Vadnagar City

Vadnagar City

Subject: History

Section: Art and Culture

Context: New plans for PM Modi’s school in his hometown Vadnagar.

Content:

• Last year, the city has made it to the tentative list of UNESCO world heritage site.
• It has been known by names like Anartapura, Anandapur, Chamatkarpur and has often been compared to Varanasi in terms of both claiming to be “living cities”.
• The city was first excavated by archeologists B. Subbarao and RN Mehta in 1953. This revealed a flourishing conch shell trade industry.
• Excavation taken over by ASI from 2014 onwards found over 20,000 artefacts.
• It was identified that 5 periods of continuous settlement at the site from its formative period.
• There were 7 successive cultures going back to 750 BCE which include: pre-rampart phase (in 2^nd C BCE), Rampart phase (2^nd C BCE – 1^st C CE), Kshatrapa phase (1^st – 4^th C CE), post- Kshatrapa phase (5^th– 9^th/10^th C CE), Solanki phase (10^th – 13^th C CE), Sultanate Mughal phase (14^th – 17^th C CE), and Gaekwad phase (17^th/18^th – 19^th CE)
• Most of the excavations like the fortification, Buddhist monastery, votive stupas, house-complexes, lanes/streets, industrial hearth are from pre 2^nd C BCE to Gaekwad period.

Vadnagar as a living city:

• Extensive water management system
• continuously evolving historic urban landscape/area that played a role in hinterland trade network
• Important centre of Sammitya Buddhists or Little Vehicle in 10 monasteries, a sect which Chinese traveler Hiuen Tsang also supported
• Located at the intersection of 2 major trade routes – central India to Sindh and NW, Gujarat to Rajasthan and N.India.
• One of the important land ports (Sthal Pattan) of Gujarat
• A mound that rises gently and the highest point in the middle of the settlement is 25 meters high, called
• Evidence of Buddhism: Hieun Tsang or Xuanzang visited Vadnagar around 641 CE and called it o-nan-to-pu-lo (Anandpur); a red sandstone image of a Bodhisattva or a deity-like revered figure in Buddhism; an inscription on the pedestal of the imagebrought for the Chaitya of Sammatiya; elliptical structure or a circular stupa, along with a square memorial stupa of 2×2 metre and 130 cm in height with a wall enclosure.
• Abul Fazl’s Ain-e-Akbari from the 16^th century makes a note of Vadnagar or Barnagar, as a “large and ancient city containing 3,000 pagodas, near each of which is a tank” and “chiefly inhabited by Brahmans.”
• The ASI claims a “Roman connection” in the finding of an intaglio in clay – a coin mould of Greco-Indian king Apollodotus II (80-65 BC) – and a sealing with impression of a Roman coin belonging to Valentinian-I (364-367 CE).

Present Structure:

• L-shaped town, with the Sharmishtha Lake located on its north eastern edge.
• surrounded by the remains of a fortification wall, punctured by a series of gates that mark the entry and exit points of the town
• most gates are medieval, the Ghanskol and Pithori gates are of the 11th- 12th century CE. Other prominent gates are Nadiol Gate, Amtol Gate, Amarthol Gate and Arjun Bari Gate (protected by the ASI).
• Historic buildings:

1. Ambaji Mata Temple dates back to 10th-11th century CE
2. Hatkeshwar temple is located outside Nadiol gate
3. Two identical glory gates outside the fortification wall to the north of the town are the Kirti Torans (built in yellow sandstone without mortar or any other cementing material).