FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   527   528   529   530   531   532   533   534   535   536   537   538   539   540   541   542   543   544   545   546   547   548   549   550   551  
552   553   554   555   556   557   558   559   560   561   562   563   564   565   566   567   568   569   570   571   572   573   574   575   576   >>   >|  
n A.D. 630, and was verified by the officers above named, who discovered other Buddhist caves and excavations in the valleys of the Balkhab and Sarikol. [v.03 p.0304] Still vaster than these was a recumbent figure, 2 m. east of Bamian, representing Sakya Buddha entering _Nirv[=a]na_, _i.e._ in act of death. This was "about 1000 ft. in length." No traces of this are alluded to by modern travellers, but in all likelihood it was only formed of rubble plastered (as is the case still with such _Nirv[=a]na_ figures in Indo-China) and of no durability. For a city so notable Bamian has a very obscure history. It does not seem possible to identify it with any city in classical geography; _Alexandria ad Caucasum_ it certainly was not. The first known mention of it seems to be that by Hsuan-Tsang, at a time when apparently it had already passed its meridian, and was the head of one of the small states into which the empire of the White Huns had broken up. At a later period Bamian was for half a century, ending A.D. 1214, the seat of a branch of the Ghori dynasty, ruling over Tokharistan, or the basin of the Upper Oxus. The place was long besieged, and finally annihilated (1222) by Jenghiz Khan, whose wrath was exasperated at the death of a favourite grandson by an arrow from its walls. There appears to be no further record of Bamian as a city; but the character of ruins at Ghulgulah agrees with traditions on the spot in indicating that the city must have been rebuilt after the time of the Mongols and again perished. In 1840, during the British occupation of Kabul, Bamian was the scene of an action in which Colonel William H. Dennie with a small force routed Dost Mahommed Khan, accompanied by a number of Uzbeg chiefs. See Hon. M. G. Talbot, "The Rock-cut Caves and Statues of Bamian," _Journal R. Austral. Soc._ vol. xviii. part 3; and J. A. Gray, _At the Court of the Amir_ (1895). (T. H. H.*) BAMPTON, JOHN (_c._ 1690-1751), English divine, was a member of Trinity College, Oxford, where he graduated M.A. in 1712, and for some time canon of Salisbury. He died on the 2nd of June 1751, aged 61. His will directs that eight lectures shall be delivered annually at Oxford in the University Church on as many Sunday mornings in full term, "between the commencement of the last month in Lent term and the end of the third week in Act term, upon either of the following subjects:--to confirm and establish the Christian faith, and to confute
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   527   528   529   530   531   532   533   534   535   536   537   538   539   540   541   542   543   544   545   546   547   548   549   550   551  
552   553   554   555   556   557   558   559   560   561   562   563   564   565   566   567   568   569   570   571   572   573   574   575   576   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Bamian
 
Oxford
 

William

 

action

 

Colonel

 

Dennie

 

subjects

 

British

 

occupation

 

confirm


routed
 

number

 
accompanied
 

chiefs

 

Mahommed

 

establish

 
appears
 

record

 
character
 

Ghulgulah


grandson

 

favourite

 

confute

 
agrees
 

traditions

 

Mongols

 

Christian

 

perished

 
rebuilt
 

indicating


University

 

graduated

 

Church

 

divine

 
English
 

member

 

Sunday

 

College

 
Trinity
 

Salisbury


delivered

 

directs

 
annually
 

mornings

 

Austral

 
Journal
 

Statues

 

Talbot

 

BAMPTON

 

commencement