ASI excavated more questions than answers in Ayodhya

LUCKNOW: The Archaeological Survey ofIndia (ASI) dig at the disputed Ayodhya site just might have succeeded indigging up the Indian equivalent of the ‘Shroud of Turin’. Thepicture emerging from the information in various ASI reports from 1954 —including the one released this week — remains hazy and vague about a keyperiod in Indian history. More importantly, say scholars, the ASI has failed toshed any light on the site’s link to Lord Rama, the key issue in theentire political controversy. According to an archaeologist involvedin the 1976 digs at Hanuman Garhi and Sita-ki-Rasoi in Ayodhya headed by Prof BB Lal, all that the ASI report does is establish beyond doubt the presence of astructure beneath the demolished Babri mosque, and push the antiquity of thesite back by six centuries. Prof Lal’s report, published in the IndianArchaeology Review of 1976-77, dates the antiquity of the site to circa 7thcentury BC, while the present ASI report says the site dates back to the“middle of the 13th century BC�. Beyond this, the ASIreport says absolutely nothing about the dedication of the structure to —or its association with — Lord Rama. Like the 1976 study, the present ASIreport indicates that the Northern Black Polished Ware-using people were thefirst settlers at the site; and both identify the presence of Sunga, Kushan andGupta periods, with human occupation till 11th century AD.Importantly, both reports push the antiquity of the site to within600 years of each other, seven centuries before the Christian era began; andfinally, both indicate a subterranean structure dating back to the 11-12 centuryAD. But that’s where the clarity ends and the puzzles start piling up.According to archaeologists, there existed a ‘Dark Age’in Indian history from the end of the Harappa culture up to beginning of 6thcentury BC. Little was excavated and recorded of this till 1954, when Lalpublished his findings of an excavation at Hastinapur. The discovery, dating andchronology of the various periods of the excavated site were of key value onthree counts. This was the first well-directed step towards sheddinglight on the ‘Dark Age’; second, this discovery of Hastinapur — the famed capital city of the Kauravas in the Mahabharata— was the first substantial proof providing an archaeological link betweenthe epic and ‘actual history’. Third, this excavation placed theantiquity of Hastinapur to around 12th century BC. As Ramayana predatesMahabharata, experts place three centuries between the two and expect sitesconnected to the Ramayana to date back to around 1500 BC or even earlier.