Apracaraja Indravarman's Silver Reliquary

An Inscribed Silver Buddhist Reliquary or Apracaraja Indravarman's Silver Reliquary has been found, presumably from Bajaur area of ancient Kapisa. Believed to have been fabricated originally at Taxila, the silver reliquary consists of two parts—the base and the cover—both being fluted, and the cover being topped by a figure of long horned Ibex. It has been dated to around the eighth or ninth decades of the 1st century BCE and bears six inscriptions written in pointillē style, in Kharoshthi script and Gandhari/north-western Prakrit. In form, the silver vessel is wholly atypical of Buddhist reliquaries and is said to have been originally a wine goblet, similar to others found in Gandhara and Kapisa regions. The vessel was later reused by Apraca king Indravarman as a Reliquary to enshrine Buddhist relics in a stüpa raised by Indravarman. The inscriptions on the silver reliquary provide important new information not only about the history of the kings of Apraca dynasty themselves but also about their relationships with other rulers of the far north-western region of traditional India i.e. modern northern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan around the beginning of Christian era.

The inscriptions on the silver reliquary have been investigated by Richard Saloman of University of Washington, in an article published in Journal of American Oriental Society.