Excavation of 7th century Buddhist site near Akhnoor a distant dream
AKHNOOR: The excavation of the seventh century Buddhist heritage site of the Kushan period at Ambaran on the banks of the Chenab is held up due to the opposition of villagers and the apathy of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
The site, 30 km from Jammu, was discovered by the ASI in 2001 but excavation remains suspended as villagers have declined the compensation for their land.
“The ASI carried out the excavation from 1999-2000 and 2000-01. The site seems to have been abandoned around the seventh century AD due to flash floods and decline of Buddhism in the area,” says ASI official Rakesh Koul. After the discovery of the site, the ASI went for its preservation but further excavation was stalled by the villagers, who now own the land.
An ASI official, who retired last year, says, “Further excavation is needed to retrieve the entire site but a major portion remains buried. The ASI is reluctant because the site is under a village and beneath a farmhouse.” He says the ASI was able to do some excavation and find ruins after a family agreed to give its land for excavation in lieu of a job to one of its members. “It’s a huge site and scientific excavation will take three to four years but the villagers are adamant so it seems a distant dream,” he said.
“The excavation should have been done, considering the site’s importance. But decision has to be taken at a higher level,” he said.
FORGOTTEN TREASURE
The tourism ministry included J&K in the nationwide Buddhist circuit in 2015 to create infrastructure at such historical sites. But the site is a forgotten treasure. “Barring a few ASI employees at the site, who are there for maintenance of the ruins, nothing has been done,” says Sachin Sharma, a visitor. Despite being a restricted area, anti-social elements frequent the area.
The excavation yielded terracotta pottery, a stupa, thin deposits of grey-ware shards of bowls and red-ware vases. Walls of a monastery built of burnt brick masonry; remains of entrance of an important complex; a stone-pitched pathway; rims of bowls, lids, lamps, spouts, storage jars, basins, sprinklers, decorative terracotta figures, terracotta moulds of human figurine, ornaments; terracotta skin rubber, beads, iron nails, copper objects and semiprecious stone beads.
A small stone sculpture in Gupta style showing a male attendant holding an object in his right raised hand and the left resting on his thigh, copper coins to Kushan rulers Soter Megas, Kanishka and Huvishka were among other findings. A reliquary with 3 containers of copper, silver and gold caskets, which could fit into one another, was also found. It comprised 30 circular thin sheets of gold, 2 silver and 130 micro beads of pearl, 12 coral and two metallic, an oval-shaped silver casket and a circular gold casket. The most significant Buddhist brick structure and a spokewheel stupa were discovered during clearance work from 2008-10. It is similar to stupa of Nagarjunakonda, excavated in south India, and at Sanghol in Punjab.