Vol-7 Number-2 April 2022
Chief Editor: Vijay Kumar
Publisher: National Trust for Promotion of Knowledge, Lucknow
Mode of Publication: Online (e-Journal)
This article by Prof. Amar Singh gives tribute to Krishna Deva, a renowned
scholar of Archaeology, Art and Architecture. It attempts to underline the career and achievements of Krishna Deva in the fields of his specialization with special reference to his contributions and methodology in studies of temple architecture and iconography. He worked in the fields of excavations, analysis of antiquities found during excavations especially potteries, temple studies, Jain & Buddhist Art and Architecture, study of sculptures & iconography and connecting the Shilpa Shastra texts with temples.
This article by Dr. Nilkamal Singha & Dr. Oinam Ranjit Singh describes the
gradual evolution of the archaeological landscape of Brahmaputra valley. There lived humans from middle Palaeolithic to Neolithic period as attested by the site of Selbalgre in Garo hills on river Rongram in Meghalaya. It seems that the prehistoric and megalithic cultures in Brahmaputra valley are derived from Meghalaya. The prehistory of Meghalaya, could be assigned to epi-Palaeolithic or proto-Neolithic and has been influenced greatly by Hoabinhian tradition with successive accretions. It suggests relation with the South-east Asian late Pleistocene and Holocene cultures. The Neolithic phase is followed by Megalithic phase. Megalithic people were not a homogenous. The present paper studies typology and spatial distribution pattern of the prehistoric and megalithic sites and boat burials of Brahmaputra valley.
This article by Devideen Patel & Yogambar Singh Farswan gives details of
Paleolithic artifacts recovered from various archaeological sites. The first author conducted field survey in the Panna district Madhya Pradesh in June 2019. This led to the discovery of a new microlithic site Devri, which is located on the bank of Bearma river (a tributary of Ken River) in the district Panna Madhya Pradesh. Different microlithic tools obtained from the archaeological site Devri have been presented. Their quantitative and correlative morphological analysis has been done. The quantitative morphological and correlative analysis of artifacts revealed that the microlithic tools recovered from Devri consisted mainly of blade, borer, core, scraper and burin category. During the fieldwork caves and rock painting were also discovered near this site. This site belongs to prehistoric microlithic culture.
This article by Sakir Hussain & Baba Mishra deals with the typological and
chronological study of the pottery recovered from Budhigarh excavation. In the absence of sufficient absolute dating in Tel valley region, authors have made an attempt to prepare a list of pottery types recovered from different stratigraphic levels that will be definitely helpful for the future researchers during their archaeological investigations in the Tel valley region
This article by Alok Shrotriya, D.K. Mathur, Mohan Lal Chadhar, Jinendra Kumar Jain & Vinay Kumar gives the details of the excavations at Gambhirwa Tola district Anuppur Madhya Pradesh. Three trenches were laid on this mound. During the excavation, remains of ring wells were seen on the top of the mound where authors have taken trench GBT-III and some pieces of medieval period sculptures were also found from the surface. The brick structures of Kuśāna period were also discovered. The deposit revealed four periods. Period I is further sub-divided into A & B sub-periods. The period I-A is dateable from 400 to 200 B.C. The period I-B is dateable from 200 to 100 B.C. Period II is dateable from 100 to 200 A.D. Period III is dateable from 200 to 400 A.D. & Period IV is dateable from 400 to 600 A.D.
This article by Dr. Shivakant Bajpai, Kamalkant Verma, Dr. Mahendra Pal,
Ritesh Singh & Shivam Dubey identifies the Buddhist antiquities found near Bandhavgarh fort which is situated in between the Vindhyan hill range and the eastern flank of Satpura hill range in Umaria district of Madhya Pradesh. Bandhavgarh was firstly extensively explored by Dr. N.P. Chakravarti of Archaeological Survey of India in the year of 1938. He discovered many inscriptions and rock cut caves made by magh rulers of this area. The exploration by Dr. Shivakant Bajpai and his team has established that Buddhism flourished in Bandhavgarh. He clearly identifies one votive stupa and a piece of a Buddhist pillar which is can be placed in 1st-2nd century A.D.
This article by Vijay Kumar & Atul Mishra is the catalogue of 1555 terracotta objects kept in the collection of Surendra Mohan Mishra of Chandausi district Sambhal U.P. India It contains a t.c. Shiva image, mother goddess images, t.c. animals figures of Mauryan period, Naag deities, t.c. plaque showing a hunting scene of Shunga period, Mahisasuramardini images, Vishnu riding a Garuna & Hariti of Kushan period, Narsimha head & images depicting different clothing styles belonging to Gupta period
This article by Vijay Kumar & Dr. Amit Rai Jain gives a catalogue of 102
terracotta pieces kept at Shahjad Rai Research Institute, Baraut District Baghpat U.P. India. The collection has beautiful examples of molded and hand modelled Mauryan female heads, mother goddess figure & only hand modeled female figure. It also has Mauryan & Shunga toy carts of different shapes. It appears that the people of Mauryan & Shunga period made a lot of toys/ votive figures of animals. The examples of this category are also represented in this collection. It also has a beautiful piece of a stamp used during Shunga period.
This article by Vijay Kumar & Satish Jain gives a catalogue of 53 terracotta objects from the collection kept at Kailash Deep Shikhar Sangrahalaya, District Meerut U.P. India. The two t.c. elephant figures of Mauryan period show different types of decorations on the body. The Shunga toy chariot is a link between pre-historic chariots of Sinauli and later period. One example shows the intricate designs on the cloth covering the chariot. This collection also contains some pieces of Shunga t.c. plaques showing dresses of mother goddesses and other females. A few pieces show the dresses worn by males during different periods. One piece shows the early design of pedestal
which ultimately resulted into lotus pedestals. It also contains images of various deities like Mahisasuramardini, Shiva, river goddess Ganga etc
This article by Meenu Devi gives the details about the Baigas who are priests
& Doctors of Gond & other allied tribes and are found spread in the eastern part of central India from Bastar to Bundelkhand. They practice slash and burn type of agriculture which is similar to the early agricultural practices of humans when plough and other equipment were not used. The agricultural operations consist of digging a hole with a stick in the ground and putting the seed inside it. The vegetables were also grown in the same field. A patch was burnt down and the ashes were used as fertilizer. The rituals performed during different stages of the operations have also been narrated in this article.
In this article Gururaj Mukarambi addresses the issue of digitization of
epigraphs and reading the scanned images of different inscriptions written in various scripts & languages. This paper reviews the literature about image processing-based approach for reading stone inscriptions. The comparative analysis of the methods of processing the inscription images has been done here. It has been found that Natural Gradient Flexible Independent Component Analysis (NGFICA) is the best for the text extraction from inscription images. The Neural Network Classifier is more suitable for classifying the dynasties of Indian inscriptions.
This article by Dr. Manu Jayas discusses the literary account of women in
general and marginalized women in particular from the point of view of gender. In a broad sense, the texts have generally ignored the participation of women in political processes and socio-cultural formations. The historiographical and methodological concerns have a tradition of projecting women as passive, inert objects of beauty, ornament, and sexuality. Thus, these texts and art forms only highlight women’s ornaments, attire, and beautification. The other aspects of women’s lives, especially their function as economic contributors to society have largely been ignored. Recent archaeological sources especially murals provide ample information to write about these neglected aspects. Hence, an attempt has been made in this paper to reconstruct the history of ordinary and marginalised women as a worker in a society based on the information depicted in the Ajanta murals. A discussion has also been initiated on feminist historiography and the methodology of the study of gender in Indian art.
This article by Dr. Arif Ahmad Dar discusses the temple architecture of
Kashmir. The Kashmir Valley is dotted with shrines like Shankaracharya Temple, Payar Temple, Martand Temple, Buniyar Temples, Laduv Temple, Avantisvara Temple, Avantiswami Temple, Taper Temple, Manasbal Temple, Mamal Temple, Devsar Temple, Garur Temple, Sugandhesha Temple, Narag Temples, Narasthan Temple etc. This paper elaborates the unique features of ancient temples of Kashmir in terms of style, material, designs and methods of construction. The Kashmir architecture is inspired by local wooden architecture, Greek and north Indian.
The present article by Dr. Nilkamal Singha & Dr. Deepak Kumar is one of the rare attempts to study the sacred geography and religious landscape of Kamarupa in reference to Kalika Purana and Yogini Tantra. It gives the details about the Kalika Puran (KP) and Yogini Tantra (YT). The two text which deal elaborately though not exclusively with the Kamarupa (Assam) and its religious shrines along with geographical features. The latter half of Kalika Puran and almost whole of Yogini Tantra is devoted to the shrines and geography of Kamarupa and Devi worshipping. However not every features were identified due to the reasons explained in the article but most of the religious shrines were identified along with those geographical features which appear in reference to identified shrines
This article by Vijay Kumar gives the details of Ram Janki temple situated
near the south-western corner of Kotitirth tank and antiquities found in the surrounding area. This temple is of 19th century A.D. but a small shrine of late Mughal period also exists on the same platform as the temple housing a Shivalinga. It appears that there were massive temple building activities from 8th-12th centuries in this area. The bank of Kotitirth near this temple reveals remains of a small Gupta shrine built inside the bank itself. It also gives the details of antiquities of the building on all the four banks of Kotitirth. It particularly examines the antiquities located around patthar mahala masjid situated near the north-eastern corner of the tank. It has revealed remains of Gupta, Pratihar and medieval temples.
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