Budget 2020: Dholavira in Gujarat Among 5 Archaeological Sites to be Developed as ‘Iconic’ Destinations

New Delhi: In a major announcement, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday announced the development of five archaeological sites as “iconic sites” with on-site museums.

Presenting her second Union Budget 2020-21, Sitharaman said the sites will be developed at Rakhigarhi, Hastinapur, Shivsagar, Dholavira and Adichanallur. She also proposed a tribal museum in Ranchi, Jharkhand. Be it the discovery of ancient artifacts or their rich heritage, these five sites hold great significance for the archaeologists and historians. Here’s a look:

Dholavira, Gujarat: Located in Khadirbet in Bhachau Taluka of Kutch district, the site contains the ruins of ancient Indus Valley Civilisation, better known as Harappan city. It is located on the Tropic of Cancer and is one of the five largest Harappan sites discovered by the archaeologists.

Siva Sagar, Assam: This is a burial site of the Ahom kings dating back to 18th century AD. Siva Sagar was built with a massive vault of brick masonry of domical roof cover with hemispherical earthen mound, which was partially exposed on the western side of the maidam during the years 2000-01 and 2002-03.

Hastinapur, Uttar Pradesh: The city, located in the Meerut district, has been described in Hindu texts Mahabharata and Puranas as the capital of Kuru Kingdom. It also find mention in the ancient Jain texts. In the 1950s, excavations were conducted here at Hastinapur by BB Lal on behalf of the ASI.

Adichanallur, Tamil Nadu: This place holds great archaeological significance due to the discovery of several artifacts. Korkai, the capital of the early Pandyan Kingdom, is located about 15 km from here. Carbon dating on samples excavated in 2004 from the Adichanallur site suggests that they belonged to the period between 905 BC and 696 BC. In 2005, around 169 clay urns containing human skeletons were unearthed that date back to at least 3,800 years

Rakhigarhi, Haryana: Rakhigarhi is the site of a pre-Indus Valley Civilisation settlement going back to about 6,500 BCE. The site is one of the five known biggest townships of Harappan civilisation on the Indian sub-continent. Other four are Harappa, Mohenjodaro and Ganveriwala in Pakistan and Dholavira (Gujrat) in India. The place was recently in news for the scientific paper on the DNA analysis of the Harappan skeleton from Rakhigarhi. The claims were made of debunking Aryan Migration theory.