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Ushkur is an ancientBuddhist site nearBaramulla inJammu and Kashmir,India.
Baramulla is located on theJhelum river around 55 km from the capital citySrinagar. It was an important trading centre duringBritish rule, as it formed the western entrance to theKashmir Valley. "The town ofHuṣkapura is undoubtedly the modernUṣkűr, situated opposite to Varămul (Skr. Varāhamūla,vulgo Bāramūla) on the left bank of the Vitastā where the latter leaves the Valley of Kaçmlr."[1]
Ushkur was called Hushkapur in ancient times. Hushkapur was said to have been founded by KingHuvishka of theKushan dynasty. The Buddhist Kushans ruled parts ofAfghanistan and northern India, including Kashmir, during the first three centuries CE. The Chinese monkXuanzang spent a night here in 630 CE on his way to the main centres of Kashmir;[2] he described Ushkur as a flourishing centre of Buddhism. It was also visited by the Chinese Buddhist monkWukong in 759 CE.[3]
The site has severalstupas. A stupa was found and excavated in the 1870s.Henry Hardy Cole'sArchaeological Survey of India report[4] of 1869 claimed, "The locality which includes the remains of a Monastery is called the 'Jayendra Vihar', and the erection is assigned by local tradition to one 'Praverasena' in A.D. 500." Excavations have unearthed the remains of several finely-modelledterracotta heads in theGandharan style, which are displayed in theBritish Museum and others.
General CUNNINGHAM,l. c., p. 100, states that Rev. G. W. Cowie who visited Uṣkũr on his behalf (probably in 1865), found there a 'Buddhist Stūpa quite instact' [sic - read 'intact']. It was not destined to remain so much longer. In the summer of 1891 when I first visited the spot, I found there only a mass of shapeless débris covering the site of what was once the Stūpa referred to. According to the villagers' statements the mound had been dug into years ago by some 'Sahib's' orders. He appears to have found there some relics and in the course of his excavations to have levelled the structure to the ground. I have not been able to trace any report of this "exploration".[5]