The Hindu : 'Over 50 pillar bases found'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 26, 2003

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National

'Over 50 pillar bases found'

LUCKNOW AUG. 25. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in its report to the High Court here said there was sufficient proof of the existence of a massive and monumental structure having a minimum dimension of 50x30 metres in north-south and east-west directions respectively just below the disputed structure in Ayodhya. In the course of the present excavations, nearly 50 pillar bases with brickbat foundation below calcrete blocks topped by sandstone blocks were found.

The report said the pillar bases exposed during the present excavation in the northern and southern areas also gave an idea of the length of the massive wall of the earlier construction with which they were associated and which might have been originally around 60 metres.

The centre of the main chamber of the disputed structure fell just over the central point of the length of the massive wall of the preceding period which could not be excavated due to the presence of Ram Lala at the spot in the make-shift structure.

In a significant observation, the report said that towards the east of this central point, a circular depression with projection on the west cut into the large-sized brick pavement, signifying the place where some important object was placed.

However, the report said various structures exposed right from the Sunga to the Gupta periods did not speak either about their nature or functional utility as no evidence had come to approbate them.

During and after the Gupta period up to the late and post-Mughal period the regular habitational deposits disappeared in the concerned levels and the structural phases were associated with either structural debris or filling material taken out from the adjoining area to level the ground for construction purpose.

As a result of this, much of the earlier material in the form of pottery, terracotta and other objects of preceding periods, particularly of Kushan period, were found in the deposits of later periods mixed along with contemporary material, it said.

The area below the disputed site thus remained a place for public use for a long time till the Mughal period when the disputed structure was built which was confined to a limited area and the population settled around it as evidenced by the increase in contemporary archaeological material, including pottery.

The report said this observation was further attested by the conspicuous absence of habitational structures such as house-complexes, soakage pits, soakage jars, ring wells, drains, wells, hearths, kilns or furnaces, etc. Human activity at the site dated back to 13th Century BC on the basis of the scientific dating method providing the only archaeological evidence of such an early date of the occupation of the site. The report said that during the early medieval period (11-12th Century AD) a huge structure of nearly 50 metres north-south orientation was constructed which seemed to have been short-lived as only four of the 50 pillar bases exposed during the excavation belonged to this level with a brick crush floor.

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