Idols, coins, seals: Latest finds at Purana Qila excavation site

Subject : History

Section: Art and Culture

Context:

Excavations at Purana Qila, where the ‘sixth city’ of Delhi once stood, have so far revealed nine cultural levels and a continuous history spanning over 2,500 years.

The artifacts recovered:

The artifacts recovered — ranging from idols of Hindu deities to over a hundred coins and almost three dozen seals among others — will be show- cased as an Open Air Site Museum at the fort.
As per the Ministry of Culture, the ongoing leg of excavation work aims to establish “a complete chronology of the site”, which has yielded artifacts from different historical periods: Pre-Mauryan, Mauryan, Sunga, Kushana, Gupta, Post Gupta, Rajput, Sultanate and Mughal.
Currently, after reaching a depth of 5.50 meters, according to the Ministry, structures from early Kushana level have been exposed, and the excavation is expected to provide further insights into the ancient city of Indraprastha.
The ministry listed a stone image of Vaikuntha Vishnu, a terracotta plaque of Gaja Laxmi, a stone image of Ganesha, seals and sealings, coins, terracotta figurines, beads of various stones and a bone needle among the notable recoveries from the site.
Purana Qila — which served as an internment camp for Japanese civilians of British India during the Second World War and as a refugee camp following the Partition — has witnessed multiple excavations in the past.
Padma-awardee Professor BB Lal conducted excavations in 1955 and 1969-73, followed by excavations led by Dr Vasant Kumar Swarnkar of the ASI in 2013-14 and 2017-18.

Purana Qila:

Purana Qilla, the 16th-century fort, was built by Sher Shah Suri and second Mughal emperor Humayun. The fort is standing on a site with thousands of years of history.
PuranaQila is built on the banks of river Yamuna and is the oldest fort of Delhi.
It has been said that the fort was previously built by the Pandavas for their kingdom Indraprastha as some gray ware of that period was found during excavation.
PuranaQila was renovated by Humayun in 1533 and it took around five years to complete.
The fort was built inside Din Panah Which was a small city in Delhi. Sher Shah Suri defeated Humayun in 1540 and captured the fort.
Sher Shah Suri ruled for five years and in his reign he constructed many structures inside the fort and named the fort as Shergarh.After winning again, the renovation of the fort continued by Humayun.
Shah Jahan wanted to shift his capital from the old fort so he constructed Lal Qila or Red Fort.

Gateways of the fort

The walls of the fort are 18m high and the circumference of the fort is 1.5km. There are three gates in the fort which are Bara Darwaza, Humayun Darwaza, TalaqiDarwaza
The Bara Darwaza is still in use and it faces west. Humayun Darwaza was named so because Humayun’s tomb is visible from here.
TalaqiDarwaza or forbidden gate is the third gate of the fort. Each of the gates has two storeys and are built with sandstone. Each gate also has two bastion towers made up of marble.
Qila-i-Kuhna Mosque: Sher Shah Suri built this mosque in 1541. Five doorways are there, each having a pointed arch in each. In this mosque the king and his courtiers used to offer prayers.
Sher Mandal: The construction of Sher Mandal was started by Babur and completed by Humayun. The building is made up of red sandstone and is octagonal in shape. Babur used the building as an observatory and library.