Bimaran

Bimaran is a locality 11 km west of Jalalabad in Afghanistan, known for five ancient stupas dating to the 1st century BC-1st century AD. British archaeologist Charles Masson excavated the famous Bimaran casket from Stupa No. 2 in the 1830s -- a small gold reliquary (6.5 x 6.6 cm) decorated with repoussed arches framing figures of the Buddha, Indra, and Brahma inlaid with garnets. The casket contains what scholars consider among the earliest datable anthropomorphic images of the Buddha, marking a revolutionary departure from earlier symbolic representations. The reliquary is regarded as foundational to Greco-Buddhist art.