far more commonly are these 143 00:10:01,640 --> 00:10:06,080 mysterious seals carved in reverse, presumably so they could act 144 00:10:06,080 --> 00:10:09,240 as a stamp, leaving a clear image in wax, 145 00:10:09,240 --> 00:10:12,440 perhaps to seal a transaction. 146 00:10:12,440 --> 00:10:17,280 One of the most amazing features of these tiny seals that were found 147 00:10:17,280 --> 00:10:23,240 at Harappa was that nearly 50% of them represented the unicorn, 148 00:10:23,240 --> 00:10:26,880 which is a mythological animal that we usually associate with 149 00:10:26,880 --> 00:10:31,440 medieval Europe, but actually it first originated here. 150 00:10:31,440 --> 00:10:36,720 And clearly had great spiritual significance for these people, 151 00:10:36,720 --> 00:10:39,480 because it appears over and over again, 152 00:10:39,480 --> 00:10:42,760 but then completely disappeared from this region 153 00:10:42,760 --> 00:10:45,640 and travelled through Mesopotamia into 154 00:10:45,640 --> 00:10:48,360 Ancient Greece and into the legends of Europe 155 00:10:48,360 --> 00:10:50,080 that we've all grown up with. 156 00:10:54,280 --> 00:10:57,600 This is the first time I've ever held a seal from 157 00:10:57,600 --> 00:11:00,760 the Indus Valley Civilisation of this scale, 158 00:11:00,760 --> 00:11:02,760 and holding it at this range, 159 00:11:02,760 --> 00:11:04,440 you can really get a sense of 160 00:11:04,440 --> 00:11:07,280 the very, very fine craftsmanship they used. 161 00:11:07,280 --> 00:11:11,760 You can see all the individual hooves. On the reverse, of course, 162 00:11:11,760 --> 00:11:16,200 is this very practical, pragmatic handle that would have been 163 00:11:16,200 --> 00:11:20,040 used to make the imprint of the sealing, 164 00:11:20,040 --> 00:11:22,720 to mark a commodity that would have been traded, 165 00:11:22,720 --> 00:11:27,560 so competently manufactured at such an early date, that it has survived 166 00:11:27,560 --> 00:11:32,600 5,000 years for us to find today and for me to hold in this moment. 167 00:11:36,720 --> 00:11:39,880 So why did this remarkable civilisation disappear 168 00:11:39,880 --> 00:11:43,800 without trace for thousands of years? 169 00:11:43,800 --> 00:11:46,320 It's hard to believe, in the heat and dust 170 00:11:46,320 --> 00:11:49,960 of the excavated city, that a great tributary of the Indus 171 00:11:49,960 --> 00:11:54,920 once flowed here, which supplied the city with a wealth of water. 172 00:11:54,920 --> 00:11:58,360 There was in fact an indoor bathroom for almost every home, 173 00:11:58,360 --> 00:12:00,560 and a sophisticated drainage system. 174 00:12:02,880 --> 00:12:05,760 But over the millennia, the river changed course, 175 00:12:05,760 --> 00:12:08,640 leaving the city and its farmlands without water. 176 00:12:10,600 --> 00:12:14,680 It's no wonder then that this civilisation eventually collapsed. 177 00:12:18,960 --> 00:12:23,440 The great River Indus dominates the history of civilisation here. 178 00:12:23,440 --> 00:12:27,600 And as the river shifted course, whole cities came and went. 179 00:12:35,640 --> 00:12:39,440 It was here that the next great empire emerged in the Indus Valley, 180 00:12:39,440 --> 00:12:43,400 with consequences which would last for 1,000 years. 181 00:12:49,040 --> 00:12:52,640 So this is the place, in 326 BC, 182 00:12:52,640 --> 00:12:56,800 where that Macedonian megalomaniac Alexander the Great 183 00:12:56,800 --> 00:13:00,600 crossed the river as he attempted to conquer India. 184 00:13:00,600 --> 00:13:02,960 He didn't actually know where he was going, 185 00:13:02,960 --> 00:13:06,600 he arrived with no language, no maps, and in fact Alexander was 186 00:13:06,600 --> 00:13:10,320 so lost that he thought he had arrived 187 00:13:10,320 --> 00:13:12,920 at a distant source of the Nile, 188 00:13:12,920 --> 00:13:15,800 after having seen crocodiles in the Indus. 189 00:13:19,800 --> 00:13:22,520 He was simply driven by a testosterone-fuelled obsession 190 00:13:22,520 --> 00:13:26,360 to outdo the legendary Darius of Persia 191 00:13:26,360 --> 00:13:29,320 and find this fabled land to the East, 192 00:13:29,320 --> 00:13:31,920 which was known only by rumour. 193 00:13:31,920 --> 00:13:35,120 Alexander was a master of self-pathologising. 194 00:13:35,120 --> 00:13:36,920 You have to hand it to him. 195 00:13:36,920 --> 00:13:40,840 A bit like Winston Churchill, he made absolutely sure that history 196 00:13:40,840 --> 00:13:45,280 would be kind to him by writing the history himself, or at least 197 00:13:45,280 --> 00:13:49,880 ensuring that his own biographers came along on his journey with him. 198 00:13:53,840 --> 00:13:56,480 One of his historians, Arrian, wrote, 199 00:13:56,480 --> 00:13:58,920 "When Alexander arrived at the River Indus, 200 00:13:58,920 --> 00:14:03,800 "he found gifts of silver, gold and elephants from Taxilus the Indian. 201 00:14:03,800 --> 00:14:07,720 "And that prince sent word he would surrender to him Taxila, 202 00:14:07,720 --> 00:14:11,520 "the largest city near the River Indus." 203 00:14:25,720 --> 00:14:29,480 Nearby was the ancient city of Taxila, a thriving cosmopolitan 204 00:14:29,480 --> 00:14:32,400 centre, which was just like the Paris or Mumbai of its time. 205 00:14:32,400 --> 00:14:35,520 It was a complete cacophony of different languages, 206 00:14:35,520 --> 00:14:37,240 customs and influences. 207 00:14:39,760 --> 00:14:43,800 Trusting no-one, Alexander marched into Taxila, ready for battle... 208 00:14:46,880 --> 00:14:49,720 WOMAN SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE 209 00:14:49,720 --> 00:14:53,560 ..but the governor welcomed him with a tribute of silver. 210 00:14:53,560 --> 00:14:55,520 Bribery will get you everywhere, 211 00:14:55,520 --> 00:14:59,600 and Alexander had made his first ally near the Indus. 212 00:14:59,600 --> 00:15:03,520 So I'm being made into a Pakistani lady. Never a bad thing. 213 00:15:08,760 --> 00:15:12,640 Everything the Greeks encountered was new, fresh and exotic. 214 00:15:12,640 --> 00:15:14,480 The markets would have held spices 215 00:15:14,480 --> 00:15:16,720 and foodstuffs unrecognisable to them. 216 00:15:18,160 --> 00:15:20,560 THEY CONVERSE IN LOCAL LANGUAGE 217 00:15:20,560 --> 00:15:22,960 Tamarind. 218 00:15:22,960 --> 00:15:25,240 'It was journalistic gold dust. 219 00:15:25,240 --> 00:15:27,680 'Alexander's historians were able to give a vivid 220 00:15:27,680 --> 00:15:32,360 'and sensational account of an ancient society that had previously 221 00:15:32,360 --> 00:15:34,600 'been unreported and obscure.' 222 00:15:36,160 --> 00:15:38,160 In the dusty and crowded marketplace, 223 00:15:38,160 --> 00:15:40,840 in the summer heat of Taxila, Alexander and his men 224 00:15:40,840 --> 00:15:46,000 encountered strange customs, languages and influences. 225 00:15:46,000 --> 00:15:49,480 It was here that they came across the naked holy men, 226 00:15:49,480 --> 00:15:50,880 the Buddhist monks, 227 00:15:50,880 --> 00:15:54,280 and where they first encountered the doctrine of the Buddha. 228 00:15:58,000 --> 00:16:00,800 The Greeks and their new allies rebuilt 229 00:16:00,800 --> 00:16:02,680 the ancient city of Taxila nearby. 230 00:16:02,680 --> 00:16:05,080 SHE SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE 231 00:16:05,080 --> 00:16:07,920 But this was to be like no other city that India 232 00:16:07,920 --> 00:16:09,120 had ever seen before. 233 00:16:12,760 --> 00:16:14,720 Today, the city is known as Sirkap. 234 00:16:19,080 --> 00:16:23,760 It's actually vast, spread over a really big area. 235 00:16:23,760 --> 00:16:25,840 And very quickly it appears... 236 00:16:27,720 --> 00:16:30,280 ..there is a main boulevard, 237 00:16:30,280 --> 00:16:32,720 the high-street... 238 00:16:32,720 --> 00:16:36,000 and that the city was actually planned... 239 00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:39,200 very much like a Hellenistic city would have been, 240 00:16:39,200 --> 00:16:41,960 so the stamp is clearly here. 241 00:16:41,960 --> 00:16:46,240 It's quite amazing, actually, how many walls are still standing. 242 00:16:46,240 --> 00:16:50,240 How neatly ordered they are, and I suspect there would have been 243 00:16:50,240 --> 00:16:55,520 a subterranean level, much like you would have found in ancient Athens. 244 00:16:58,880 --> 00:17:02,240 It is a quiet, peaceful, very overgrown place now. 245 00:17:04,920 --> 00:17:08,760 But it appears here... there were shops... 246 00:17:08,760 --> 00:17:10,280 there, residences. 247 00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:15,200 There was a great sense of order to it clearly. 248 00:17:15,200 --> 00:17:20,480 Which is unusual in a typical city of the subcontinent, 249 00:17:20,480 --> 00:17:23,920 which has a completely different way of organising space, 250 00:17:23,920 --> 00:17:27,680 and that's the thing I find really striking here. 251 00:17:27,680 --> 00:17:32,480 The thing to remember, I think, is Alexander's arrival... 252 00:17:32,480 --> 00:17:37,840 was really a moment and just the start of this long relationship 253 00:17:37,840 --> 00:17:42,080 between India and Greek culture 254 00:17:42,080 --> 00:17:46,080 and Hellenistic culture, which went on for several hundred years. 255 00:17:48,760 --> 00:17:51,240 And one result of that Greek invasion 256 00:17:51,240 --> 00:17:54,680 was the effect it had on the local legend of Buddhism, 257 00:17:54,680 --> 00:17:58,120 which now changed dramatically in its art and architecture. 258 00:18:01,280 --> 00:18:07,040 So in amongst these low-lying stone walls is a really complete example 259 00:18:07,040 --> 00:18:10,520 of an early Buddhist temple, 260 00:18:10,520 --> 00:18:12,960 which has all the hallmarks of Greek influence. 261 00:18:12,960 --> 00:18:14,640 You've got the stupa in the middle, 262 00:18:14,640 --> 00:18:16,520 the steps leading up to it, 263 00:18:16,520 --> 00:18:20,120 this motif here actually shows a double-headed eagle. 264 00:18:20,120 --> 00:18:23,560 You can see these beautifully carved acanthus leaves 265 00:18:23,560 --> 00:18:26,360 at the top of each of these columns. 266 00:18:26,360 --> 00:18:30,440 So all around in the detail, you can see the fusion, 267 00:18:30,440 --> 00:18:32,720 the Hellenistic influence, 268 00:18:32,720 --> 00:18:36,760 with the traditional, local religion of Buddhism. 269 00:18:38,600 --> 00:18:40,840 It's beautiful, actually. 270 00:18:46,120 --> 00:18:49,360 This, of course, is the path the devotee would taken, 271 00:18:49,360 --> 00:18:52,920 in a clockwise motion around the stupa, 272 00:18:52,920 --> 00:18:55,760 in the hope of accruing good karma, 273 00:18:55,760 --> 00:18:58,160 which is of course good for all of us. 274 00:19:02,920 --> 00:19:06,680 When the Greeks arrived, Buddhism had already been established for 275 00:19:06,680 --> 00:19:11,000 some centuries since the death of the Buddha himself in around 480 BC. 276 00:19:12,720 --> 00:19:15,240 But their arrival had a fundamental impact 277 00:19:15,240 --> 00:19:17,520 on the way the Buddha was now portrayed. 278 00:19:20,040 --> 00:19:23,520 Although we are used to seeing the Buddha represented 279 00:19:23,520 --> 00:19:26,960 in human form, in the very earliest manifestations 280 00:19:26,960 --> 00:19:30,840 he was actually represented by his absence. 281 00:19:30,840 --> 00:19:34,400 He was represented in symbolic form, like this magnificent footprint 282 00:19:34,400 --> 00:19:39,960 decorated with symbols of Buddhism, which celebrated 283 00:19:39,960 --> 00:19:45,080 aspects of the Buddha's life, rather than showing him in human form. 284 00:19:45,080 --> 00:19:47,400 And then something really interesting 285 00:19:47,400 --> 00:19:51,280 and dramatic starts to happen in this region after 286 00:19:51,280 --> 00:19:56,320 the invasion of Alexander the Great, and that is the representation 287 00:19:56,320 --> 00:20:00,480 of the Buddha as a real, living person in human form. 288 00:20:04,080 --> 00:20:07,440 It's hard to exaggerate how important a moment 289 00:20:07,440 --> 00:20:10,200 this was in the history of Buddhism. 290 00:20:10,200 --> 00:20:13,640 For the first time, the Buddha was given features. 291 00:20:13,640 --> 00:20:16,600 He had died too long before for anyone to remember what 292 00:20:16,600 --> 00:20:18,280 he really looked like, 293 00:20:18,280 --> 00:20:23,240 so the features he was given were idealised ones, and the new ideal 294 00:20:23,240 --> 00:20:27,320 came from this innovative Indo-Greek culture that took Buddhism 295 00:20:27,320 --> 00:20:29,600 from its home on the North Indian plain 296 00:20:29,600 --> 00:20:32,600 and embedded it onto a completely new form, 297 00:20:32,600 --> 00:20:35,840 one that we might find more recognisable today. 298 00:20:37,240 --> 00:20:40,960 Here are youthful Buddhas with hair arranged in wavy curls that 299 00:20:40,960 --> 00:20:43,680 resemble Greek sculptures of Apollo. 300 00:20:43,680 --> 00:20:47,680 The monastic robe covering both shoulders is arranged in 301 00:20:47,680 --> 00:20:51,320 heavy, naturalistic folds, reminiscent of a classical toga, 302 00:20:51,320 --> 00:20:54,480 and compared to other more rotund Buddhas, 303 00:20:54,480 --> 00:20:57,240 he has the toned body of a Greek athlete. 304 00:21:06,080 --> 00:21:09,840 To see more examples of this rare and early Buddhist art, 305 00:21:09,840 --> 00:21:12,800 I've been invited to a private museum with a fabulous collection 306 00:21:12,800 --> 00:21:17,840 that the same family has safeguarded for over seven generations. 307 00:21:17,840 --> 00:21:20,200 Hello. Hello. 308 00:21:20,200 --> 00:21:23,040 Nice to meet you. I've heard a lot about you. 309 00:21:23,040 --> 00:21:27,200 You're welcome to Fakir Khana Museum. Thank you, thank you. 310 00:21:27,200 --> 00:21:32,080 This is a very beautiful room. You want to have a look at my collection? 311 00:21:32,080 --> 00:21:33,960 Absolutely, that would be great. 312 00:21:42,200 --> 00:21:44,280 Wow. 313 00:21:44,280 --> 00:21:47,400 'It's a treasure trove of rare and wonderful objects gathered 314 00:21:47,400 --> 00:21:51,280 'from all the great civilisations that have arisen along the Indus. 315 00:21:52,760 --> 00:21:57,160 'Including the Indo-Greek culture inspired by Alexander's arrival, 316 00:21:57,160 --> 00:22:00,680 'that became known as Gandhara.' 317 00:22:00,680 --> 00:22:05,480 What's in here? It's... Goodness me. ..Gandhara. 318 00:22:05,480 --> 00:22:08,680 This Gandhara is in limestone. 319 00:22:08,680 --> 00:22:12,720 It has a Greek influence. Yep. Like this one. 320 00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:14,640 Why these Buddhas are so special, 321 00:22:14,640 --> 00:22:17,080 you know, why these Gandharas are so special, 322 00:22:17,080 --> 00:22:21,240 because the skills are so high. They have made beautiful faces. 323 00:22:21,240 --> 00:22:23,080 And look at this piece. 324 00:22:23,080 --> 00:22:27,520 It is a broken piece, but look at the beautiful smile of Buddha. 325 00:22:27,520 --> 00:22:30,000 His lips and smile, you know. 326 00:22:32,440 --> 00:22:35,400 OK, I'm going to show you something very special of my collection. 327 00:22:35,400 --> 00:22:37,080 It is a hidden collection, you know. 328 00:22:37,080 --> 00:22:39,800 I've never opened it for anybody else. Especially for today, 329 00:22:39,800 --> 00:22:41,560 I'm going to do it for you. 330 00:22:53,880 --> 00:22:56,320 The special thing I'm going to show you... 331 00:22:56,320 --> 00:22:59,680 no other museum has this kind of thing. 332 00:22:59,680 --> 00:23:02,120 This is the original ring of Raja Porus. 333 00:23:04,080 --> 00:23:07,480 Porus? Yes. As in the man... Who fought against... 334 00:23:07,480 --> 00:23:11,240 Alexander the Great in 326. Yeah. 335 00:23:11,240 --> 00:23:14,440 Gosh. This is done in pure silver. 336 00:23:14,440 --> 00:23:16,120 This is incredibly exciting, 337 00:23:16,120 --> 00:23:18,520 I'm actually holding the ring... Yes. 338 00:23:18,520 --> 00:23:21,080 ..worn by Porus. Yes. 339 00:23:21,080 --> 00:23:22,440 That's magnificent. 340 00:23:24,360 --> 00:23:26,240 Can I put it on? You may. 341 00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:31,600 You can see that the physiognomy is actually very different. Definitely. 342 00:23:31,600 --> 00:23:35,200 It's... Indic. Indic. Yeah. 343 00:23:35,200 --> 00:23:39,960 And he has the turban on his head, big earrings. 344 00:23:39,960 --> 00:23:45,280 Big earrings, everything, sunflower. And wearing the sunflower, yes. 345 00:23:45,280 --> 00:23:48,200 So how did you come across the ring of Porus? 346 00:23:48,200 --> 00:23:52,320 Don't ask me all these questions. Family secret. Family secret. 347 00:23:56,320 --> 00:23:58,160 HORNS BEEP FRANTICALLY 348 00:24:02,200 --> 00:24:04,680 This was not a one-way exchange in Gandhara. 349 00:24:04,680 --> 00:24:08,520 The Greeks themselves took gold, silver and Sindh cotton 350 00:24:08,520 --> 00:24:12,400 back to Europe, along what started to become a thriving trade route. 351 00:24:14,160 --> 00:24:18,760 But more importantly, they also took with them a myth and a name. 352 00:24:18,760 --> 00:24:21,760 The River Indus was the whole subcontinent for 353 00:24:21,760 --> 00:24:24,160 the European imagination, as India. 354 00:24:24,160 --> 00:24:26,600 And the stories that went back with Alexander and his men 355 00:24:26,600 --> 00:24:31,960 of a wild, fabulous place filled with mystics, seers and gold 356 00:24:31,960 --> 00:24:36,440 were to influence the European view of India for thousands of years. 357 00:24:38,840 --> 00:24:41,400 In some ways, you could say we are still unpicking 358 00:24:41,400 --> 00:24:44,280 the reality from that myth. 359 00:24:44,280 --> 00:24:47,440 For it was after the arrival of Alexander and the long 360 00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:52,280 Indo-Greek culture that followed that the idea of India was born. 361 00:24:56,240 --> 00:25:02,040 Alexander began his chaotic trek back to Europe in 325 BC, 362 00:25:02,040 --> 00:25:04,560 leaving behind him an Indo-Greek culture 363 00:25:04,560 --> 00:25:06,360 which took on a life of its own. 364 00:25:07,920 --> 00:25:10,640 It was a golden age for the growth of Buddhism. 365 00:25:14,920 --> 00:25:18,440 A great Buddhist monastery was built here in Taxila, 366 00:25:18,440 --> 00:25:20,160 at the crossroads of Asia. 367 00:25:22,040 --> 00:25:26,280 So this would have been the original living quarters of the monks, 368 00:25:26,280 --> 00:25:30,520 and you can see the cells all around the central courtyard, 369 00:25:30,520 --> 00:25:35,360 which would have been filled with water and overlain with lotuses. 370 00:25:35,360 --> 00:25:37,680 It would have been a very peaceful site. 371 00:25:41,280 --> 00:25:44,720 But I suppose the thing to remember is that this wasn't a 372 00:25:44,720 --> 00:25:49,120 closed monastic life in the way we think of it today. 373 00:25:49,120 --> 00:25:53,720 But actually this was a centre of learning, which was very open, 374 00:25:53,720 --> 00:25:57,560 very much like the great universities of the modern world. 375 00:25:59,960 --> 00:26:01,640 Students at the university 376 00:26:01,640 --> 00:26:03,560 came from Persia in the west, 377 00:26:03,560 --> 00:26:04,800 India to the south 378 00:26:04,800 --> 00:26:06,000 and from the north 379 00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:07,480 along the silk route. 380 00:26:07,480 --> 00:26:09,600 Perhaps most important of all came 381 00:26:09,600 --> 00:26:11,520 inquisitive Chinese pilgrims, 382 00:26:11,520 --> 00:26:12,520 many of whom who took 383 00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:14,200 Buddhist scriptures back with them 384 00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:15,240 to China. 385 00:26:17,560 --> 00:26:20,040 These were the monks' domestic quarters. 386 00:26:21,720 --> 00:26:24,960 Quite intimate little cells, actually very cool 387 00:26:24,960 --> 00:26:29,480 in the heat of the day, overshadowed by trees, surrounding trees. 388 00:26:29,480 --> 00:26:31,800 And two tiny little niches, 389 00:26:31,800 --> 00:26:36,000 one of which would perhaps have been for a candle and some prayer beads. 390 00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:39,440 And another one perhaps for Willie Dalrymple's latest novel. 391 00:26:41,280 --> 00:26:45,440 Having worked in centres of learning for most of my life, 392 00:26:45,440 --> 00:26:49,720 I actually find it really moving to think of the monks 393 00:26:49,720 --> 00:26:53,240 living and working here, transcribing Buddhist scriptures 394 00:26:53,240 --> 00:26:57,480 into manuscripts and preserving them over hundreds and hundreds of years. 395 00:26:59,480 --> 00:27:01,640 They've opened up the cell for me, so that I can see 396 00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:06,040 a replica of one of the finest of the Buddha statues, which survived 397 00:27:06,040 --> 00:27:09,680 intact for centuries because it was protected from the elements. 398 00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:16,000 Inside this quiet side chapel, tucked away in this corner... 399 00:27:17,840 --> 00:27:23,600 ..is this really beautiful, calm image of the Buddha seated in prayer 400 00:27:23,600 --> 00:27:28,680 The original has actually been removed to the museum at Taxila, 401 00:27:28,680 --> 00:27:32,440 but this was one of the Buddha images that Sir John Marshall 402 00:27:32,440 --> 00:27:38,000 was really moved by when he came upon it back in the 1930s. 403 00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:43,600 So you can see here how art began to be used to 404 00:27:43,600 --> 00:27:45,440 spread the message of Buddhism 405 00:27:45,440 --> 00:27:47,720 through the creation of sensuous form. 406 00:27:57,240 --> 00:28:00,360 I find it tragic that so many of the Buddha sculptures here have 407 00:28:00,360 --> 00:28:05,560 been vandalised and now need to be protected from Islamic extremists, 408 00:28:05,560 --> 00:28:08,360 while some heads have had to be removed to museums 409 00:28:08,360 --> 00:28:09,600 for their own safety. 410 00:28:28,560 --> 00:28:33,440 This really dramatic representation of the Buddha 411 00:28:33,440 --> 00:28:37,000 shows him during the six years he undertook fasting 412 00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:40,440 as part of his journey to reach nirvana. 413 00:28:40,440 --> 00:28:42,920 And you can see it is actually a complete 414 00:28:42,920 --> 00:28:45,960 masterpiece of Buddhist sculpture. 415 00:28:45,960 --> 00:28:49,640 It is made out of single piece of schist, and you can see how 416 00:28:49,640 --> 00:28:54,320 the full-bodied form has completely withered away 417 00:28:54,320 --> 00:28:58,640 and shown his ribs protruding, his arteries, his veins, 418 00:28:58,640 --> 00:29:00,560 the robes are slipping off him. 419 00:29:00,560 --> 00:29:03,160 And in particular, if you look at his face, 420 00:29:03,160 --> 00:29:07,320 the eyes are completely sunken. The cheeks are sallow, but there is 421 00:29:07,320 --> 00:29:10,760 a certain serenity to his expression. 422 00:29:10,760 --> 00:29:13,320 This is not the expression of a dying man, 423 00:29:13,320 --> 00:29:16,080 this is the expression of a man who is on a path, 424 00:29:16,080 --> 00:29:20,280 looking for something. If you look very carefully into his eyes, 425 00:29:20,280 --> 00:29:24,040 they are actually open, they are actually looking at you 426 00:29:24,040 --> 00:29:26,520 as you stand before him. 427 00:29:26,520 --> 00:29:30,360 And beneath you can see the narrative sequence, 428 00:29:30,360 --> 00:29:32,600 the story that tells that actually 429 00:29:32,600 --> 00:29:35,960 he realised this wasn't the way to enlightenment, 430 00:29:35,960 --> 00:29:39,800 and that he ended up begging for food to feed himself, 431 00:29:39,800 --> 00:29:42,160 and continued on his journey to nirvana. 432 00:29:52,840 --> 00:29:56,520 In other regions of South Asia, Buddhism ultimately survived 433 00:29:56,520 --> 00:30:00,280 only in small pockets, whereas this area surrounding 434 00:30:00,280 --> 00:30:04,720 the high Indus had a different kind of sacred landscape altogether. 435 00:30:04,720 --> 00:30:07,680 Here, more than 3,000 Buddhist institutions 436 00:30:07,680 --> 00:30:09,600 flourished across Gandhara. 437 00:30:11,680 --> 00:30:14,920 It is a very calm place to be here early in the morning 438 00:30:14,920 --> 00:30:16,680 in northern Pakistan. 439 00:30:18,400 --> 00:30:21,920 And there's a sense of sadness at how remote 440 00:30:21,920 --> 00:30:24,360 these sites are today. 441 00:30:24,360 --> 00:30:29,840 Given how important they were in transmitting this 442 00:30:29,840 --> 00:30:33,640 incredible world religion right across Asia. 443 00:30:33,640 --> 00:30:36,400 And the world has not only forgotten, but I suspect 444 00:30:36,400 --> 00:30:40,600 it doesn't really know that Buddhism, as we know it today, 445 00:30:40,600 --> 00:30:43,680 actually emanated from this part of the world, 446 00:30:43,680 --> 00:30:45,400 right here in Pakistan. 447 00:30:45,400 --> 00:30:49,280 And Pakistan gets a hard rap for exporting 448 00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:52,520 Islamic fundamentalism, which I think is really quite unfair 449 00:30:52,520 --> 00:30:56,200 and a very limited view of this rich country. 450 00:31:01,840 --> 00:31:04,560 So why was it that Buddhism spread from here 451 00:31:04,560 --> 00:31:06,360 to the four corners of Asia? 452 00:31:08,520 --> 00:31:09,880 Because this area of Pakistan 453 00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:13,360 was at the heart of one of the busiest trade routes in Asia, 454 00:31:13,360 --> 00:31:16,760 market towns like these exchanged art, ideas 455 00:31:16,760 --> 00:31:20,360 and cultural influence just as easily as they did 456 00:31:20,360 --> 00:31:22,920 textiles, ivory and spices. 457 00:31:22,920 --> 00:31:25,840 And as the merchant class grew more prosperous, 458 00:31:25,840 --> 00:31:29,440 they could afford to turn their attention to manufacturing. 459 00:31:34,360 --> 00:31:36,920 These images of the Buddha were being mass-produced to 460 00:31:36,920 --> 00:31:40,440 cater for expanding markets in the Far East. 461 00:31:40,440 --> 00:31:42,120 The irony is, of course, 462 00:31:42,120 --> 00:31:44,800 that a religion based on principles of austerity 463 00:31:44,800 --> 00:31:49,400 and rejection of the self, its ego and material wealth 464 00:31:49,400 --> 00:31:54,480 now found itself enveloped in decidedly commercial concerns. 465 00:32:03,400 --> 00:32:07,480 The craftsmen of Taxila have always known what sells. 466 00:32:07,480 --> 00:32:10,800 It may not be serene statues of the Buddha any more, 467 00:32:10,800 --> 00:32:15,120 but instead we've got shiny, glittering disco leopards, 468 00:32:15,120 --> 00:32:17,640 which would not look out of place in a Duran Duran video. 469 00:32:21,680 --> 00:32:25,080 The one other thing you see when you're travelling around Pakistan 470 00:32:25,080 --> 00:32:27,960 are these incredible bursts of colours, 471 00:32:27,960 --> 00:32:30,400 which are these painted trucks. 472 00:32:30,400 --> 00:32:34,080 And I'm here at the moment in a yard where they not only make 473 00:32:34,080 --> 00:32:39,760 the trucks and repair them, but also take great care to decorate them. 474 00:32:39,760 --> 00:32:42,840 It's slightly intimidating, it's a very male environment. 475 00:32:42,840 --> 00:32:46,280 There aren't any Page Three pin-ups, 476 00:32:46,280 --> 00:32:50,960 but what there are, are these magnificently-worked trucks. 477 00:32:50,960 --> 00:32:54,000 This is one of my absolute favourites. 478 00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:57,080 It's got all the scale of an American juggernaut, 479 00:32:57,080 --> 00:32:58,640 but look at the difference. 480 00:32:58,640 --> 00:33:04,560 Every inch of this vehicle has been decorated, painted, made colourful. 481 00:33:04,560 --> 00:33:08,280 It is glittering in the sunlight. Here, in the centre, 482 00:33:08,280 --> 00:33:11,040 you've got Father of the Nation, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, 483 00:33:11,040 --> 00:33:14,040 flanked by the Pakistani flag. 484 00:33:14,040 --> 00:33:19,360 And everywhere there is colour, symbols of fish, 485 00:33:19,360 --> 00:33:23,640 which they particularly like here because it gives them 486 00:33:23,640 --> 00:33:26,760 lots of opportunity to provide texture 487 00:33:26,760 --> 00:33:29,960 and colour and pattern. 488 00:33:29,960 --> 00:33:34,720 You don't see a lot of colour in what people wear. 489 00:33:34,720 --> 00:33:36,840 The men are dressed in quite earthy colours, 490 00:33:36,840 --> 00:33:39,120 and the woman may be brightly dressed, 491 00:33:39,120 --> 00:33:43,360 but many of them are covered in the veil, and then you see this 492 00:33:43,360 --> 00:33:48,160 incredible burst of colour along the road for everyone to enjoy. 493 00:33:48,160 --> 00:33:51,080 There's a lot of detail on the outside, 494 00:33:51,080 --> 00:33:53,520 there's these wonderful tassels. 495 00:33:53,520 --> 00:33:56,320 And then when you look on the inside, 496 00:33:56,320 --> 00:33:58,640 an absolute driver's boudoir. 497 00:34:00,680 --> 00:34:03,680 I wanted to have a look in one of the actual workshops, 498 00:34:03,680 --> 00:34:08,520 where a lot of the crafting of these designs actually takes place. 499 00:34:17,680 --> 00:34:20,040 I like to think that these skills 500 00:34:20,040 --> 00:34:23,000 are an echo of the Taxila craftsman of old. 501 00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:26,640 Their fine work with gold, silver and precious stones helped 502 00:34:26,640 --> 00:34:30,320 build ancient trade routes here, and thus the spread of Buddhism. 503 00:34:36,600 --> 00:34:40,160 Yet however successful abroad, by the eighth century, Buddhism had 504 00:34:40,160 --> 00:34:43,520 all put disappeared in Pakistan itself. 505 00:34:43,520 --> 00:34:46,360 So why is their virtually no trace of it in the country 506 00:34:46,360 --> 00:34:48,640 that was for so long its home? 507 00:34:52,040 --> 00:34:54,040 It's not in Pakistan but in China 508 00:34:54,040 --> 00:34:57,360 and the Far East that Gandharan civilisation 509 00:34:57,360 --> 00:35:01,880 made its greatest impact, and its influence can still be felt today. 510 00:35:03,560 --> 00:35:06,360 Through the early Chinese pilgrims that came here, 511 00:35:06,360 --> 00:35:10,880 Buddhism established a firm foothold in Imperial China. 512 00:35:10,880 --> 00:35:14,360 So it was natural that in later centuries Chinese monks would 513 00:35:14,360 --> 00:35:18,600 want to return to see the source of their Buddhism. 514 00:35:18,600 --> 00:35:21,520 What they found, however, left them saddened. 515 00:35:27,400 --> 00:35:30,840 By the time this monastery and stupa at Bombala were built, 516 00:35:30,840 --> 00:35:34,800 more than 500 years after Alexander, Buddhism in northwest India 517 00:35:34,800 --> 00:35:38,120 was being eclipsed by more intruders from Central Asia. 518 00:35:39,560 --> 00:35:43,800 For the stories of grandeur also brought a series of invaders, 519 00:35:43,800 --> 00:35:46,640 like the White Huns, upon the region, 520 00:35:46,640 --> 00:35:50,560 and eventually the grand city of Taxila was brought to its knees. 521 00:35:53,560 --> 00:35:55,120 In the seventh century, 522 00:35:55,120 --> 00:35:58,880 when the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang came to Taxila to find 523 00:35:58,880 --> 00:36:03,360 the source of the Buddhism that had transformed China, it lay desolate 524 00:36:03,360 --> 00:36:07,600 and in a state of half ruin, a mere shadow of its former glory. 525 00:36:13,400 --> 00:36:16,760 He described the monasteries as "filled with shrubs 526 00:36:16,760 --> 00:36:21,400 "and solitary to the last degree, wasted and desolate", 527 00:36:21,400 --> 00:36:25,600 and the monks as "indolent and given to indulgence and debauchery." 528 00:36:27,440 --> 00:36:31,240 And in some ways one could say the old tolerance of Taxila, 529 00:36:31,240 --> 00:36:34,560 the cosmopolitan university open to all faiths, 530 00:36:34,560 --> 00:36:37,320 also now lies in ruins. 531 00:36:43,960 --> 00:36:46,560 There's a lovely echo around the valley here, 532 00:36:46,560 --> 00:36:49,120 and you can just imagine how it would have sounded 533 00:36:49,120 --> 00:36:52,760 when all the Buddhist monks here would have been chanting. 534 00:36:59,360 --> 00:37:00,920 It does feel desolate. 535 00:37:00,920 --> 00:37:04,400 It feels like you've happened upon something that's hidden away 536 00:37:04,400 --> 00:37:08,640 that was once a great civilisation, 537 00:37:08,640 --> 00:37:11,960 much of it is still to be excavated, 538 00:37:11,960 --> 00:37:14,360 and there's a sense of desertion here, 539 00:37:14,360 --> 00:37:16,320 which is really quite poignant. 540 00:37:20,680 --> 00:37:23,840 There are real contemporary echoes today, 541 00:37:23,840 --> 00:37:28,160 in terms of the desecration of Buddhist monuments in Bamiyan 542 00:37:28,160 --> 00:37:32,120 and also in this region, by the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban. 543 00:37:38,200 --> 00:37:42,840 Greater Pakistan is probably confused by its Buddhist history, 544 00:37:42,840 --> 00:37:47,720 only because there's been a state-sponsored Islamic agenda here, 545 00:37:47,720 --> 00:37:53,680 which really denies the texture and longevity of this land, 546 00:37:53,680 --> 00:37:56,040 which was always a frontier province, 547 00:37:56,040 --> 00:38:00,600 it was always many different groups of people, and you can't 548 00:38:00,600 --> 00:38:06,440 really undo and unpick that complexity without leaving a vacuum. 549 00:38:18,800 --> 00:38:22,120 The invaders who destroyed the old Buddhist cultures were 550 00:38:22,120 --> 00:38:25,680 followed out of the Afghan mountains centuries later by more horsemen 551 00:38:25,680 --> 00:38:28,880 from the north, who brought with them a new religion. 552 00:38:32,200 --> 00:38:33,800 Islam. 553 00:38:33,800 --> 00:38:35,400 CALL TO PRAYER 554 00:38:37,600 --> 00:38:41,320 And to explore the Muslim legacy they left behind, I've come back 555 00:38:41,320 --> 00:38:42,800 to the city they founded, 556 00:38:42,800 --> 00:38:46,400 the cultural centre of modern Pakistan - Lahore. 557 00:38:48,400 --> 00:38:51,480 I've just arrived in Lahore, it's the middle of Eid, 558 00:38:51,480 --> 00:38:54,800 the greatest celebration - it's sort of Christmas, Easter 559 00:38:54,800 --> 00:38:56,680 and everything rolled into one. 560 00:38:56,680 --> 00:39:00,120 There's great excitement on the streets, children out playing, 561 00:39:00,120 --> 00:39:03,280 big national holiday, and it's just wonderful to be here. 562 00:39:13,120 --> 00:39:16,280 It's the best time of year in the Muslim calendar. 563 00:39:16,280 --> 00:39:19,000 Although perhaps not if you're a goat or a cow that's being 564 00:39:19,000 --> 00:39:20,680 fattened up for the occasion. 565 00:39:26,160 --> 00:39:28,360 CALL TO PRAYER 566 00:39:44,720 --> 00:39:46,560 I love being in this city. 567 00:39:46,560 --> 00:39:49,120 The sights, the smells, the sounds, it's like an assault 568 00:39:49,120 --> 00:39:52,080 on the senses, but it really, really brings you alive. 569 00:40:04,520 --> 00:40:09,320 Around 1000 AD, the Muslim sultan Mahmud of Ghazni gained control 570 00:40:09,320 --> 00:40:14,040 of the Indus Valley, and Lahore rose up as a great city under his rule. 571 00:40:15,480 --> 00:40:19,560 Scholars and poets gathered from as far away as Iraq and Samarkand 572 00:40:19,560 --> 00:40:23,560 and made Lahore a city of music and the arts. 573 00:40:23,560 --> 00:40:26,360 HE SINGS IN OWN LANGUAGE 574 00:40:26,360 --> 00:40:30,960 'Today, Ali Sethi typifies a younger group of Pakistani artists 575 00:40:30,960 --> 00:40:33,920 'who are rediscovering how much their country's past 576 00:40:33,920 --> 00:40:36,680 'still has to say to them.' 577 00:40:36,680 --> 00:40:39,800 Is there something about the fact that it's a song of suffering 578 00:40:39,800 --> 00:40:42,360 that draws people do it? Yeah, absolutely. 579 00:40:42,360 --> 00:40:44,440 Every person that I've ever heard singing it, 580 00:40:44,440 --> 00:40:48,680 like, sublimates or channels, whatever it is they're feeling, 581 00:40:48,680 --> 00:40:52,160 whatever pain or angst or, like, you know, 582 00:40:52,160 --> 00:40:54,760 achy emotion they're feeling, into this song. 583 00:40:54,760 --> 00:40:58,320 And I've heard, you know, traditional musicians, 584 00:40:58,320 --> 00:41:00,200 people you would call minstrels, 585 00:41:00,200 --> 00:41:03,840 singing it with tattered clothes at shrines in deserts, 586 00:41:03,840 --> 00:41:07,920 and I've heard kids in jeans and t-shirts, 587 00:41:07,920 --> 00:41:11,800 with joints in their hands, singing this, you know, 588 00:41:11,800 --> 00:41:16,400 with great feeling and fervour, and taking great ownership of it. 589 00:41:16,400 --> 00:41:21,000 And that seems to me to be a great miracle of life here, 590 00:41:21,000 --> 00:41:25,040 is that despite so much... 591 00:41:25,040 --> 00:41:28,760 truncation, and so much revisionism, 592 00:41:28,760 --> 00:41:32,240 you know, and so much loss of 593 00:41:32,240 --> 00:41:34,560 what ought to have been memorialised, 594 00:41:34,560 --> 00:41:37,040 there is still this... Persistence. 595 00:41:37,040 --> 00:41:41,120 ..persistence. This really amazing persistence of things that 596 00:41:41,120 --> 00:41:46,960 are ancient and that are very strong and that continue to live in us, 597 00:41:46,960 --> 00:41:49,200 and that we continue to, sort of, 598 00:41:49,200 --> 00:41:51,880 pour into newer forms, ever newer forms 599 00:41:51,880 --> 00:41:57,160 and styles and situations, and yet we're not conscious of those things. 600 00:41:57,160 --> 00:42:02,200 Politically, we are very young, and culturally we're very old. 601 00:42:02,200 --> 00:42:04,000 So what does that make us? 602 00:42:04,000 --> 00:42:06,880 Interesting. It makes Pakistan very interesting. 603 00:42:06,880 --> 00:42:09,160 I agree, I agree. 604 00:42:10,360 --> 00:42:13,400 THEY SING IN OWN LANGUAGE 605 00:42:17,640 --> 00:42:21,320 To see how Islam has lasted for 1,000 years in Lahore, 606 00:42:21,320 --> 00:42:23,200 I've come to this ancient shrine. 607 00:42:25,480 --> 00:42:28,640 Even though Taliban suicide bombers killed 42 worshipers 608 00:42:28,640 --> 00:42:31,920 here in 2010, the congregation still comes to praise Islam 609 00:42:31,920 --> 00:42:34,600 in verse, song and dance. 610 00:42:37,400 --> 00:42:41,200 You know, spiritual music is very powerful, 611 00:42:41,200 --> 00:42:46,360 and I think all the people who go to shrines, 612 00:42:46,360 --> 00:42:50,760 they lose themselves. 613 00:42:50,760 --> 00:42:53,040 It's like going into another space and... 614 00:42:53,040 --> 00:42:57,360 It's like a trance. It's a trance, it's the trance music. 615 00:42:57,360 --> 00:43:00,960 I've seen 500 people going into a trance for hours. 616 00:43:09,480 --> 00:43:12,920 You get caught up in the energy of it as well. There's a momentum. 617 00:43:12,920 --> 00:43:14,880 You get caught up in the energy, 618 00:43:14,880 --> 00:43:19,640 and the best thing is that they do it not alone. 619 00:43:19,640 --> 00:43:24,600 They're doing it with friends, and hundreds of them doing it. 620 00:43:24,600 --> 00:43:26,520 And it's like headbanging 621 00:43:26,520 --> 00:43:29,440 or something that you do at a rock concert. 622 00:43:29,440 --> 00:43:31,280 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 623 00:43:34,560 --> 00:43:36,320 SONG ENDS 624 00:43:46,280 --> 00:43:49,880 By the 10th century, Lahore was being described as a place 625 00:43:49,880 --> 00:43:54,360 with impressive palaces, large markets and huge orchards. 626 00:43:56,600 --> 00:43:58,480 500 years later, 627 00:43:58,480 --> 00:44:02,040 this thriving cultural hub of a city became a natural choice 628 00:44:02,040 --> 00:44:06,560 for a capital for the greatest of Muslim connoisseurs - the Mughals. 629 00:44:08,160 --> 00:44:10,680 For this is where Islam from Persia met 630 00:44:10,680 --> 00:44:15,480 the land beyond the Indus, to recreate a paradise on earth. 631 00:44:17,720 --> 00:44:20,880 Lahore is often described as the city of gardens, 632 00:44:20,880 --> 00:44:23,400 of gardens watered by the Indus. 633 00:44:26,040 --> 00:44:29,720 The city reached the peak of its glory during the Mughal rule. 634 00:44:29,720 --> 00:44:31,840 Not only did they build lavish monuments 635 00:44:31,840 --> 00:44:35,200 and splendid gardens, they bestowed upon Lahore 636 00:44:35,200 --> 00:44:37,760 customs and traditions that have echoed down the ages. 637 00:44:43,560 --> 00:44:46,760 And it's Islam which is often credited with introducing 638 00:44:46,760 --> 00:44:49,240 a new concept to Pakistan, 639 00:44:49,240 --> 00:44:50,840 the concept of purdah. 640 00:44:56,280 --> 00:44:59,560 Purdah or purd-ah was originally a Persian word 641 00:44:59,560 --> 00:45:01,920 that came to India with the Mughals, 642 00:45:01,920 --> 00:45:07,080 and means veil or curtain, and was a way for a wife to show 643 00:45:07,080 --> 00:45:09,680 complete loyalty to her husband. 644 00:45:09,680 --> 00:45:13,040 Eventually it was also taken up by high-class Hindu woman 645 00:45:13,040 --> 00:45:15,520 as a form of protection. 646 00:45:15,520 --> 00:45:20,160 Previously in the subcontinent, all women were uncovered 647 00:45:20,160 --> 00:45:21,920 from the waist up, 648 00:45:21,920 --> 00:45:26,160 as we've seen previously in the Dancing Girl of Mohenjo-daro. 649 00:45:26,160 --> 00:45:30,200 And here we have these wonderful architectural metaphors 650 00:45:30,200 --> 00:45:34,000 for the veil in these jali screens, 651 00:45:34,000 --> 00:45:36,840 which would have been a way to separate the women from the 652 00:45:36,840 --> 00:45:41,040 world outside, but also for them to create their own world within. 653 00:45:41,040 --> 00:45:43,240 So what lay behind these walls was 654 00:45:43,240 --> 00:45:45,720 often very intriguing to the commoner. 655 00:45:45,720 --> 00:45:50,720 The politics of the harem was much more complex than we might imagine. 656 00:45:55,800 --> 00:45:58,800 Nowhere can this be seen better than in the relationship 657 00:45:58,800 --> 00:46:03,760 between the Mughal emperor Jahangir and his charismatic wife Nur Jahan. 658 00:46:03,760 --> 00:46:07,720 MUSIC: Wonderwall by Ryan Adams 659 00:46:07,720 --> 00:46:11,920 Born on a caravan travelling from Tehran to India, 660 00:46:11,920 --> 00:46:16,320 she became the last but most beloved wife of the Emperor. 661 00:46:16,320 --> 00:46:21,080 Jahangir's two brothers had died of alcoholism and, as Crown Prince, 662 00:46:21,080 --> 00:46:23,000 he was not much better himself, 663 00:46:23,000 --> 00:46:24,880 being heavily addicted to opium. 664 00:46:26,840 --> 00:46:28,520 So when he came to the throne, 665 00:46:28,520 --> 00:46:31,280 he depended completely on his favourite wife to run 666 00:46:31,280 --> 00:46:35,520 the kingdom, while he built rock star extravaganzas like this - 667 00:46:35,520 --> 00:46:38,960 a minaret in which to keep one of his favourite pet deer. 668 00:46:38,960 --> 00:46:41,280 It's perhaps a little unfair to 669 00:46:41,280 --> 00:46:46,080 think of Jahangir as the Noel Gallagher of the Mughal Empire, 670 00:46:46,080 --> 00:46:49,120 because, despite being a playboy, 671 00:46:49,120 --> 00:46:51,920 he had many other qualities. 672 00:46:51,920 --> 00:46:56,360 This was, of course, the long summer of the Mughal Empire, 673 00:46:56,360 --> 00:46:59,240 and in that time he patronised the arts, 674 00:46:59,240 --> 00:47:04,480 he built beautiful buildings and he was a very just emperor. 675 00:47:04,480 --> 00:47:06,520 And he had Nur Jahan by his side, 676 00:47:06,520 --> 00:47:13,400 with whom he had this complex, romantic, intimate relationship, 677 00:47:13,400 --> 00:47:17,680 which involved, obviously, love, but also political power, 678 00:47:17,680 --> 00:47:20,880 and in a sense they ruled the empire together. 679 00:47:35,760 --> 00:47:40,240 Just a step behind the magnificent public balcony where the Emperor sat 680 00:47:40,240 --> 00:47:46,120 to give audience is this darker chamber, which was actually 681 00:47:46,120 --> 00:47:49,080 the nerve centre of power. 682 00:47:49,080 --> 00:47:52,560 And who was here? It was Nur Jahan, his beloved wife, the Empress, 683 00:47:52,560 --> 00:47:53,960 the Mughal empress. 684 00:47:53,960 --> 00:47:58,280 And she actually held a lot of power in the Mughal court 685 00:47:58,280 --> 00:48:00,160 and made many of the decisions. 686 00:48:00,160 --> 00:48:02,840 So she was effectively standing just over his shoulder 687 00:48:02,840 --> 00:48:05,280 whispering in his ear, directing him 688 00:48:05,280 --> 00:48:09,280 while he was holding court to his public just beyond. 689 00:48:13,280 --> 00:48:17,560 So this series of chambers, private chambers, 690 00:48:17,560 --> 00:48:22,120 was actually built for Nur Jahan by Jahangir, 691 00:48:22,120 --> 00:48:27,360 and she traversed these spaces in privacy, 692 00:48:27,360 --> 00:48:31,640 but completely connected to the public government 693 00:48:31,640 --> 00:48:36,680 imperial decisions that he was making just a few feet away. 694 00:48:36,680 --> 00:48:40,720 So, despite the dust and graffiti of centuries, 695 00:48:40,720 --> 00:48:44,840 including King Jahangir's phone number, 696 00:48:44,840 --> 00:48:47,120 you can really get a sense of how magnificent 697 00:48:47,120 --> 00:48:51,120 these private quarters would have been. 698 00:48:51,120 --> 00:48:54,480 I mean, there's still a lot of intricate paintwork 699 00:48:54,480 --> 00:48:55,880 to be seen down here, 700 00:48:55,880 --> 00:48:59,640 and there's an image of the sun-god right in the centre up there. 701 00:49:03,840 --> 00:49:07,600 So you have to imagine that these internal chambers would have 702 00:49:07,600 --> 00:49:09,720 been really sumptuous. 703 00:49:09,720 --> 00:49:11,440 The floors were laid with marble, 704 00:49:11,440 --> 00:49:15,440 they would have been covered with Persian and Mughal carpets, 705 00:49:15,440 --> 00:49:19,800 and the walls would have been very, very colourful, 706 00:49:19,800 --> 00:49:23,560 a rich palette of colours, which would have painted the stuccowork. 707 00:49:23,560 --> 00:49:27,560 And here in particular, you see a very Persian motif of the 708 00:49:27,560 --> 00:49:30,520 vase of flowers, which, of course, 709 00:49:30,520 --> 00:49:34,120 the Mughals brought with them to India. 710 00:49:35,400 --> 00:49:37,840 I particularly love this space 711 00:49:37,840 --> 00:49:42,600 because if you look up, the ceiling is covered with mirrors. 712 00:49:42,600 --> 00:49:46,240 And there's also a little bit of restoration work that's taken place 713 00:49:46,240 --> 00:49:48,880 which shows you the depth of colour 714 00:49:48,880 --> 00:49:51,680 that actually there would have been 715 00:49:51,680 --> 00:49:53,720 during the time that Nur Jahan would 716 00:49:53,720 --> 00:49:56,000 have been walking through these rooms. 717 00:49:56,000 --> 00:50:00,200 And there are remnants, still, of gold paint and blue, 718 00:50:00,200 --> 00:50:04,680 to be seen on the stuccowork above the doorway here. 719 00:50:04,680 --> 00:50:09,480 And if you imagine that all of this Technicolor would have been, 720 00:50:09,480 --> 00:50:11,480 with the lighting, 721 00:50:11,480 --> 00:50:14,440 would have shone off and reflected from the mirrors 722 00:50:14,440 --> 00:50:18,080 that are overhead. This really would have been a sumptuous 723 00:50:18,080 --> 00:50:20,520 interior chamber for the Empress Nur Jahan. 724 00:50:24,120 --> 00:50:28,280 Her grip on the reins of imperial power was absolute. 725 00:50:28,280 --> 00:50:31,680 But such were the rules of purdah, that no other men ever got to see 726 00:50:31,680 --> 00:50:36,240 her face. Not even, bizarrely, the artist who painted her portrait. 727 00:50:38,080 --> 00:50:43,040 So, Salima, this is a very intimate image of the private quarters... 728 00:50:43,040 --> 00:50:44,680 Yes. 729 00:50:44,680 --> 00:50:46,240 ..of a high-class lady. 730 00:50:46,240 --> 00:50:49,760 Yes, and preparing herself for her toilette, 731 00:50:49,760 --> 00:50:52,520 and obviously preparing herself for something important. 732 00:50:52,520 --> 00:50:56,120 And when you consider that it is invariably a male artist who 733 00:50:56,120 --> 00:50:59,840 is doing this and with no access... 734 00:50:59,840 --> 00:51:02,480 So there would have been no access, certainly not this kind? 735 00:51:02,480 --> 00:51:04,240 Absolutely. No, no. 736 00:51:04,240 --> 00:51:07,200 No access at all. So this is kind of second-hand information which 737 00:51:07,200 --> 00:51:10,040 was fed to the artist and presumably... 738 00:51:10,040 --> 00:51:11,720 Through who? 739 00:51:11,720 --> 00:51:13,880 Presumably through the informants. 740 00:51:16,520 --> 00:51:18,960 So there's a lot of imagination, 741 00:51:18,960 --> 00:51:23,040 a little bit of fantasy, which is involved in this. 742 00:51:23,040 --> 00:51:26,480 But then the other ways in which, presumably, 743 00:51:26,480 --> 00:51:29,160 they got to know what women did, what they got up to. 744 00:51:29,160 --> 00:51:31,880 So you find you do have works... I mean, for example, 745 00:51:31,880 --> 00:51:35,480 that one, in which there's a rival life 746 00:51:35,480 --> 00:51:38,640 going on in the women's quarters. 747 00:51:38,640 --> 00:51:40,560 Amongst the women themselves. 748 00:51:40,560 --> 00:51:43,400 Yeah, and they are enjoying themselves. 749 00:51:43,400 --> 00:51:46,400 They have some of the same pastimes as men, actually. 750 00:51:46,400 --> 00:51:48,960 They're smoking, they're... Drinking. 751 00:51:48,960 --> 00:51:52,120 Uh, I don't know whether they were drinking the same things, 752 00:51:52,120 --> 00:51:54,960 but presumably they were having a jolly good time. 753 00:52:02,720 --> 00:52:05,720 Jahangir's reign was a golden age that only came to an end 754 00:52:05,720 --> 00:52:07,680 with his death in 1627. 755 00:52:09,680 --> 00:52:13,440 The tomb that was built for him was magnificent in its ostentation. 756 00:52:19,280 --> 00:52:22,920 The building was clad in zigzags of white and yellow marble, 757 00:52:22,920 --> 00:52:27,120 and there was once an ornate pavilion built here on the roof. 758 00:52:29,040 --> 00:52:33,360 But not far away is the much smaller mausoleum of Nur Jahan. 759 00:52:35,320 --> 00:52:38,240 She had tried to intervene with Jahangir's succession, 760 00:52:38,240 --> 00:52:43,120 and as a consequence was confined to Lahore for the rest of her days. 761 00:52:43,120 --> 00:52:48,200 She lies not alongside the love of her life, but beside her daughter, 762 00:52:48,200 --> 00:52:51,400 in an unassuming tomb she had to build for herself. 763 00:52:55,840 --> 00:53:00,560 She left a message that expresses her sorrow. 764 00:53:00,560 --> 00:53:03,000 Nobody would come to light a lamp, 765 00:53:03,000 --> 00:53:07,600 no moths would come to burn their wings on such lamps, 766 00:53:07,600 --> 00:53:11,760 and no cuckoos would even sing within the tombs 767 00:53:11,760 --> 00:53:14,520 of Nur Jahan and her daughter. 768 00:53:28,120 --> 00:53:31,680 But to remember Nur Jahan best, I've been allowed to 769 00:53:31,680 --> 00:53:34,760 return to the beautiful Palace Of Mirrors in the 770 00:53:34,760 --> 00:53:37,280 women's quarters of the Lahore Fort, 771 00:53:37,280 --> 00:53:40,040 at night, when it's empty and deserted. 772 00:53:51,600 --> 00:53:55,440 This surely is her true spiritual resting place - 773 00:53:55,440 --> 00:53:57,440 as a woman who patronised the arts 774 00:53:57,440 --> 00:54:02,880 and helped make Lahore a glittering centre for artists and writers. 775 00:54:02,880 --> 00:54:04,520 As it still is. 776 00:54:08,120 --> 00:54:10,960 OVERLAPPING CHATTER 777 00:54:12,560 --> 00:54:15,920 THEY SPEAK OWN LANGUAGE 778 00:54:15,920 --> 00:54:17,680 Hi, I'm Sona. 779 00:54:17,680 --> 00:54:20,760 Hello, how are you? 780 00:54:20,760 --> 00:54:23,840 Lahore is a very spiritual city 781 00:54:23,840 --> 00:54:27,160 because here you find all the arts. 782 00:54:28,680 --> 00:54:33,040 It is also a city of music and of politics. 783 00:54:40,680 --> 00:54:42,400 If this wasn't a dry country, 784 00:54:42,400 --> 00:54:44,960 I could have sworn there was something in this orange juice, 785 00:54:44,960 --> 00:54:48,880 but it's at parties like this that you can really sense that 786 00:54:48,880 --> 00:54:53,880 visual artists, writers, poets in Pakistan today are 787 00:54:53,880 --> 00:54:57,160 really engaging with the rich cultural past 788 00:54:57,160 --> 00:54:59,520 and unpicking it and exposing it, 789 00:54:59,520 --> 00:55:03,880 and exploring it, to reveal that this isn't just a country 790 00:55:03,880 --> 00:55:07,720 with a 50-year Islamic history, but something much, much deeper. 791 00:55:07,720 --> 00:55:11,840 So what I've done is... She has raised all the funding. 792 00:55:11,840 --> 00:55:15,440 One of the artists at the party has produced a work that has 793 00:55:15,440 --> 00:55:17,600 become famous and which explores the tensions 794 00:55:17,600 --> 00:55:20,720 between old and new Pakistan, 795 00:55:20,720 --> 00:55:23,160 and its relationship with the West. 796 00:55:24,600 --> 00:55:28,640 I've been particularly drawn to this remarkable series 797 00:55:28,640 --> 00:55:31,120 that you did called The Veil. 798 00:55:31,120 --> 00:55:34,480 Can you tell me, firstly, what inspired you? 799 00:55:34,480 --> 00:55:38,640 What was the moment that made you choose this subject? 800 00:55:40,040 --> 00:55:46,720 I was intrigued to see in this post-9/11 period, to see 801 00:55:46,720 --> 00:55:51,600 Western media in particular, whenever there was a mention of 802 00:55:51,600 --> 00:55:55,240 a Muslim country, it will be referenced 803 00:55:55,240 --> 00:55:58,320 with the image of a veiled woman. 804 00:55:58,320 --> 00:56:02,400 So, in a way, I think it kind of reduces 805 00:56:02,400 --> 00:56:07,000 the representation of women from a certain part of the world, 806 00:56:07,000 --> 00:56:11,640 which made me think of another simplification of the woman 807 00:56:11,640 --> 00:56:17,160 in the minds of the men, especially, from the non-Western world, 808 00:56:17,160 --> 00:56:19,480 because of their exposure to pornography. 809 00:56:21,320 --> 00:56:26,120 So in this work Rashid has used this process of photomontage, 810 00:56:26,120 --> 00:56:28,920 where, when you enter the room, 811 00:56:28,920 --> 00:56:31,880 you encounter one particular image 812 00:56:31,880 --> 00:56:35,920 which on this occasion is a series of burqa-clad women, 813 00:56:35,920 --> 00:56:38,560 completely veiled, including the face. 814 00:56:38,560 --> 00:56:40,320 And then when you come in closer, 815 00:56:40,320 --> 00:56:43,600 you're opened up to a whole other landscape. 816 00:56:43,600 --> 00:56:47,560 The pixelations are tiny images of pornography, 817 00:56:47,560 --> 00:56:49,920 which are captured from the internet, 818 00:56:49,920 --> 00:56:53,560 and widely disseminated all over the world. 819 00:56:53,560 --> 00:56:57,120 So he's playing on that idea of contradictions 820 00:56:57,120 --> 00:57:00,680 of the perceptions that we have in this apparent distinctions 821 00:57:00,680 --> 00:57:04,160 between what goes on in the East and the West. 822 00:57:08,320 --> 00:57:11,680 Pakistan has a population of over 200 million people, 823 00:57:11,680 --> 00:57:16,440 greater than Russia. Its position at the crossroads of Asia 824 00:57:16,440 --> 00:57:19,320 makes it crucial to world politics. 825 00:57:19,320 --> 00:57:21,640 And yet my journey through the country has been 826 00:57:21,640 --> 00:57:26,720 a reminder of how little outsiders know about its complicated past, 827 00:57:26,720 --> 00:57:28,600 and equally complicated present. 828 00:57:29,720 --> 00:57:33,600 Today, Pakistan is searching for its identity. 829 00:57:33,600 --> 00:57:38,000 Not because it doesn't have one, but because this civilisation, 830 00:57:38,000 --> 00:57:43,160 this 5,000-year-old civilisation, is so textured and multilayered. 831 00:57:43,160 --> 00:57:47,800 And some of that history is shared and contested with 832 00:57:47,800 --> 00:57:50,320 its neighbour India, but a lot of isn't, 833 00:57:50,320 --> 00:57:54,160 because this was always a frontier land between India to the south, 834 00:57:54,160 --> 00:57:59,880 China to the North, Afghanistan, Iran and Ancient Babylon and Greece. 835 00:57:59,880 --> 00:58:04,440 And running through this, like an artery, nourishing civilisations 836 00:58:04,440 --> 00:58:07,880 that have lived here, has been the River Indus. 837 00:58:10,640 --> 00:58:14,200 In the next episode of Treasures Of The Indus, I'll explore 838 00:58:14,200 --> 00:58:17,200 what happened when the Islamic conquerors who swept into 839 00:58:17,200 --> 00:58:22,920 Lahore in the 16th century travelled even farther down into India, 840 00:58:22,920 --> 00:58:25,240 when the Islam of the Mughals collided 841 00:58:25,240 --> 00:58:27,200 with the kingdoms of Hindustan 842 00:58:27,200 --> 00:58:30,040 and created some of the finest architecture 843 00:58:30,040 --> 00:58:31,760 the world has ever seen.