Abstract
The innumerable ancient remains-stupas, monasteries, viharas, forts, castles, rock inscriptions, painted shelters and stelae are scattered in the plains and the hilly slopes all over the valley. The archaeological materials from these sites bear testimony of its cultural relations with the East and West. Several hundred archaeological sites spanning 5000 years of history speak about this.This paper wills also focuses on the phenomenon of Taliban movement emerged in the Swat valley since 2006. The author will try to underscore Taliban insurgency in Swat and its impacts on the Buddhist legacy (rock relief’s, engraving, painted shelters, inscriptions, stupas& monasteries) of the Swat valley. It will highlight the Buddhist period treasury and the cultural wealth of area and would expose the damage caused by the militants. The basic theme of this paper is to appraise the efforts made by militants for destruction of past glory of the Swat valley. This paper concentrates on the discovery of about 100 rock art sites, including carvings, petroglyphs, painting and inscriptions in the Swat valley. Tremendous concentration of Buddhist period reliefs, petroglyphs and inscriptions have been documented in successive campaigns by the indigenous and foreign scholars (Stein 1930; Faccenna et al. 1993:257;Ashraf Khan 1994: 455;Ashraf Khan 1996; Filigenzi 2006; Filigenzi 2014; Olivieri 1993: 257; Olivieri 1994: 467; Olivieri et al.1994: 333; Olivieri & Vidale 2002: 173; Olivieri & Vidale 2004: 121; Olivieri 2005: 215;Olivieri & Vidale 2005: 445; Olivieri & Vidale 2006:73; Olivieri 2008:15; Olivieri 2010:13; Olivieri 2011: 123; Olivieri 2012: 1;Olivieri 2012:185; Olivieri 2015; Olivieri 2016: 20). The connection between China and ancient Udiyana across the hanging passages is well attested in Chinese sources (Tucci 1958: 279).