In big dig, govt to focus on heritage sites this year

Excavation of sites linked to ancient Indian heritage will top the agenda of the culture ministry this year.

The sites include Adichanallur along the Cauvery basin in Tamil Nadu, Hastinapur in Uttar Pradesh (linked to the Mahabharata), the 4,000-year-old burial site at UP’s Sanauli, the Harappan-era city of Rakhigarhi in Haryana, and those linked to Buddhism in Kashmir’s Poonch.

Senior ministry officials told DH that the government’s key focus as part of the work of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) will be on sites with ancient heritage, including those that find mention in mythological texts. “We plan to pay more attention to excavations this year, which faltered for two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” said the official, adding that the budget allocation for excavations is also set to increase.

Adichanallur was one of the oldest excavation sites in India where the first digging took place in 1876. It is one of the oldest megalithic sites in India. Burials here have led to the finding of Dravidian as well as mixed-race skeletons, including one that dates back to 905 BC.

Some other key sites where excavations have taken place are Gottiprolu in Andhra Pradesh's Nellore district, which unearthed a trade city, which is two millennia old. Another is Karnataka’s Brahmagiri where excavations took place last in 1978. The site is known for Mauryan-era Megalithic monuments. Another site in TN, the Sangam-era settlement in Keezhadi, led to some tussle for control of excavations between the ASI and the state excavation department.

"We will ask their permission to join the excavations when the need arises,” the official said.

In Hastinapur, excavations have already begun last week. The last time such an exercise took place at Hastinapur — known to be the site where the final battle in the Mahabharata took place — was seven decades ago when archaeologist B B Lal excavated it in 1952.

The excavation will seek answers to the dating of the period of the Mahabharata.

The Indus Valley site, Rakhigarhi in Haryana, spread over 550 acres has led to findings that date back to more than five millennia. Archaeologists believe that the Harappan-era city was one of India’s oldest, and a museum to display the findings was announced in this year’s Budget.

In Kashmir’s Poonch, the excavations are trying to find a link with the Indus Valley civilisation. The ASI had earlier carried out a survey in 2019 at the site, close to the Akhnoor-Poonch highway, to explore monuments or antiquities of historical importance.

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