Abstract
The gulf in status between the lives of the rich and poor as seen in the living world, may also be
witnessed in their abodes of eternal rest, and is a common trend experienced throughout the world.
The rich as usual are desirous to be prominent and dominant even after they expire, thus we see today
graves from a customary mass of soil to grand mausoleums with beautiful gardens all around. For
instance the Taj Mahal in India and the Egyptian pyramids are also tombs, but they were meant for
the kings and Pharaohs or the privileged class of the society. Whether it is the pyramid or a grave
of any other kind, its style of construction cast back the multi faceted needs of the people of that age.
In our country, the majority of the population follows Muslim faith, and buries their dead according
to the Islamic customs, which follows common practice throughout the world. But the external shape
of the grave differs from place to place depending upon the availability of local material and aesthetic
needs of the people. The latter is practised where the people are relatively rich. One such area where
specially built graves could be encountered in the North West Frontier Province is at the vast Muslim
burial ground of Hashtnagar (the old name of the present day district Charsadda), which lies in the
heart of the Peshawar valley on the confluence of the Swat and Kabul rivers. It is at this cemetery
that the best examples of stone decorated graves can be seen. There are thousands upon thousands
of graves here among which more than ninety per cent are decorated with this typical mode of stone
ntation.
QASIM JAN MOHAMMADZAI . (2009) The Litho-Garnished Grave Art at the Necropolis of Charsadda: A Prelude, Pakistan Heritage, Volume 1, Issue 1.
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