Dr Buddha Rashmi Mani

I am grateful to the Trust for awarding me the Fellowship to study Kushan terracottas in the museums in the UK at the appropriate time when I was excavating sites such as Kanishkapura and Ambaran (Akhnur) in Jammu and Kashmir related to the Kushan period - particularly the latter which is famous for earlier yields of typical Akhnur Buddhist terracotta heads. The site has emerged as the only known Buddhist site in Jammu region and after coming back from the UK I discovered a gold relic casket within a silver casket kept in a copper reliquary along with gold and silver leaves, coins and beads of coral, amethyst, pearl and carnelian. After coming across the particular terracottas in British museums, I started searching them elsewhere and after 6 months I collected much informaton which I compiled along with details of structures and other remains from the site, to publish as a monograph which may be useful to researchers.