Ashoka Reflections- Feb 2023
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C O V E R S T O R Y
This approach definitely provides an understanding of the deep past. In India, decipherable records
go back to the first millennium BCE. In contrast, the archaeological remains of the Indian
subcontinent go back more than a million years ago (as in the case of Attirampakkam in Tamil Nadu
and the Siwaliks ranges in the northwest). In fact, such data constitute our only source for that vast
span of ancient India from one million years ago till the second millennium BCE for exploring and
analysing prehistoric cultures, early food-producing societies, pastoralist groups, chalcolithic villages
and the Harappan Civilization. So, the study of the Indian past for more than 99% of that huge span
of time depends on archaeology. Once textual sources become available, while the material remains
no longer form the only category of available data, what is well recognized is that archaeology
continues to add dimensions even to the study of texts and epigraphs.
Gathering archaeological information for all periods of the human past requires a multipronged
approach covering a range of disciplines. Of these, it is scientific disciplines that have most
significantly contributed to the consolidation of archaeology and the expansion of its frontiers.
Archaeological science, in fact, because it is a meeting ground for collaboration has resulted in
generating richly detailed images of past lives. In India, such information has been recovered from
kitchen leftovers and teeth (human and animal) as in the case of the diet of Harappan people and
animals at Farmana in Haryana, to spore pollen distribution in Rajasthan’s salt lakes for
reconstructing changing patterns of monsoon rainfall that deeply affected livelihoods and
settlements.
Barring a few spotlight monuments, most, despite ASI’s tall claims, are in tatters and
undergoing perennial neglect. In a scenario such as this, what makes you hopeful about the
study and research of our past?
Like many nations with long histories, India is particularly rich in archaeological sites and
monuments. Apart from roughly 15,000 sites that are within the ambit of the legislative protection of
the Centre and the States, the records of the National Mission on Monuments and Antiquities noted
some 500,000 unprotected sites. These are official statistics. The quantum of undocumented sites on
the ground far exceeds this number. The ASI is incapable of documenting these, and what gives me
hope is that universities and individual researchers have taken it upon themselves to do such
documentation.
What are some key areas that the Centre is currently working in? How far have we come and
what are some major stumbling blocks for the Centre in achieving its full potential?
The Centre began with an all-India project on forests and a locality-based project around Sonipat. It
has worked for two years on a project in the forests of the tiger reserve in Bandhavgarh (Madhya
Pradesh). Two publications have come out of it in Current Science and South Asian Studies. This work
will now be deepened through studies on diatoms and pollen records there. At the end of February
2023, with Dr Rakesh Tiwari (Director General [Retd.] of the ASI, the Centre will begin a survey its
locality-based project in the Sonipat district. Hopefully, it will give a sense that Ashoka University’s
surroundings and hinterland are historically significant, with remains going back to Harappan times.
We need more faculty and a dedicated space for the Centre. Some space has already been earmarked
for laboratories and teaching. It takes time to set these up but these should eventually get done.
Otherwise, the Research Office in every way has been amazingly enabling.
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