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District Charsadda is 29 Kilometers  from Peshawar. Situated in the productive and well-watered Peshawar plain, with its enormous working buffalo and the unique sight of tropical sugar cane and cold climate sugar beet growing side by side.

The traditional name for Charsadda in the North West Frontier Province is Pushkalavati - City of the Lotus and was founded by the younger brother of Bhagvan Shri Ramchandra ji - Shri Bharat ji. It was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Gandhara from about the 6th century B.C to the 2nd century A.D. Pushkalavati ensured the survival of the city as a center for pilgrims until the 7th century AD though the capital was moved to Peshawar.

There are three historical places of interest to visit near Charsadda.

Bala Hisar:

Excavated twice by Sir John Marshall in 1902 and by Sir Mortimer Wheeler in 1958. Wheeler's vertical trench cuts down through the many layers of mud stone and pottery to the bottom of one of the mounds Pushkalavati is first mentioned in the Hindu epic story the Ramayana. When Bharata the brother of Ramchandra conquered Gandharvadesa (Gandhara) and found two cities. Taksha (Taxila) and Pushkala (Pushkalavati) named after his two sons.

In about 516 B.C Gandhara became part of the seventh satrapy or province of the Achaemenid Empire and paid tribute to Darius the Great of Persia, until its overthrow by Alexander the Great in the 4th century B.C.

The Indian Emperor Chandragupta Maurya rose to power and brought Gandhara under his sway. According to a popular tradition. Emperor Asoka built one of his stupas as described by Hieun Tsang, the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim in 630 AD.

Hieun Tsang visited it and he refers to it as Po-Lu-Sha. According to him it was 2 1/2 miles in circumference. A Brahminical temple to the east and a monastery to the  north which according to Buddhist legends was the place where Buddha preached the Law. After Mahmud of Ghazni conquered the area and converted it to Islam in 1026 AD. The name Gandhara disappeared.

The Bactrian Greeks the sculptures Gandhara founded a new capital city of Pushkalavati at what is now Shaikhan Dheri to the north east of Bala Hisar on the other side of the river. One can see it from the top of the mound. Only a small portion of Shaikhan Dheri has been excavated and no effort has been made to label or preserve the excavations.

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