Archaeological Survey Of India Research Articles

Ayodhya, Archaeology, and Identity

A partir de la destruction de la mosquee de Babri (16e siecle) a Ayodhya (Uttar Pradesh) en decembre 1992 par des Hindouistes, et des evenements sanglants qui en ont decoule, les auteurs abordent le probleme du role joue par l'archeologie et les archeologues dans une situation dans laquelle l'histoire est utilisee comme support de revendications identitaires, ethniques, religieuses, etc. de nos jours

Some Notes on the Palaces of the Imperial Gurjara Pratīhāras

The Gurjara Pratīhāras have long been recognised as the leading royal house of northern India during the ninth and tenth centuries. A considerable number of copper plate and stone inscriptions have survived from Pratīhāra times and these have provided the requisite data for a reconstruction of the dynasty's political and social history. Following conventions established in the Gupta period if not before, the copper-plates of the Pratīhāras record grants of villages or land, while stone inscriptions typically recount the building of temples and the provision of gifts to enshrined divinities. A large number of temples from the Pratīhāra age have been preserved; some of these buildings have enjoyed the recent scholarly attention of the team working on the Encyclopaedia of Indian Temple Architecture as well as the Temple Survey of the Archaeological Survey of India. In contrast, palatial architecture is virtually unknown. This is neither surprising nor unusual, there being little left of such buildings in any part of India from before the fourteenth century. This is due to the wide use of perishable building materials, notably wood, brick and stucco. In the case of the Pratīhāra rulers there is also the fact that their capital city of Kannauj (anc. Kānyakubja) has been completely destroyed. That the Pratīhāras were responsible for some building at Kannauj is indicated by the inscription, dated Harṣa year 276 (A.D. 882–3), from the shrine of Garībnāth at Pehowa. This inscription records, among many other things, that a temple of Viṣṇu Garuḍāsana was built by the Brāhmaṇa Bhūvaka on the banks of the river Gaṅgā in Bhojapura near Kānyakubja.

Darogha Ubbas Alii: an unknown 19th-century Indian photographer

Abstract When Samuel Bourne, noted 19th-century photographer, arrived in India in 1863 he was surprised to find that 'at Calcutta it is no uncommon thing to see native portrait establishments'1. When the Photographic Society of Bengal was formed in 1856 its Secretary was an Indian — Baboo Preonath Seth2. When the Archaeological Survey of India was formed in 1861, the assistance of amateur as well as professional photographers was enlisted to record buildings and sites. Hurrichand Chintamon, P. C. Mukherji, Shivashanker Narayen, Muccoond Ramchundra and Lala Deen Dayal were among them, all of them Indians3.

4,500 Year Old Seeds suggest that True Cotton is Indigenous to Nubia

WHEN the Archaeological Survey of India discovered the layout of a series of houses at Afyeh, Egyptian Nubia, in 1962, some charred cereals were recovered outside one house. At first wheat, barley, lentil, grain, peas and so on were reported. We examined the material later and confirmed the presence of wheat and barley, but did not find lentil, grain or peas, although there were some leguminous seeds that have not been identified so far. Four whole cotton seeds were also identified (Fig. 1) with some fragments.

Mālvan—Further Light on the Southern Extension of the Indus Civilization

In 1947 partition left India without a single site attributable to the Indus civilization. During the past two decades there has been a considerable extension of our knowledge, due mainly to the explorations and excavations of the Archaeological Survey of India. It now appears as though the Harappan culture spread into India in two principal directions: north-eastwards into the eastern Panjāb and across the Indo-Gangetic divide into the plains that lie between the Ganges and Jamunā rivers; and south-eastwards into Kacch and Kāṭhiāwār, and thence perhaps inland towards southern Rājāsthān and into the coastal region of Gujarāt. In the north the principal sites are at Rūpar in the Panjāb, Alamgīrpur in U.P., and Kālibangan in north Rājāsthān. In the south the principal excavated site is at Lothal on the Gulf of Cambay. In particular the extensive excavations at Kālibangan and Lothal have provided a mass of solid data relating to the Harappan settlements and series of well stratified radio-carbon dates. In 1957 S. R. Rao explored southern Gujarāt and in the light of his discoveries at a number of sites there he proposed a sequence of three stages of “Harappan” and “late Harappan” cultures. These he showed might be related to the sequence revealed by his excavations at Lothal and Rangpur in Saurāṣṭra. Rao's exploration suggested a number of interesting questions.

Sir John Marshall and Gandhāra Art

As the Director of the Archaeological Survey of India for more than thirty years, at a time when new finds of Gandhāra art were constantly pouring in, as the excavator of Taxila, as an excavator in Gandhāra itself, Sir John Marshall has had a unique opportunity of building up first-hand knowledge of Gandhāra art. That his views on this great subject should be made known was most desirable, and the Department of Archaeology in Pakistan is to be thanked for having undertaken to publish this volume.The illustration is abundant and, nearly all of it, excellent. It consists of 152 photographs, of sufficient size (in happy contrast with most of the pictures in Foucher’s Art grécobouddhique, and in some of Sir John Marshall’s own publications, Taxila included), carefully selected and arranged in order to exemplify the development of .‘the Early School’, as seen by Sir John. Many a piece is here properly reproduced for the first time. As a compendium of good pictures the volume will be most useful.But the book is far more than just an album of well-chosen photographs, with commentary. As the subtitle says, it is a story. This story is told in twelve chapters. An introduction (Chapter 1) deals with the beginnings of Buddhism in India, and with the problem of how Buddhism fared under the Greek princes of the North-West during the second century B.C.… Among the myriads of Buddhist monuments that are preserved there is not one that can be referred with certainty to Greek authorship in that period (p. 4). Chapter 2 is about the Early Indian school of Art. Then come three chapters on the origins: Chapter 3, The Beginning of Gandhāra art: the Šaka period; Chapter 4, The Renaissance of Hellenistic art under the Parthians and its eflect on Gandhāra art; Chapter 5, Childhood of Gandhāra art. To Adolescence two chapters are devoted (Chapters 6 and 7), to Maturity four: Chapter 8 deals with the Period of Maturity in general; Chapter 9 with the Early Maturity period; the two following ones deal with the Later Maturity period, Chapter 10 with the reliefs, and Chapter 11 is about images and decorative carvings. Chapter 12 gives the conclusions.

A second fixed point in the Chronology of the Harappa Culture

Fixed points in the chronology of the Harappa Culture are not abundant and such as exist tend rather to emphasize the earlier phases of that remarkable civilization. Evidence for close contact with Akkad about 2300 B.C., based primarily on stamp-seals, has been the subject of review by Piggott, and much clearer light has been forthcoming as a result of excavations at Harappa by the Archaeological Survey of India during 1946 under the direction of Professor R. E. M. Wheeler. These excavations included cuttings through the rampart of the citadel, and investigations of the later cemeteries superimposed on the culture. Whilst accepting the evidence for the earlier fixed point Wheeler faces up to the problems raised by these cemeteries and is strongly inclined after reviewing the facts available, and certain passages in the Rigveda, to agree with Childe that the ‘Cemetery H intruders “may belong to Aryan invaders”, the conventional date for whose first incursion into India is the 15th century B.C.’. As a result he concludes that ‘the combined weight, such as it is, of these various indications suggests the millennium 2500-1500 B.C. as a possible inclusive date for the mature Harappa civilization, without prejudice to the still-unplumbed depths of Mohenjo-daro’.Attention has recently been focussed by Piggott on these later phases of the civilization as a result of a study of the type and distribution of certain spiral headed and animal headed pins, and of a bronze mace-head found at Mohenjo-daro and Chanhu-daro. He here sees clear evidence pointing to trade contacts or folk movements from the West and affecting India at the end of the Harappa phase, if not indeed when it was actually defunct, probably ‘after 2000 B.C. rather than before and possibly some centuries later’. And with Wheeler he does not appear to be disinclined to accept the traditional date of about 1400 B.C. for the incursions into India ; though both are fully aware, and in fact state categorically, that the Akkadian contacts are the only well fixed chronological points.

Ancient India, number 4 (July 1947–January 1948, Double Number), Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi. 6s. - Etched Beads in India, byM. G. Dikshit (Deccan College MonographSeries no. 4), Poona, 1949, Rs. 10. - Stone Age Cultures of Bellary, byB. Subbarao (Deccan College DissertationSeries no. 7), Poona, 1948. Rs. 8.

Ancient India, number 4 (<i>July</i> 1947–<i>January</i> 1948, <i>Double Number</i>), Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi. 6<i>s</i>. - Etched Beads in India, <i>by</i>M. G. Dikshit (Deccan College Monograph<i>Series no.</i> 4), Poona, 1949, <i>Rs</i>. 10. - Stone Age Cultures of Bellary, <i>by</i>B. Subbarao (Deccan College Dissertation<i>Series no</i>. 7), Poona, 1948. <i>Rs</i>. 8.

A Tabula Iliaca from Gandhara

In the Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India, 1923–4, pp. 125–6, Pl. XLI, c Mr. H. Hargreaves published an ‘unidentified relief from Gandhara’ the subject of which has not yet been explained. The relief (fig. 1), which is believed to have come from one of the numerous mounds in the Mardan subdivision of the Peshawar district, was the property of Mr. F. V. Wylie, I.C.S. (now Sir Francis Wylie, K.C.S.I., C.I.E.) then stationed at Mardan. The scene represents on the left a woman rushing out of a gateway in an attitude combining horror with warning; her arms are uplifted; she is naked to the waist and wears anklets and necklets. Mr. Hargreaves suggested she wore a crenellated crown and might be a city goddess. She seems, however, only to wear her hair in the usual Indian fashion in a top knot. She is obviously expressing hosror at the scene on the right and imploring the participants to desist. The main figure on the right is a tall, fully robed man thrusting a spear into the chest of a horse which is mounted on wheels. Behind the horse is another similarly clothed male figure—young or at least unbearded—with his hands resting on the flanks of the horse and apparently thrusting it forward. Between these two figures is another, an elderly bearded man standing on the other side of the horse. The dress of the male figure is classical, indeed one might say Roman; certainly their footwear appears to be Roman. The lady, however, is depicted in regular Indian fashion. On the extreme right is a standing soldier holding a spear, much damaged. The faces of the male figures are all more or less damaged, but they are certainly laymen and not any of the familiar figures of the usual Buddhist sculptures of Gandhara.

A Note on an Early Indian Coin

The Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India for 1936–7 contains, among other interesting matter, a report by the late Mr. N. G. Majumdar on the excavation of a large and evidently important building at Lauriya Nandangarh, which seems to date from at least the second century B.C. Among the many things found here is a square leadin coin or token with the mould in which it was cast (pp. 49 f., pl. xxiv, 2–4). This bears on one side the device of the tree in rail and on the other taurine symbol surmounted by a legend in Brāhmī script of about the first century B.C., a ya ri ta sa, which Mr. Majumdar interpreted as Aya Ritasa, Pkt. corresponding to Skt. Ārya Rtasya, and meaning “Of the Honourable Rta”. He remarks that this “does not sound like a king's name …. It is thus possible that the lead piece represents a token and not a coin. Otherwise it would be hard to explain the discovery of a coin mould in the remains of religious establishment”. He thus seems inclined to regard it as a token issued by or for some religious teacher named in Skt. Rta and in Pkt. Rita.

Reviews - EXPLORATIONS IN SIND. By N. G. Majumdar. Memoir 48 of the Archaeological Survey of India, 1934. pp. III, 172 and 46 plates, including map of Sind. 27s 6d.

Reviews - EXPLORATIONS IN SIND. <i>By</i> N. G. Majumdar. <i>Memoir</i> 48 <i>of the Archaeological Survey of India</i>, 1934. pp. III, 172 <i>and</i> 46 <i>plates, including map of Sind</i>. 27s 6<i>d</i>.

Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, No. 37. An Archaeological Tour in Waziristan and Northern Baluchistan

Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, No. 37. An Archaeological Tour in Waziristan and Northern Baluchistan

Two Notes on the Ancient Geography of India

In recent years explorations of great importance have been conducted on a Buddhist site in the Pālnād taluk of the Guntur district of the Madras Presidency, lastly under the superintendence of Mr. A. H. Longhurst, of the Archaeological Survey of India. The site in question which comprises several ancient mounds is situated in the midst of wooded hills on the right bank of the river Kistna or Kṛishṇā, the Kaṇṇapeṇṇa or Kaṇṇavaṇṇā (Skt. Kṛishṇavarṇā) of Pali literature, at a distance of some 15 miles from Macherla and on the border of the Nizam's dominions. One of those mounds is known by the name of Nāgārjunikoṇḍa. Mr. Longhurst claims it to be the most important Buddhist site hitherto discovered in Southern India.

Archaeological Survey of India. Annual Report for 1902–3; pp. 293; 34 plates: and Annual Report for 1903–4; pp. 314; 72 plates. Royal 4to. (Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India; 1904 and 1906.)

Archaeological Survey of India. Annual Report for 1902–3; pp. 293; 34 plates: and Annual Report for 1903–4; pp. 314; 72 plates. Royal 4to. (Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India; 1904 and 1906.) - Volume 39 Issue 1