Bhopal: Burhanpur district administration in Madhya Pradesh is looking to rope in the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to carry out a controlled digging after hordes of people, seemingly inspired by the Vicky Kaushal-starrer Chhaava, made a beeline for the Asirgarh Fort hoping to find ancient treasures hidden underneath the ground.
Earlier this week, videos surfaced on social media showing people descending on the fields alongside Asirgarh Fort under the cover of darkness, armed with metal detectors, torches and ploughs.
As the matter reached the district administration the next day, Burhanpur District Magistrate (DM) Harsh Singh rushed the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) of Nepanagar to carry out an inquiry.
Singh told ThePrint that the SDM, upon reaching the spot, “found pits in the field”.
“The land on which digging was carried out is privately owned by a man identified as Hassan. There are a lot of stories of people finding gold coins, but we are awaiting the official report of the SDM. If people have discovered these coins, they are the property of the state archaeological department and we will approach the ASI team to look for artefacts and maybe carry out a controlled digging in the area,” said the Burhanpur DM.
According to him, videos of amateur excavations doing the rounds on social media are from two separate incidents—the first about five months old, when ancient coins were said to be discovered during construction of a National Highway passing alongside Asirgarh Fort.
The second video, said Singh, is about a week old.
After the discovery of coins about five months ago, locals often turned to the fields lining the Asirgarh Fort to look for gold coins—even prompting the district administration to issue stern warnings against it. The owner of the land in question also conveyed to the district administration that the frenzied digging resumed soon after he harvested his wheat crop.
On Sunday, a team of district officials along with the SDM and tehsildar reached Asirgarh village and requested local villagers to hand over any artefacts or coins they might have unearthed. Villagers were also warned against going into the fields for excavations.
Looking at the concerns of the owner of the privately held land, Dharmendra Pradhan, the sarpanch of Asirgarh village, told the media Sunday that he would carry out night patrols along the fields. “We will also request villagers to hand over anything that might be found in the fields. No digging will be allowed henceforth,” he said.
Talking about the storied past of Asirgarh, Kamruddin Falak, a member of the district archeological tourism and cultural council, told ThePrint that Burhanpur was the seat of power for the Mughals to govern southern India.
“It was the second politically most significant city after Delhi for the Mughals. There were two Mints in Burhanpur. But after Sambhaji Maharaj attacked, he plundered the city and went back. It is believed many buried their values under the ground then,” said Kamruddin.
On the discovery of coins last year, Kamruddin said “a pot with coins was found about six months ago” and that “occasionally people have reported finding mud vessels among other artefacts from under the ground”.
“These coins found during construction of the National Highway had the Persian words ‘zarb-e-burhanpur’ and ‘zarb-e-asir’ engraved on them, which essentially translate to Burhanpur mint or Asirgarh mint,” he said. Kamruddin appealed to the government to preserve these artefacts of “far greater historical value”.
Nitin Parashar, principal at Asigarh high school which is about 800 metres from the site of the frenzied excavation, too, said students often discuss people finding coins in these fields. “Many local grazers have bronze coins they said they found in these fields. There were two temples near the school and locals have even dug underneath it in search of gold coins.”
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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