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Afghanistan was a great seat of Buddhism, and it was from
here that this religion found its way into China, Turkestan and
Mongolia. The Buddhist monasteries discovered in the various
parts of the country are not only important from the archæological
and historical perspectives, but also from the point of view
of the history of art. The well-known school of sculpture
that so wonderfully combined Greek realism with Indian
mysticism, and which was named the School of Gandhara un-
doubtedly had its centre at Hadda, six miles south of modern
Jalalabad, where its most beautiful specimens have recently been
discovered. As one goes from Hadda towards Peshawar, Taxila
and Lahore, the Gandhara specimens lose the striking beauty
that characterises the specimens of Hadda.
Afghanistan is also a promising field of investigation for
the student of comparative philology, who may hope here to
come across the last of the little known and dying Indo-European
languages, which are spoken in some of the mountain fastnesses
of the country even to this day. Some of these ancient Aryan
languages are still preserved to a considerable extent in their
original form and purity by many of the isolated hill-tribes.
It is also considered to be one of the most important
primary agricultural centres of the world; a whole series of
different plants have originated here. Afghanistan's vegetation
still awaits the investigation of the botanist, while the variety
of its rocks and soils affords a vast field of research for the
enthusiastic geologist.
The Afghans are a virile race of inexhaustible energy.
Some look upon them as "splendid specimens of humanity and
the best fighting men in Asia". They are a gifted people, brave,
Roughly two thirds of characters agree with a modern printed edition of the same text. Much of the disagreement is editorial, not misreading. Treat the transcription as a finding aid and read the page image before quoting. How this was measured.