Nagara (ancient city)

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Map marking the extent of ancient Nagarahara according to the work of William Simpson[1]

Nagara (

Indus, in present-day Afghanistan. The site of Nagara is usually associated with a large stupa called Nagara Ghundi, about 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) west of Jalalabad near Tepe Khwaja Lahori, south of the junction of the Surkhäb and Kabul rivers, where ancient ruins have been found.[4]

Dionysopolis and Nysa

From the second name which Ptolemy has preserved, Dionysopolis, we are led to believe that this is the same place as Nysa (Νύσα) or Nyssa (Νύσσα), which, according to ancient historians, was spared from plunder and destruction by Alexander the Great because the inhabitants asserted that it had been founded by Dionysus, when he conquered the area and he named the city Nysa and the land Nysaea (Νυσαία) after his nurse and also he named the mountain near the city, Meron (Μηρὸν) (i.e. thigh), because he grew in the thigh of Zeus.[5][6][7]

When Alexander arrived at the city, together with his

vines which were on the mountain they would feel home sick or they will recover their taste for wine after they had become accustomed to water only, so he decided to make his vow and sacrifice to Dionysus at the foot of the mountain.[8]

Greco-Bactrian settlement

Nagahara, the ancient Capital of the Jellalabad region, Simpson 1881

Archaeologist

Greco-Bactrian cities of Ai-Khanoum and Takht-i Sangin, Greek populations were established in the plains of Jalalabad, which included Hadda, around the Hellenistic city of Dionysopolis, and that they were responsible for the Greco-Buddhist creations of Tapa Shotor in the 2nd century CE.[9]

See also

Notes

  1. Greco-Roman geography, the Ganges river divided the known area of the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia into India intra Gangem and India extra Gangem, each roughly corresponding to the peninsular region of South Asia
    and mainland Southeast Asia respectively.

References

  1. .
  2. ^ Ptolemy. The Geography. Vol. 7.1.43.
  3. .
  4. ^ "Afghanistan Significant Site 155. Nagara Ghundi". www.cemml.colostate.edu.
  5. ^ Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander, 5.1
  6. ^ a b Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander, 5.2
  7. ^ Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 6.23.5
  8. ^ Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana, 2.10
  9. ^ Tarzi, Zémaryalai (24 February 2001). "Le site ruiné de Hadda". In Marigo, V. (ed.). Afghanistan. Patrimoine en péril. Actes d'une journée d'étude (in French). p. 63.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainSmith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "Nagara". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.