Carnelian Day 2 - On to Lothal

 22nd February 2025

I got an early start to the morning, making myself a cup of Sleepy Owl coffee (trying it for the first time!), in the nice spacious Hyatt room.  Peeping out, the main Ashram Road that our room overlooked, was still asleep.  We checked out at 8 in the morning after a hearty Hyatt breakfast.  

Thanks to Sheila's tip - we caught views of the Sabarmati from our 12th floor corridor.  We would come back a week later and once again catch the concrete waterfront beautification from the ashram.  Is this the only way to maintain a waterfront, I mused?

Many international cities fill up their riverfronts with concrete walkways - I have seen them in Chicago, New York, Singapore and Abu Dhabi - so is this the only "model" we can adopt?  The Sabarmati if I remember right, is not a perennial, and now it holds Narmada water in the stretch in downtown Ahmedabad and like every other Indian river from the Adyar in Chennai to the Yamuna in Delhi and The Hooghly in Kolkata is dying a daily death choked with effluents and sewage.  

Better to use the huge monies to stop the pollutants rather than pour concrete on riverfronts one would think, but not so for most Corporations, but who's asking me?! 😜

This rather interesting mural representation of Ahmedabad at the Hyatt lobby

Anyways, back to the present and and after meeting Pankaj from the Carnelian team and a a little debrief on the Indus Valley civilisation by Meera in the very nice Chai room, we boarded our large bus - our companion for the next five days!     

We motored down NH4, past drying mustard fields, drongos and kingfishers on the wires, egrets flying past and reached Lothal around 11 in the morning.  Just before we turned off on to the Bagodara Road, Aravind very magically produced a box of sweets, which went up and down the bus.  On alighting, even more magically, little chai cups and chai also appeared!  We stood around in the parking lot as Meera showed us the excavated town plan of Lothal.

Upon returning, I have done some reading "homework" on Lothal - a great resource is harappa.com - and the more I read, the more fascinated I am about the whole civilisation, how many sites have since been discovered - more than 2,000 it seems, their seals and their great baths, their obsession with water storage and drainage, and a seeming lack of a reigning deity or "God" - and a very flat organisation structure (to use modern parlance).

Meera was quite appalled with me when I rather offhandedly mentioned that after all these years we still know only what was in my textbook of the seventies - my pet grouse is the undeciphered language - and she did point out how much more we know, now.  For example, we know now that the Harappans are possibly the Meluhhans mentioned in the Mesopotamian texts - we have two names as well - Samar and Nanaza - please see this link - https://www.harappa.com/blog/only-known-meluhan-personal-names-samar-and-nanaza.

Lothal was rediscovered way back in 1954, by the team led by Dr S R Rao - as we looked hard and with focus for more IVC sites in India - and in the first season of excavation itself they struck gold - found the typical Indus weights, seals, pottery, beads etc etc!  We didn't see the artefacts as they are all removed. There used to be a site museum I believe but it is closed and everyone is waiting for some Mega museum to come up - maritime museum is in the works. But it is a bit of a shame that there is no on site museum.

The Lothal settlement is dated from 2500-1900 BC and seem to be in two periods of settlement - The Harappans arrive around 2400 BC and there is a small village with mud fortifications.  Urban living begins and continues and thrives until 1900 BC, so that is about 500 years.  (My mind goes into a spin - Chennai/Madras is younger than that!). After this until 1600 BC, it seems to go into decline and becomes rural again and then just vanishes. Where did they go?

Meera explained the different parts that we were going to see - the dockyard, upper town,  Acropolis... and so in we went.

It was pretty warm in the sun but cool under the trees, with the breeze blowing. It was a beautiful setting!  I loved the meswak trees all around and the large flocks of noisy rosy starlings in the mesquite bushes. They undertook sorties along with a bunch of pelicans and there were a lot of bee eaters too! 

But as  we stood at the dockyard, it was the two grey wagtails at the water's edge that distracted me from what Meera and Pankaj were saying.

Sparrows were hopping around in the shade, and the white cheeked bulbuls called from the meswak trees.

In my usual distracted fashion - I decided to start a bird list for Lothal too.  And here is my Ebird list for Lothal.  

The Dockyard!

It is the most important and most intact structure at Lothal.  Pankaj looked quite surprised to see it brimming with water, the last time they were here it was bone dry, and the guard said this was all rain/fresh water.  It looked beautiful - blue skies, light winds, and the rippling clean waters.

This dockyard - "is a trapezoid baked-brick enclosure measuring on an average 214x36m and running along practically the whole length of the east city wall, it was used as dock for ships sailing during high tide. There was also a wooden gate in the southern wall to regulate and maintain the water level inside the dockyard."  (From the boards on site).

Of course I had  so many questions - how did they figure this was a dockyard and not a reservoir?  What is a dockyard doing stuck here, in land and are those the original bricks??? (The original bricks question kept getting repeated, I have to tell you)

Meera and Pankaj pointed out the gap in the wall, where a sluice gate would have been held, and also spoke about paleo water channels that have been propounded to have surrounded Lothal, with the Gulf being much closer as also the Sabarmati following a different course.

Imagine that!  Please click on this link below to read more.

A Bronze Age Inland Water Network and Its Role in the Maritime Trade Network of the Harappan (Indus) Civilization

Sabarmati and its connection with the Harappan port Lothal and the Nal corridor: A study using multi-sensor data, cloud-computing and multi-platforms

These papers, authored by Ekta Gupta, V N Prabhakar and Vikrant Jain put forth the argument that the water landscape 4,000 years ago was quite different - the Sabarmati flowed closer to and just west of Lothal, there were many channels and creeks with fresh water, and the Gulf of Khambat was also more inland.  I was fascinated by the theory of the Nal corridor, connecting LRK and the Gulf of Khambat. 

The Warehouse

Meera, Pankaj and Aravind had a hard time moving us along in a cohesive group, as the 20 of us moved in twenty directions (well almost), and everyone had the same questions with a lag.  Exasperated Lokesh tried to bring some sense of "let's move as a group", but there was so much to see and explore!!

Anyway, in this rag tag fashion we moved to the "Warehouse" mound.  "There were 64 cubical mud-brick blocks, each measures 3.6m square on plan and 1 m high separated from each other by 1 m wide passage."  (From the on-site board).  Currently, only 12 can be seen.  Meera brought it to life for us, asking us to imagine this large warehouse foundation, with possibly a wooden structure overhead, where the main import and export activities took place.

Photo by Devaroon, who was quietly clicking away, and caught one of the many House Sparrows, that flitted on and off the Warehouse blocks.

The corner of this warehouse is where a whole stash of burnt sealings were found by the SR Rao team!  70 of them - imagine!  Lothal site is known for its sealings.  (Source of the screenshot:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12zuFb-0Fy8)

I watched this video - most of it went over my head - it is a bit technical and filled with archaeology-speak - with Dennys Frenez attempting to show what these sealing were used for, and what could have been the undersurface on which they were applied!  The stuff that will put Sherlock Holmes to shame. (Source of the screenshot:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12zuFb-0Fy8) 

Seal-based Administrative Technology and Procedures: The Lothal Clay Seal Archive 

S. R. Rao, 'The fact that all terracotta sealings bear impressions of seals other than those found at Lothal establishes that the goods kept sealed here were imported' S. R. Rao, Lothal: A Harappan Port Town (1955-62), Vol. 1(New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India, 1985), p. 114

Was Lothal a trading outpost, an import/export clearing house?  The Unicorn seals were the most common at Lothal.  There were sealings with elephants, but no matching seals!

Seal vs sealing - 

Seals are objects with text deeply engraved on them in intaglio or reverse, while sealings are positive impressions in relief by seals or special moulds on impressible material like clay, faience or metal.  

The sealings had the impressions on one side, and the other bore the impressions of the material underneath - pottery or bag or wood.  I read articles showing the connection to excavation sites in Oman - Ras al-Hadd and Ras al Jinz.  Global trade was well and active 4000 years ago, it would seem.

The Acropolis

We then climbed a bit to what is referred to as the Acropolis, which has what seems like large homes on high platforms.

 The main residence seemed to have elaborate drainage system, 

a covered drain, 

and even a underground were that seemed to go all the way down and drain at the dockyard!

Was this the kitchen with the cooking stove?  

Photo by Devaroon - A sparrow lark did not seem as excited as us.

The ASI has reconstructed and repaired some of the structures to give us an idea, so it is difficult to figure what is original 4000 years old and what I more recent, and the Carnelian team were very patient answering our constant queries on this!

These pottery bits were from n antique land - of that we were sure.  A little goosebump moment as I thought of some Meluhhan who may have carried water in this for cooking, or to have a bath.

Was she wearing those bangles that seem to have been made here.  What was their diet?  They were meat eaters from the evidence of bones around - and supposedly the Lothal area they grew rice.  Millets, rice, coriander, brinjal...age old crops.

But where exactly were these agricultural fields?  They were considered rural Lothal is it?  Coming in to the city to feed this industrial town of workers?

And there were peacocks and elephants, pig and cattle and even pet dogs.  No horses as yet.  But what is this fascination for the unicorn?  I need to look for the lion and tiger seals.  

At the far end was the cemetery.  We did not go there - since it is all covered up, and there is nothing to see.  But there were some 21 graves and supposedly 19 bodies.  Which is now 18.  I  wondered about the missing skeleton for a day or so.  But on a more serious note, these graves and skeletons provide important and fascinating clues on the Harappans of Lothal.  They seem to have migrated in and then migrated out!

The Bead factory

It was around noon now as we wandered though the Lower Town and the bead factory.  The sun was directly overhead, and I was glad that I had carried some drinking water.  This area did not have any trees to hide under, and so we hurried through.

This little yellow seemed to be enjoying the sun.  

"A mud-brick structure of 11 rooms with a central courtyard, served as a bead factory. Two jars containing hundred carnelian beads in various stages of manufacture were found embedded in the working platform.   In proximity to the bead factory is a double-chambered circular kiln with a stoke-hole (for supply of fuel).  Small bowls containing saw dust and pebbles of agate, carnelian etc. were placed on the flues of the kiln for heating the stones for easy removal of the cortex. Two big jars made of mud containing more than 600 beads of various stages found inside the structure proves that the lapidaries worked here" - From the board on site

And so  it seemed quite symbolic that we pick up beads from this great bead making site of the Harappans.

That little bit in the middle is Carnelian I was told.

Another lovely photo by Devaroon of the White-eared bulbuls that watched us from the Meswak trees.

The Rosy Starlings had a lot to say about our purchases, it seemed!

It was lunch time, when we headed out of Lothal - and trundled along to Patan and the Sun temple.

Carnelian Day One - Ahmedabad and Sarkhej Roza

21st February 2025

It had been a stressful week - with my dear ma in law in hospital and project reports needing to go.  There was very much a "can we make it" question before the trip.  Thankfully, my ma in law stabilised, and Kamini was there to steady the ship, and so we did finally pack our bags, and I did finally finish the report presentation on the 20th, and we did fly out to Ahmedabad on the 21st afternoon!

Sheila, Sekar and me had signed me up for the Indus Valley Trails trip organised by Carnelian , with the star attraction (for me) being the Indus Valley Sites of Lothal and Dholavira.  I did no pre-reading, no looking at map - I have from my childhood wanted to visit Mohenjo daro and Harappa - with the mystery seals and the dancing girl from my history text book in mind - so this was not to be passed up.

There was an unintended hilarious start, a pressure release almost, to our trip. Sheila found herself in the row behind us and as we boarded we decided that we would ask the person in our row, if we could swap.  We boarded, and she found that she was seated with the two splendid monks we had seen earlier at the gate.  (The said two monks got priority boarding if you please)  She kept standing and I wondered why. I kept telling her sit we will swap when the person next to me comes. Turns out the monks at the back wouldn’t sit next to a lady! 

The men around were most understanding and nodded wisely. And of course the man next to me dutifully obliged and went and sat next to the monks.  We burst into hysterical giggles and  raised many questions  amongst ourselves.  We continued to giggle over biriyani and chatted all the way to Ahmedabad, as Sekar focussed on the scenery out of the window.  (He is used to this.)

I had a good laugh at this as we waited for our bags.  

It was past 4 by the time we checked-in at the Hyatt on Ashram Road, crossing the Sabarmati river on our way.  We were expected down by 5 for meeting the rest of the group and going off on a short excursion in Ahmedabad.

Introductions done, we set off for Sarkhej Roza. 

Where we were headed.  It was around 630 in the evening by the time we reached and the sun was well on its way to the other side.

Quite a large sprawling space, with many parts to it.  

The street stalls outside were busy, kids ran here and there, and there was a general holiday relaxed feel - it was Republic Day after all.

The setting sun framed the various buildings that were part of the complex.

As we walked through the arches, we saw this huge tree filled with Kites!  Kites were everywhere!

"Sarkhej" is the name of the village which existed here in the 15th century, and it was an area of weavers and indigo dyers.  The Sufi saint, Shaikh Ahmad Khattu Ganj Baksh, retired to this village in his later years. Legend goes that saint Ganj Baksh is the one who asked Ahmed Shah of the Gujarat Sultanate to set up his capital at Ahmedabad, and so in a way is an important persona in the history of the city.  

The story goes that a hare was found chasing a dog, on the banks of the Sabarmati, and this unusual role reversal made the place special and "chosen".  At this point in time, Ahmed Shah was 19 years old, the new "Sultan", after having poisoned off his grandfather, who had done the same thing to his father! He was on the look out for a new capital - Patan was the existing one ( we were headed there!)

The young king continued to keep the saint as a close adviser, guide and friend and the title "Ganj Baksh" means bestower of wealth.  I always thought of Sufi saints as somehow outside the system, mavericks, but it seems that in their day they also wielded much power and influence.

The Dargah

Ganj Baksh lived a long life - some 114 years - and when he died in 1446, Ahmed Shah built this dargah for him here.  

It is supposedly one of the largest such dargahs in Gujarat, and each side is a 105 ft long.  

The sandstone lattice-work is very Indo-saracenic, and it felt like each panel was unique.

Admiring it from afar, one can see the massive central dome, surrounded by 13 domes on each side

There is a Trust these days managing the upkeep and they have a nice website about the monuments - https://www.sarkhejroza.org/index.html, with some nice pictures as well.

I went in to the dargah, and besides the saint in the central square, there are many others buried there too it seems.

Masjid

To the left of the dargah was this Masjid.  In a nice coincidence, as I walked in, the call for evening prayer went out, and it resonated and echoed off the pillars, domes and walls as I stood there, and it was quite a surreal experience, with the sky aglow in the far corner.  A few men hurried across the quadrangle to prayer.  Stepping in here from the merry din and play of the outer compound, there was a sudden silence and stillness that I soaked in.

Silence is a luxury in modern India, for sure.

The corridor on the left overlooks this HUGE artificial lake and pleasure pavilions built by later rulers - as the complex became a favourite hang-out for the rich and famous of those days.  

If you click on the picture, you will get a full view of the lake bed, with the decorated balconies overlooking the waters.  

All the various pavilions and palaces that surround the perimeter - all rather dilapidated from the looks of it.  Especially in the fading dull light, the buildings looked pretty desolate.  

Sultan Mahmud Begada  also shows up here - now this name intrigued and caught my attention - I quite like Begada ragam.  (This Sultan also got mentioned in other historical incidents across our trip, but this was the first time I heard his name.)
 

He was Sultan Mahmud Shah - and Begada seems to be a title - because he captured two forts - Pavagadh and Junagadh.  (There is a second explanation which is more fun on his Wiki page - "From his mustachios being large and twisted like a bullock's horn, such a bullock being called Begado". 

Anyways, Begada was around and deepened the lake, made gardens, built palaces, and then also decided to build his own tomb here!

The board outside said - “This tomb has built by Sultan Mahmud Shah in his life time. It is flanked by a wide terrace overlocking the great tank.  The central chamber is reached through two enclosures, each separated by a beautiful stone trellis work with a balcony window projecting on the lake side.  The central chamber of twelve pillars, is crowned by a single dome and contains the graves of Sultan Mahmud Shah (died in 1511 a.d.),his son Sultan Muzaffar Shah II (died in 1526 a.d.), great grand-son Sultan Mahmud Shah III (died in 1553 a.d.) the tomb is elegant both in form and detail it is a beautiful specimen of sepulchural art of Western India"

I thus learnt not only about the power of the Sufi saint Ganj Baksh, and the links of Sarkhej Roza all through the years of the Gujarat Sultanate, from the times of Ahmed Shah to Mahmud Shah aka Begada.  The Sultanate reached its height under said Begada!  

For a monument with what I think a strong link to the city's founding and fifteenth century history, it seems quite neglected, buildings in disrepair.  A pity.

That was more than my share of kings and saints for the evening, and we headed out for dinner, to a nice and interesting "ethnic village" called Vishaala for dinner.

They had floor seating plus lounging charpoys, and I have to say it was the best Gujarati khaana of the entire trip - the menu was amazingly extensive, the taste was great and everything felt fresh.  I know the leaf is bare - but imagine every inch got filled.  
I loved how the roots came with little pots of yummy white butter and gur, there was oondhiyo, sabzis, khadi (which was not like payasam), oh the jilebis and the laddu, khichdi...and some crazy number of salad things which I did not even bother with.  

I ate slowly and deliberately, mindfully enjoying every morsel.  We sat on tables - not like these cricketing VIPs who sat on the ground!  

Hand washing was with hot water, personally poured out....it was all very touristy indeed, but also enjoyably so.  I was a tourist after all.

Oh and then there was ice cream and some spicy dates if you please.  Pleasantly sated and content at the end of this - I wondered to myself, how our group could continue to chatter on such a full stomach!

Another highlight was this largest drumstick tree in the garden that I have ever seen.   

Oh one last thing - 

Please let me know what you make of these giant pigeons of Ahmedabad.

eBird -- India international centre -- 26 Jan 2025

Delhi 26th Jan

Starting the day with hornbills and lapwings is nice! We enjoyed the bracing cool morning.

  India international centre 

26 Jan 2025 
5:48 PM 
Incidental 
All birds reported? No 
Comments: Morning was sunny and bright. 
Submitted from eBird for iOS, version 3.1.3 Build 3.1.33 

9 Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) 
2 Red-wattled Lapwing 
7 Black Kite 
3 Indian Grey Hornbill 
4 Alexandrine Parakeet 
9 Rose-ringed Parakeet 
3 House Crow 
7 Large-billed Crow (Indian Jungle) 
7 Common Myna 

Number of Taxa: 9