ABSTRACT
Lower Doab and Oudh: Sites between Pratapgarh and Sitapur
Dilip K. Chakrabarti, Rakesh Tewari and R.N.Singh
This paper highlights archaeological sites between Pratapgarh in the south and Sitapur in the north in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. This is a part of the first author’s ongoing survey of Ganga Plain sites since 1991 with the support of the Society for South Asian Studies. The present work was done in the summer of 1999 in collaboration with the UP State Archaeological Organization and Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology of Banaras Hindu University. Seventy sites were studied in all, leading to a few conclusions. First, in certain areas of this zone stone fragments are found immediately over the natural soil. Despite claims to the contrary, these are not stone tools but were transported by men and thus of cultural significance. Secondly, the location of certain sites on the cliffs of the Ganga and Yamuna suggest that they were major river-ports. On the Ganga they are Kotra, Manikpur, Dalmau, Jajmau and Dhruva-Tila, and on the Yamuna they are Reh and Musanagar. Thirdly, two sites of this zone Jajmau and Musanagar are city-sites of pan-Indian significance. Jajmau, in fact, is the precursor of modern Kanpur on the Ganga. Musanagar lies on an old crossing of the Yamuna on the way to central India and the Deccan and has the ruins of a Bharhut-like Buddhist stupa in its vicinity. The fact that there was a major route from the Ganga plain to central India in this sector is an important realization in the study of ancient Indian history. Fourthly, there are about 16 major sites in this area go back to the beginning of the early historic period and earlier.Interestingly, the core of the Nawabi complex of Lucknow stands on a large mound with clear protohistoric ancestry. Society Project: Ancient Geography of the Upper Ganga: the Distribution of Ancient Settlements in the Uttar Pradesh Plains