The opening of the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor between India and Pakistan has once again put the focus on the shared religious and cultural heritage of the subcontinent. The opening of the corridor to facilitate Sikh pilgrims to pray at the Darbar Sahib Grudwara, the final resting place of Guru Nanak, has immense potential to open new corridors of India-Pakistan understanding and cooperation. But besides Sikhism, the entire region of Gandhara - which includes Afghanistan - has a rich history as the land that witnessed confluence of Hinduism, Buddhism, ancient Greeks, Jainism and Islam. Besides being the melting pot of religions, the region has enjoyed a rich history of shared art, epigraphy, history, linguists and numismatics of ancient Gandhara
Shailendra Bhandare is Senior Assistant Keeper, South Asian and Far-eastern Numismatics and Paper Money Collections, a Fellow of St Cross College and a member of Faculty of Oriental Studies, at the University of Oxford. He started his career as a Numismatist with a visiting fellowship at the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge. He was then appointed as a post-doctoral fellow of the Society for South Asian Studies, and worked as a curator in the British Museum on the coins of Later Mughals and the Indian Princely States. He was appointed as curator of coins in the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, in 2002
The event will be from 5:30 pm onwards
