Overlapping Landscapes at the City of the Vajra (Barikot, Swat)

This article attempts to conceptually grasp the connections and disconnections between the multiple and coextensive human and religious landscapes of the district of the ancient city of Barikot (Swat, Pakistan) in the first centuries of the Common Era. This geographical area appears to have acted as a referential space for at least three distinct and overlapping religious and social realities: the Buddhist saṃgha, the so-called ‘Dardic’ communities, and Barikot’s urban elites. Across time, each group dwelled differently within the same physical space, thus drawing distinct but overlapping spiritually charged landscapes that, I conjecture, co-spatially met in the urban landmark of Barikot, the Vajra Hill.