After a long gap, the Union Culture Ministry has revived its village-to-village survey scheme aiming to relocate antiquarian remains and archeological sites across the country.
The massive survey was kicked-off in October last year and will be undertaken in 5,000 villages in five years with 1,000 villages to be covered annually, said a senior official from the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) which is a supervising body of the programme. The survey is to be conducted with the help of ASI staff and assistant archeologists who will identify and mark the important antiquarian remains such as monuments, mounds, tombs, graves, forts and places of historical importance which are unattended and need protection in the villages.
Besides, pillars, caves, gardens, pottery, coins, seals and sealings, fossils, glass objects, beads, wooden objects or ivory or bone objects among many others found during the survey will also be included in the database to be compiled by the ASI.
“It will also provide a huge opportunity to a large number of archeology students to participate in our programme. They will have an opportunity to explore the new sites and artifacts during the survey. Concerned universities will be roped in and students will be given scholarships or offered stipend to conduct the survey,” the official said.
The survey had to be stopped in the past because of the shortage of staff. “But just last year, 56 out of total 170 posts of assistant archeologists have been filled in the ASI’s 27 circle. It is mainly the assistant archeologists who conduct the survey on behalf of the ASI,” the official added.
Now the survey will be practiced vigorously. It is an important initiative as the survey has helped us explore many important sites and recovery of antiquities in the past. For instance, the official said, Dithwara a small village in Katni district of Madhya Pradesh which is famous for ruins of a large brick temple which is dated to the Gupta period was explored during the survey.
So far 800 villages across the country have been explored from October last till date. “We are yet to study the details of the remains explored. But we expect good results to come. This would not only help through light on the available artifacts and antiquarian remains but also help us create a database for comparison in the years to come,” said the official. The entire operation is being monitored at the circles headquarters by superintendent archeologists, he added.