Bahaj (Deeg): The Archaeological Survey of India is on a mission to untangle the historical threads of Braj region, the birthplace of Hindu deity Krishna. For the first time in 50 years, the ASI is excavating Govardhan Hill, part of the Braj region that also includes Mathura, Vrindavan, and other key sites mentioned in the Hindu epic Mahabharata. Now, teams of archaeologists and their students have zoomed in on one village, Bahaj in Deeg district of Rajasthan bordering Uttar Pradesh.
This Jat-dominated village lies at the base of Govardhan Hill—which, according to legend—Krishna lifted with his little finger to protect the villagers from a storm.
“Braj is a very important area from the point of view of Indian culture. The worship system and sculpture art of all our [Hindu] gods and goddesses developed from this region and spread to the rest of India. Very little has happened here regarding archaeology. Therefore, this [excavation] is an attempt to understand that ancient time,” said Vinay Kumar Gupta, the Superintending Archaeologist of ASI’s Jaipur circle who is leading the excavation.
The exercise is part of the Narendra Modi government’s drive to dig deeper into India’s ancient roots and discover compelling evidence of the Mahabharata period. After Ramayana, the new historiography has shifted its focus on dating Mahabharata, deepening Hindu civilisational history, and finding physical sites that would substantiate the collectively known and revered. In February, Modi went under the sea to pray to Krishna in the ancient city of Dwarka, and left behind a peacock feather as a prayer offering.
“The Indian government is emphasising on more and more excavations to understand the ancient culture,” says Gupta, surveying the three excavated trenches in the hot, arid region where just a few plants thrive.
For 2022-23, the ASI approved new excavation for 51 sites across India to discover earlier cultures. They’re happening in Benwa village in Sikar, Rajasthan, where the ASI found pottery shards that could be as old as the early Harappan civilisation (3300 BCE to 1300 BCE) if not older. In Delhi, the Purana Qila complex is being excavated to find evidence from what is called the ‘Mahabharata period’, estimated to be from 900 BCE to 1000 BCE, according to veteran archaeologist BB Lal.
But the Braj-Bahaj excavation is unique in that it will shed light on the ancient culture of Mathura of which very little is known, says Gupta. And unlike other abandoned mounds, it’s home to a thriving village.
Braj is a very important area from the point of view of Indian culture. The worship system and sculpture art of all our [Hindu] gods and goddesses developed from this region and spread to the rest of India. Very little has happened here regarding archaeology. Therefore, this [excavation] is an attempt to understand that ancient time
— Vinay Kumar Gupta, Superintending Archaeologist of ASI’s Jaipur circle leading the excavation
Since the digging began in January, he and his team have found bone tools from the Shunga Period, clay seals with images of deities astride elephants, a rare terracotta pipe from the Painted Grey Ware Culture (1,100 and 800 BCE), and a terracotta mother goddess from the Mauryan phase (322-185 BCE). The burnt bricks at 45 degree angles along a wall that could be from the Mauryan Period has sent ripples of excitement through the team.
“These activities are something unique and never found earlier as per known reports,” says Gupta.
The ASI’s presence in this quiet village caused quite a stir, especially when the team landed with shovels, trowels and tents to set up their base.
“More than a hundred people would gather to watch, which made work difficult,” said a trainee. But in the scorching heat of April and May, the villagers leave the diggers alone to carry out their work.
“This site represents the culture of the entire region that is Mathura culture. From this site, we can understand the chronology of this entire area,” says Gupta.
Key findings
Before the sun rises, the excavators leave Deeg Palace, where they’ve set up base, and arrive at the site, barely four kilometres away. Trainees, most of them students from Dr BR Ambedkar University, Delhi collect their trowels and get to work before it becomes too hot to dig.
Gupta points excitedly to one of the trenches where his team found circular and rectangular miniature pots filled with Braj ki raj—natural sand from the lowest level of the excavation site. It’s one of the most important finds.
“We found them lined up at the pre-Mauryan level, and they could be an estimated 2300 years old. It indicates some ritualistic activity. We also found coins, some of which are wrapped in cloth,” says Gupta.
It is too early to link Painted Grey Ware (PGW) with the Mahabharata period. At present, there is no concrete evidence regarding this
According to him, it’s the first time in India that archaeologists have found miniature pots filled with this kind of sand. They were found in the centre and the periphery of the mound, which suggests that the practice of pottery making continued for about a hundred years between 400-300 BCE.
Another interesting find was hundreds of small beads at each level, including pre-Mauryan, that could have been manufactured on the site. “Gujarat was the centre of lapidary work. It seems like the raw material was being brought from there and made here,” says Gupta.
Bahaj, a settlement roughly measuring 500 metres by 500 metres, has been under the ASI’s scrutiny for more than two decades since Gupta, who grew up in the region, first identified this site during his PhD days. However, it is only now that the mound is being excavated. Fittingly, Gupta is leading the excavation.
The aim is to find the earliest culture of Mathura. It could be as old as the Bronze Age, characterised by the Ochre Coloured Pottery (OCP) culture that is older than the PGW, and dating back to around 2000–1500 BCE
The dig site is currently located in the Deeg district of Rajasthan, but in ancient times, it was part of the Govardhan Hill. The area is also a part of the 84 Kos Parikrama circuit, a circumambulation pilgrimage of about 250-270 km considered sacred among Hindus.
The earliest cultural horizon of this region dates back to the protohistoric period, although there is evidence of the presence of palaeolithic humans in the Govardhan Hill, according to Gupta’s research paper titled Early Settlement of Mathura: An Archeological Perspective.
Despite this, Gupta is hesitant to link the findings to the ‘Mahabharata period’, which has been a bone of contention among historians. Although archaeologist and former ASI director-general BB Lal associated the Mahabharata period with the Painted Grey Ware Culture of the Iron Age (1200 BCE to around 550 BCE), there is no consensus among archaeologists regarding this.
“It is too early to link PGW with the Mahabharata period. At present, there is no concrete evidence regarding this,” says Gupta.
But senior ASI officials who ThePrint spoke to said the government is keen to find solid proof of the Mahabharata period.
“That’s why they promote excavations. And funding is not a problem,” said an official who did not want to be named.
Also read: What’s the oldest culture in Rajasthan? ASI wants to go back 5,000 years for the answer
Unpacking India’s history
Two decades as an archaeologist has done little to temper Gupta’s enthusiasm and excitement for his job. He’s practically jumping with joy at the new discoveries being made, not just here at Bahaj but across India.
“Until now, we have found around 3.5 metres of PGW deposits, which is unique,” says Gupta. “No other reported PGW site has this much deposit.”
These findings can change our understanding of the Painted Grey Ware culture of the western Gangetic plain. Shards, tools, and seals from the PGW culture are characterised by a style of fine, grey pottery painted with geometric patterns in black. It’s associated with village and town settlements, domesticated horses, and ivory-working.
“There is still very little information available in the archaeological world,” he says, while taking a sip of sweet lassi to beat the relentless heat. The findings here will add to the body of knowledge.
His team identified two places to dig – one at the centre of the mound and the other at the periphery of the same mound – to understand how the PGW culture transitioned over the hundreds of years.
“We found very thick deposits of PGW both in the centre and at the periphery of the mound. This shows how much settlement there must have been here before. And it refutes the fact that settlement here increased after the PGW culture,” he says.
What’s more, there are hundreds of PGW sites in the Braj region. These would not have been built in a day, says Gupta, explaining why the region could be the core zone to unpack India’s history.
We are learning scientific and technical things here. Until now, we have learned about time periods, pottery analysis, and sampling
— Tripti, an archaeology student who is part of the excavation at Bahaj
The ASI cannot excavate in Mathura itself because it’s heavily populated. But surrounding areas like the foothills of Govardhan Hill will help in understanding Mathura’s culture. Gupta’s hypothesis is that the culture expanded from here to other regions of the country.
Archaeologists have no precise information on the dating of the PGW culture, though the accepted time frame is from around 1400-500 BCE. Gupta said that not much work has been done yet on the early, middle, and late phases of PGW.
But according to Gupta, the aim is to find the earliest culture of Mathura. It could be as old as the Bronze Age, characterised by the Ochre Coloured Pottery (OCP) culture that is older than the PGW, and dating back to around 2000–1500 BCE.
“It might be the OCP, but we will know only after going deeper,” says Gupta. The team will have to compare their findings to the soil deposits recovered from the Sikar site. Last year, Gupta led the excavation and found a 140 cm deposit of the OCP culture at Benwa village.
Heat and encroachments
Despite a thriving population in Bahaj village, the deposits have not been disturbed.
“Cultural deposits on this site are not disturbed and are luckily in the stratified context,” says Gupta. In other words, the layers of soil marking each period have not been disrupted.
It’s a small miracle, but for now, the team is more concerned about rising temperatures.
In April alone, temperatures hit highs of 38 degrees Celsius. The students and archaeologists toil under the relentless sun, occasionally stopping to drink water or sweet lassi and wiping the sweat dripping from their brows.
There is limited space to work in because most of the mound has been encroached upon. But for Gupta, this is something unique to the mounds in the Braj area.
“The mounds in Braj have been continuously inhabited. This is not the case at the Harappan site. This is a big contrast between both sites,” he said.
Every evening, the team gathers to discuss their findings.
“We are learning scientific and technical things here. Until now, we have learned about time periods, pottery analysis, and sampling,” says Tripti, an archaeology student who is part of the excavation. This is her first field experience, and she’s ecstatic.
The more worrying problem is the existing ‘encroachment’ and what will happen if the ASI takes over the area. It could create a rift between the team and the villagers upon whom they’ve come to rely. For the villagers, the term ‘encroachment’ is a misnomer—it’s been their home for generations.
Currently, this is not a protected site, but the ASI wants to expedite the findings. There’s a very real possibility that as the village grows, it will take over all the mounds.
“At present there is some area left [from encroachment]. This too will not be left in the future. What we’re doing is salvage archaeology,” says Gupta morosely.
But then he breaks out into a broad grin. A large part of the mound at Bahaj, the site of the ongoing excavation, was destroyed by villagers going about their daily lives. But it helped the ASI team.
“Normally, we have to dig from the top to excavate. Our aim is to reach the lowest level, but here we found the mound cut till the Kushan period. We were saved from digging a part of 2,000 years,” said Gupta.
(Edited by Prashant)