NVERSATION WITH PRAVEE
PESHAWAR, Jan 7: Research workers at the Directorate of Archaeology
and Museums have finished the compilation of 2,736 objects from the
Gandhara period which were lying in the store, and had not been
displayed for decades.

Director of Archaeology and Museums, Prof Ihsan Ali, said that
Peshawar Museum, established in 1906 was not spacious enough to
exhibit a the large number of Gandhara artifacts in its collection.
The items, accumulated during various excavations from 1905 had been
kept in the store.

"These objects were displayed from time to time but for lack of
place they were put in the stores as other items took their place in
the museum", Mr Ihsan said.

Presently, in the three-storeyed building, a whole section is given
over to objects depicting the "Life of Buddha" and the "Jatakas" or
the pre-birth stories of Buddha.

"There are total 10 Jatakas in the world and the Peshawar Museum has
five of them", Prof Ihsan said. There is problem of space in the
building. The museum is rich in Buddhist collection which is
displayed in Victoria Hall where as the upper two galleries,
constructed in 60s and 70s, were used for displaying ethnological,
tribal and the Islamic collection.

The construction work on a building, an exact copy of the old
Victorian style Peshawar Museum building was started almost seven
months ago which would be completed by June 2004 and the provincial
government had sanctioned almost Rs 8 million for the project this
year.

"The provincial government had allocated around Rs 33.112 million
for this project," Prof. Ihsan said. "The directorate also plans to
revamp the museum. The old building will exclusively be used for the
Gandhara period and the new building will be used for displaying and
storing items systematically and a laboratory will be set up in the
new building", he added.

The directorate is also planning to publish catalogues about its
collection, Prof Ihsan told Dawn. "The items including statues,
individual figures from the Gandhara period, almost 200 stucco
figures and items depicting Chinese and Greek influences, and
computerised data about the stored items will very soon be put up on
a website," added researcher Ayaz Khan. The directorate has also
planned to establish museums at Charsadda, Hund and Gor Khatthri
(Peshawar City).