2. AHICHHATRA: At the Mercy of Vandalism

In the early historic period, North India has witnessed emergence of a number of urban centres particularly in the Ganga-Yamuna doab. Ahicchatra is one of these cities. This is the only major city situated north of the River Ganges. The ruins of the site, popularly known as ‘Pandu Qila’, is located about a kilometre east of village Ramanagar in the Sirauli pargana, Aonla tehsil, district Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh. It is situated about 11km north of Aonla.

The Background

During the age of the Jataka and the Mahabharata, Panchala was divided perpetually into two kingdoms, north and south, with river Ganges as the dividing line. According to the Mahabharata, the Pandavas defeated Drupada, the king of Panchala, in a battle and wrested the northern part of the kingdom and bestowed it to their preceptor Drona. The two kingdoms established their capitals at Ahicchatra and Kampilya respectively. It is said that Raja Adi, an Ahir, who was elevated to the sovereignty by Dronacharya, built the grand old fort at Ahicchatra. Therefore, the fort is also known as ‘Adikot’.

The Chinese pilgrim Hieun Tsang visited Ahicchatra on 15^th August 636 A.D. He reached at Ahicchatra by travelling 400 li or about 106 km southeast of Govisana (Kashipur, in Uttarakhand). The capital, according to him, was 17 or 18 li or about 5.6 km in circuit, defended by natural obstacles. In 1861, Alexander Cunningham visited the site of Ahicchatra and on the basis of Hieun Tsang’s account identified it as the capital of north Panchala.

The country of Panchala attained prominence in the 1^st century BC under the Mitra rulers who are known from their coins and inscriptions. Some recently discovered seals, however, reveal that Ahicchatra formed a division (bhukti) of the empire under Guptas. In the 7^th century, Hieun Tsang found here 10 Buddhist and nine Brahmanical temples. By the 11^th century Ahicchatra ceased to be the capital of Panchala, for an inscription refers to Vadamayuta (modern Badaun, U.P.) as the capital.

Why the site of Ahichhatra is Important?

1. Presently, Ahichhatra is the biggest, well-preserved, fortified ancient city in India. The perimetre of fortified area spreads over six kilometres and encompasses multiple sprawling mounds, unique terraced temples, samgharas and stupas.

2. It has a hoary historicity starting from the so-called OCP culture to the medieval period and is a sacred place mentioned in the Brahmanical, Buddhist and Jain literatures.

3. A mute witness of the mighty rulers “Mitras” who did not figure in the Indian history until the discovery of their coins at Ahichhatra.
4. "The Ahichhatra School of Terracotta Art" is well-known for its unique artistic expression and style. For example see figurines of Shiva, Parvati, Ganga, Yamuna, etc., housed in National Museum, New Delhi and museums in Mathura, Lucknow and Allahabad.

Bigger the site, lesser we know about it

Sir Leonard Woolley’s report underlined Ahichhatra as an important site that needs attention of archaeologists’ spade. The subsequent excavations in 1940-44 and 1963-65 have brought to light five-fold culture sequence, such as OCP (Pd.I), PGW (Pd.II), NBPW (Pd.III), Kushana and Gupta (Pd.IV). Besides, there are numismatic evidences of rulers of Mitra and Pratihara dynasties. Of late, Agra Circle of ASI has been excavating the site for last three-four years. However, apart from a few isolated publications and researches, per se no excavation report has been published.

The Present Situation

1. The site is protected by Archaeological Survey of India but not entirely. There are private and state-owned lands present within the fortified area.

2. Local people cultivate the leased out land inside the fortification enclosure.

3. Surrounding the fortification wall, there were several mounds, stupas and tanks, many of which have been completely destroyed and some are still partially preserved.

4. The ruin is a place of livelihood for the people of adjacent villages, who come here for grazing their livestock, agriculture, to work as daily labourer, for collecting firewood, fodder etc., and also work as antique collectors.

5. While the farmers gradually expand the borders of their land and gradually flatten the mounds, the villagers make tunnels to collect the underlying yellow soil for plastering their mud-floors and walls of houses. These tunnels ultimately lead to the collapsing of the mound surface facilitating theft of antiquities.

6. The fortification wall is also not spared by these soil diggers. Owing to rapid soil erosion the overlying structures are collapsing down.

Do we care for it?

Should we leave the site for such vandalism??

Most Urgent Steps:

The erosion of soil and collapsing of fortification walls have to be restricted urgently.

The illegal soil digging, transportation of bricks and encroachment of the mounds inside and outside the fortification wall should be stopped and punitive action should be taken against the perpetrators.

The entire fortified area and adjacent mounds outside of it should be acquired by the Archaeological Survey of India.

The State Government should be pressed for facilitating the transfer of state own land to the ASI.

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Acknowledgements

Sincere thanks to Dr. Pankaj Sharma and Dr. Parth R. Chauhan for providing some photographs. Thanks to the Secretaries of the Society Dr. Neeraj Hari Pandey, Shri Deepak Singh and Shri Anuj Sharma and all the members for their valuable support.