‘Caves of Bameean’, 1842 (colour litho)

‘Caves of Bameean’, 1842. Coloured lithograph after Lieutenant Vincent Eyre, Bengal Artillery, 1842 (c). Eyre sketched this view of the Buddhist caves at Bamiyan during the 1st Afghan War (1838-1842). As the British advanced into Afghanistan they came across many ancient ruins, evidence of the country’s rich Buddhist past. The religion was introduced to Afghanistan by the Emperor Ashoka in the 3rd century BC and by the 1st century BC it was the dominant faith. It continued to flourish under the Kushan and Gandharan rulers until the Islamic conquests of the 11th century. From ‘Portraits of the Kabul Prisoners’, a set of pre-publication coloured lithographs later published by John Murray in 1843. The artist’s original drawings were made during his captivity in Afghanistan after the Retreat from Kabul during the 1st Afghan War (1838-1842).