Gandhara, the ancient name for the region around modern Peshawar in northern Pakistan, was of pivotal importance in the production of Buddhist texts and art in the first centuries CE. Since the mid-nineteenth century, excavations of Gandharan monastery sites have revolutionized the study of early Buddhism. Among the treasures unearthed are hundreds of reliquaries--containers housing relics of the Buddha.

This volume combines art history, Buddhist history, ancient Indian history, archaeology, epigraphy, linguistics, and numismatics to clarify the significance and function of these reliquaries. The story begins with the Buddha's last days, his death and funerary arrangements, and the distribution of the cremated remains, which initiated a relic cult. Chapters describe Gandharan reliquary types and subgroups, the archaeological and historical significance of collections, and the paleographic and linguistic interpretation of the inscriptions on the reliquaries.

The 400 reliquaries illustrated and surveyed are from museums and private collections in Pakistan, India, Japan, Europe, and North America. Stone is the primary material of construction, along with bronze, gold, and silver. Shapes range from spherical and cylindrical to miniature stupas, a configuration that provides valuable information about the history of this Buddhist monumental form.

David Jongeward is a visiting scholar at the Asian Institute, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto. Elizabeth Errington is curator of the Charles Masson Project, British Museum Department of Coins and Medals. Richard Salomon is professor of Asian languages and literature at the University of Washington. Stefan Baums is assistant adjunct professor of South and Southeast Asian studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and a research fellow at the School of Asian Studies, Leiden University.

The book discusses and catalogues Charles Masson’s 1833–8 collections from the urban site of Begram and Kabul bazaar. It utilises Masson archival material which appears as a supplementary BM online publication The Charles Masson Archive: British Library, British Museum and Other Documents Relating to the 1832–1838 Masson Collection from Afghanistan: http://www.britishmuseum.org/pdf/Masson%20archive%20Vol.%202.pdf The catalogued objects will be selected from c. 7600 coins and c. 1500 artefacts from Begram and Kabul bazaar now in the British Museum, supplemented by illustrated coins recorded in Masson's archival manuscripts (F526/1a) and in H.H. Wilson (Ariana Antiqua London 1841), but no longer in the collection. A key resource will be the records and images of all the artefacts already available on the Museum’s Collection online database: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx?searchText=Charles+Masson