Fresh light on the Antiquity of Varanasi

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Dear friends,

 

Here is an abstract from National Seminar on the Archaeology of the

Ganga Plain held in Lucknow in December 2004. It comes as a

confirmation of other recent findings in Middle Ganga Plain that

points out early steps leading to urbanization of the region around

1200 BC like Ayodhya's early pottery found in recent years or even

Charsadda's excavations by Robin Coningham at NWFP in Pakistan. On

the other hand, there is also the assertion of Dilip Chakrabarti in

one of his lattest books on Ganga archaeology that the settlement of

early Prayag is the archaeological site of Jhusi.

 

Best regards,

 

Carlos

 

 

 

Fresh light on the Antiquity of Varanasi

(with special Reference to Excavations at Aktha and Sarai-Mohana)

 

Singh, Ashok Kumar

Deptt. of A.l.H.C. & Archaeology, Banaras Hindu University.

 

Varanasi was one of the early Aryan settlements in the later Vedic

Literature. It was ruled by the Brahmdatta and it flourished along

with Kausambi and Hastinapura. Kasi, one of the sixteen Maha-

Janapadas, used to represent the kingdom of the same name with

Varanasi as capital. The city has played a vital role in the trade

of middle Ganga plain. The antiquity of the city and its continuous

history was not confirmed by any archaeological evidence till as

late as 1940 when Rajghat was accidentally discovered by a railway

contractor while digging in connection with the remodeling of the

present Kashi Railway Station. Rajghat was excavated between 1957-

58, and 1960-61 to 1966-67 by Department of AIHC & Archaeology,

Banaras Hindu University. It reveals uninterrupted sequence from pre-

NBP to Medieval period (800 B.C. - 1600 A.D.).

 

Recent excavations at Aktha (2002-2004) evidenced the date for the

earliest habitation to circa eleventh / twelfth centuries B. C.

(Jayaswal, 2002 : 128). This is a small satellite settlement and

situated 2 km south-east from Sarnath. The preliminary investigation

at Aktha suggests that it was one of the important settlements of

the Varanasi-Sarnath region and was inhabited much earlier than the

Sarnath.

 

Sarai Mohana, another satellite settlement of Varanasi, is situated

on the confluence of Varuna and Ganga, about 1/2 km north-east of

Rajghat. The earliest period of Sarai Mohana is a pre-iron culture

with Black-and-Red ware as the principal ceramic industry with

occasional paintings in white, black slipped ware and red ware. The

findings of Sarai Mohana were studied by the author (Singh & Singh,

2004 : 1-120). On account of the techno-typological similarities of

ceramic assemblage and antiquities of Period I of the other

chalcolithic and iron using cultures of the middle Ganga plains, a

time bracket of circa 1200 - 700 B. C. has been ascertained for the

earliest settlement at Sarai Mohana.

 

The ceramic industries and other antiquities of period-I of the

above named sites are well comparable with the chalcolithic and pre -

NBP cultures at Narhan I, Khairadih I, Agiabir I, Jhusi II, Raja-

Nala KaTila-I, Malhar-I, Lahuradewa-II, Imlidih Khurd II, Bhunadih-I

and Waina I. The carbon 14 dates of most of the above sites are now

available. The chronology proposed for Black-and-red ware broadly

agrees with the time span of 1300- 700 BC. A careful study and

comparison demonstrates that the antiquity of Varanasi may be fixed

between 1500-1300 B. C. which is earlier documented around 800 B. C.

at Rajghat

 

In the following paper I will try to discuss and ascertain the

antiquity of Varanasi on the basis of the findings of Aktha and

Sarai-Mohana with the help of comparable material with other recent

excavated sites.