Nagpur students chance upon medieval era fort during excavation

A visit to a hillock by students of the Nagpur University turned out to be more than a routine trip when they stumbled upon a rich cultural site in the neighbouring Wardha district.

There was more in store as the students dug up the place over a period of 20 days.

They found a medieval era fort, remains of a temple, fossil of a horse, cannon balls and arrowheads, indicating signs of a battle, an official said.

The findings were made by the postgraduate students of the Nagpur University's Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology Department during the course of their fieldwork at Keljhar in February and earlier this month.

The team of 20 people, including 17 students and technical staff, led by head of the department (HoD) Preety Trivedi, discovered the 'medieval fort', believed to be of 15th or 16th century, and remains of a temple, dating back to 13th century, at two different sites at Keljhar in Wardha, located about 51 km from Nagpur, Trivedi said.

As per the archaeological material present at the site, there is evidence of a large number of dilapidated and broken down temples belonging to the 13th century, when the Yadav dynasty ruled the region, Trivedi told PTI.

Trivedi said during her preliminary study of the region and collection of data, she had come across several references of archaeological materials in records and gazetteers about Keljhar.

"However, I found that no excavation was conducted there. During my foot survey of the region in July last year, I saw the entire place was full of archaeological materials and historical remains," she said.

"Subsequently, I submitted a proposal to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) for excavation in Keljhar and got the licence for it in December last year," she said.

The team first started excavation at Buddha Vihar in Keljhar in February this year and found remains of an "unfinished and finished temple", broken pieces of the base of a 'Shiva-ling', small pieces of sculptures of some other Gods and Goddesses, dating back to the Yadav period of 13th century, she said.

"After this, we moved to the Siddhivinayak Ganapati Temple Sansthan in Keljhar and started excavating there. Initially, we saw a part of a temple at the surface of the mountain and thought that it could be a full temple, so we continued with the excavation," she said.

After conducting 'step trenching' on the site, the team discovered "an entire bastion of a fort and multiple drainage systems over a large area."

"We have just taken out the samples and are sending it for scientific analysis to the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences in Lucknow," she said.

Trivedi says she will put up a proposal to the ASI to continue her licence for excavation next year also.