Director General Deshpande

Deshpande’s years as director-general of the Archaeological Survey (1972-1978) forms the focus of this chapter. A lot of what Deshpande presided over was familiar territory, the sort of work which he had done earlier. The direction of research of the Archaeological Survey of India in the fields of prehistory and historical research is specially highlighted because this evidently shows that it was not merely the Harappan Civilization that it concerned itself with, as is so often thought. At the same time, as the chapter demonstrates, there was much that now happened in terms of monument conservation because of the interest taken by politicians. The protection of Hari Parbat in Srinagar because of Sheikh Abdullah, the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, and the interest of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in safeguarding India’s heritage are discussed here. These were, in fact, challenging times for the Archaeological Survey in terms of its public image and in Deshpande’s tenure, there was relentless parliamentary and public scrutiny of the organization. All of this is carefully examined in this analysis of the years that Deshpande spent at the helm of the Archaeological Survey.

Hydrology and water resources management in ancient India

Hydrologic knowledge in India has a historical footprint extending over several millenniums through the Harappan civilization (∼3000–1500 BCE) and the Vedic Period (∼1500–500 BCE). As in other ancient civilizations across the world, the need to manage water propelled the growth of hydrologic science in ancient India. Most of the ancient hydrologic knowledge, however, has remained hidden and unfamiliar to the world at large until the recent times. In this paper, we provide some fascinating glimpses into the hydrological, hydraulic, and related engineering knowledge that existed in ancient India, as discussed in contemporary literature and revealed by the recent explorations and findings. The Vedas, particularly, the Rigveda, Yajurveda, and Atharvaveda, have many references to the water cycle and associated processes, including water quality, hydraulic machines, hydro-structures, and nature-based solutions (NBS) for water management. The Harappan civilization epitomizes the level of development of water sciences in ancient India that includes construction of sophisticated hydraulic structures, wastewater disposal systems based on centralized and decentralized concepts, and methods for wastewater treatment. The Mauryan Empire (∼322–185 BCE) is credited as the first “hydraulic civilization” and is characterized by the construction of dams with spillways, reservoirs, and channels equipped with spillways (Pynes and Ahars); they also had an understanding of water balance, development of water pricing systems, measurement of rainfall, and knowledge of the various hydrological processes. As we investigate deeper into the references to hydrologic works in ancient Indian literature including the mythology, many fascinating dimensions of the Indian scientific contributions emerge. This review presents the various facets of water management, exploring disciplines such as history, archeology, hydrology and hydraulic engineering, and culture and covering the geographical area of the entire Indian subcontinent to the east of the Indus River. The review covers the period from the Mature Harappan Phase to the Vedic Period and the Mauryan Empire.

Hydrology and Water Resources Management in Ancient India

Hydrologic knowledge in India has a historical footprint extending over several millenniums through the Harappan Civilisation (~ 3000 BC–1500 BC) and the Vedic period (~ 1500–500 BC). As in other ancient civilisations across the world, the need to manage water propelled the growth of hydrologic science in ancient India also. Most of the ancient hydrologic knowledge, however, has remained hidden and unexplored to the world at large till the recent times. In this paper, we provide some fascinating glimpses into the hydrological, hydraulic and related engineering knowledge that existed in ancient India, as discussed in contemporary literature and in the recent explorations and findings. The Vedas, particularly, the Rigveda, Yajurveda and Atharvaveda have many references to water cycle and associated processes, including water quality, hydraulic machines and other structures and nature-based solutions (NBS) for water management. The Harappan Civilization epitomizes the level of development of water sciences in ancient India that includes construction of sophisticated hydraulic structures, wastewater disposal systems based on centralized and decentralized concepts as well as methods for wastewater treatments. The Mauryan empire (~ 322 BC–185 BC) is credited as the first hydraulic civilization characterised by construction of dams with spillways, reservoirs, channels equipped with spillways, pynes and Ahars, understanding of water balance, development of water pricing systems, measurement of rainfall and knowledge of the various hydrological processes. As we investigate deeper into hydrologic references in ancient literature, including the Indian mythology, many fascinating dimensions of the early scientific endeavours of Indians emerge.

On the existence of a perennial river in the Harappan heartland

The legendary river Saraswati of Indian mythology has often been hypothesized to be an ancient perennial channel of the seasonal river Ghaggar that flowed through the heartland of the Bronze Age Harappan civilization in north-western India. Despite the discovery of abundant settlements along a major paleo-channel of the Ghaggar, many believed that the Harappans depended solely on monsoonal rains, because no proof existed for the river’s uninterrupted flow during the zenith of the civilization. Here, we present unequivocal evidence for the Ghaggar’s perennial past by studying temporal changes of sediment provenance along a 300 km stretch of the river basin. This is achieved using 40Ar/39Ar ages of detrital muscovite and Sr-Nd isotopic ratios of siliciclastic sediment in fluvial sequences, dated by radiocarbon and luminescence methods. We establish that during 80-20 ka and 9-4.5 ka the river was perennial and was receiving sediments from the Higher and Lesser Himalayas. The latter phase can be attributed to the reactivation of the river by the distributaries of the Sutlej. This revived perennial condition of the Ghaggar, which can be correlated with the Saraswati, likely facilitated development of the early Harappan settlements along its banks. The timing of the eventual decline of the river, which led to the collapse of the civilization, approximately coincides with the commencement of the Meghalayan Stage.