BÂMIÂN, a once renowned city in the territory now subject to the Afghans, in 34° 50' N. lat., 67° 44' E. long. Its remains lie in a valley of the Hazara country, on the chief road from Kâbul towards Turkestân, and immediately at the northern foot of that prolongation of the Indian Caucasus now called Koh-i-Baba (see vol. i. pp. 227, 241). The passes on the Kâbul side are not less than 11,000 and 12,000 feet in absolute height, and those immediately to the north but little inferior. The river draining the valley is one of the chief sources of the Surkhâb or Aksarai, an important tributary of the Upper Oxus (ibid. p. 241). The prominences of the cliffs which line the valley are crowned by the remains of numerous massive towers, whilst their precipitous faces are for 6 or 7 miles pierced by an infinity of ancient cave-dwellings, some of which are still occupied. The actual site of the old city is marked by mounds and remains of walls, and on an isolated rock in the middle of the valley are considerable ruins of what appears to have been the acropolis, now known to the people as Ghülgûlah. But the most famous remains at Bâmiân are two colossal standing idols, carved in the cliffs on the north side of the valley. Burnes estimates the height of the greater at 120 feet, the other at half as much. These images, which have been much injured, apparently by cannon-shot, are cut in niches in the rock, and both images and niches have been coated with stucco. There is an inscription, not yet interpreted or copied, over the greater idol, and on each side of its niche are staircases leading to a chamber near the head, which shows traces of elaborate ornamentation in azure and gilding. The surface of the niches also has been painted with figures. In one of the branch valleys ...is a similar colossus, somewhat inferior in size to the second of those two; and there are indications of other niches and idols. As seen from the rock of Ghülgûlah, Bâmiân, with its ruined towers, its colossi, its innumerable grottoes, and with the singular red colour of its barren soil, presents an impressive aspect of desolation and mystery.
That the idols of Bâmiân, about which so many conjectures have been uttered, were Buddhist figures, is ascertained from the narrative of the Chinese pilgrim, Hwen Thsang, who saw them in their splendour in 630 a.d. His description of the position of the city and images corresponds accurately with modern reports. He assigns to the greater image, which was gilt (the object, probably, of the plaster coating), a height of 140 or 150 feet, and to the second 100. The latter would seem from his account to have been sheathed with copper. Still vaster than these was a recumbent figure, 2 miles east of Bâmiân, representing Sakya Buddha entering Nin·dna, i.e., in act of death. This was “about 1000 feet in length.” No traces of this are alluded to by modem travellers, but in all likelihood it was only formed of rubble plastered (as is the case still with such NirυAna figures in Indo-China), and of no durability. For a city so notable Bâmiân 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 Hwen Thsang, 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 Bâmiân was for half a century, ending 1214 A.p., the seat of a branch of the Ghori dynasty, ruling over Tokhâristân, or the basin of the Upper Oxus. The place was long besieged, and finally annihilated (1222) by Chinghiz 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 Bâmiân as a city; but the character of ruins at Ghιilgulah 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 Kâbul, Bâmiân was the scene of an action in which Colonel Denny with a small force routed Dost Mahommed Khan, accompanied by a number of Uzbeg chiefs. (Burnes, Journey to Bokhara; Masson’s Journeys, and his papers in the J. As. Soc., Bengal; Julien, Pèlerins Bouddhistes·, E. Thomas in J. R. As. Soc., &c.)
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