In the site of Hodur, where petroglyphs were first mentioned by
M.A. Stein, who on his scientific journey along the Indus visited the ruined
hilltop settlement Kino Kot,at the opening of the Hodur Gah. After him Prof.
Karl Jettmar was the first to visit this place in 1979 and to discover the real
sites of rock carvings. A first overview was published by Prof. A.H. Dani. The
site of Hodur is reached from Karakoram Highway through a suspension bridge.
The Hodur rivulet coming from north east leaves here its valley, bends to the
east and joints the Indus beneath a rock barrier. Around the foot of the
mountain slope (Hodur village) and in the east and north east of the Indus from
the bridge up to the last pile of rocks (Dom Das-Hodur West) along the Indus
cluster of rock carvings and inscriptions on hundreds of boulders were found.
Here the valley opens sloping plateau (das) which is covered with find sand.
All requirements for a good resting place are present.
At a first result of the documentation conducted by the German
Archaeological Mission, one can say, that under the inscriptions those in
Sogdian prevail. A comparable amount of them is only known from Shatial, Thor
on the right bank of the Indus, and Oshibat. Also in the drawings influence of
Sogdian art plays a big role. Perhaps we are observing here with a place where
merchants mainly from western Central Asia, especially from the Zarafshan
valley, exchange their goods with locals or merchants from southern regions.
The strong repagination of some of the carvings, especially of animal drawings
and human figures, shows that the place was visited also much earlier. At Hodur
site some structures are syncretistic, where the substructure is like a
Buddhist stupa whereas the upper structure looks like a Hindu Sikhara and
surmounted by Trisula. Due to such monuments mostly scattered at Hodur site,
Prof. Dani is of the view that Hodur site was a stronghold of which shows
admixtures of Hinduism and local religious thought Brahmanism (Dani 1983:34).
According to Dani, such types of temple are found at Chilas-III,
IV, and Hodur sites, can clearly be distinguished from a stupa as they have
trident as their finial while stupas have crescent and circles. As other
difference is that the temple shows sikhara (temple spire) on the top of the
main structure, while, stupas have umbrella (Dani 1983:220). However, Prof.
Jettmar has a different opinion regarding these carvings the temple he says has
a cella and icon in the center, most probably a statue. It has a door and often
windows. Many of the monuments shows as temples by Prof. Dani , Prof. Jettmar
remarks, are in fact primitive renderings of stupas and only a few of them may
be regarded as temples. Prof. Jettmar also refers to some of these carvings as
mountain models, stimulated by the shape of stupas. From both of the findings
of the great scholars, we can judge that most of the buildings/monuments, which
Prof. Dani mentioned as temples and the same Prof. Jettmar called stupas are
not temples or stupas but simple edifices or other religious structures, as
such there is no any symbol of both temples or stupas.
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