Turns Out Ancient India was More Connected Than We Thought

[00:00:00]Did you know that ancient Romans used to come to India and explore India just like Europeans do now? Previously we learned that Indians visited Roman Empire regularly, specifically Egypt, but now we can see that the reverse is also true. Not only that, we might be looking at another ancient city that we weren't aware of with technology far too advanced for its time in an area we hadn't even considered before. It might even change our understanding of ancient India altogether. And is Mumbai older than we thought it to be? Well, all this and more will be explored when I talk about these recent findings.

[00:00:42]So, for most of our history we used to believe that it was Indian traders that arrived in Europe during most of ancient, medieval, and even later medieval periods ending with Vasco da Gama arriving in India through the Cape of Good Hope. And the presence of Indian traders in the West was proven without a doubt by markings left by Tamil traders in Egyptian monuments. But with this new discovery, it seems that the inwards was also true.

[00:01:13]Only a few years ago Muziris project began in Kerala in which we found many trade links with the Romans in that city including but not limited to a temple dedicated to Augustus in Muziris. But it turns out the Romans didn't just come to Muziris in Chera country or Kerala. They came to Satavahana Empire or ancient Maharashtra, too. And not just the ports of this empire, they traveled further inland. Recently we have been finding these labyrinths across Maharashtra marking trade routes. This is something that the Romans did in the Roman Empire.

[00:01:52]Well, actually it was the Greeks that did it first and the Romans adopted it.

[00:01:56]No, actually it wasn't even just the Greeks. They adopted it from a Bronze Age civilization called Minoan Crete.

[00:02:03]And then it seems that over time they started building them across [music] India when they arrived here. There was one even found in Tamil Nadu which was square-shaped when compared to most of the others that are circular shape. And that was the largest one until now. In Solanpur, we have found a labyrinth that is approximately 50 ft ft in size and has 15 concentric circles formed from small stone blocks. Primary analysis reveals that this labyrinth was built 2,000 years ago, which makes it one of the oldest of these labyrinths. This is the largest circular labyrinth we have found yet. And it is the oldest and the furthest inland. What this essentially means is that the Romans traveled further inland than we previously thought earlier than we previously thought. And possibly interacted more culturally with Indians than we previously thought.

[00:03:09]Now, the history of Mumbai usually begins with the arrival of the fisherman community or the Koli community around 12th century. And then the Portuguese took it over and then they gave it to England as a dowry and then they built like connected all the islands together and uh the rest is as we know it. But before that, it is also very much understood that the Salsette Island, which is the largest island and where majority of Mumbai's suburban area is present, used to be home to many religious sites. Think Kanheri Caves or Jogeshwari Cave. And there was the Elephanta Island or the where the Elephanta Caves were present, which were one of the oldest caves out there. They were places for travelers of both Hindu and Buddhist leanings to rest in. But, as it turns out, that's not all these islands were used for. On the Elephanta Island, we have recently concluded a new excavation, and this new excavation changes our understanding of the island forever. So, in this most recent dig, we have found Roman artifacts and Western Asian artifacts, as well as other ancient European artifacts stored in a storeroom, meaning that this was a major port city in ancient and early medieval India, possibly even before the Hindu caves had been built. Along with that, we have two copper plates from dynasties we do not have a lot of texts from. First is from Traikutaka dynasty and its founder, Indrasena. It was a dynasty that existed concurrently with the Gupta Empire, and the only mention of them was from Gupta sources, until now, that is. This is the first ever inscription that we have found from its founder. That is huge. This means that this island was the site of the capital city of the Traikutaka kingdom.

[00:05:14]This could be the fabled city of Puri that we had not been able to identify with any site before. This would make the cluster of islands around Mumbai the capital of a Kongan kingdom significantly earlier than we thought of. We also have found inscription from Chalukyas of Navsarika, a Marathi Gujarati vassal state of the Chalukyas of Badami. They would later settle in Gujarat even as Chalukyas of Badami fell apart and [music] got taken over by Rashtrakutas.

[00:05:49]They would later become the Chalukyas of Gujarat that would stop the Arab invasions alongside the Gurjara-Pratiharas.

[00:05:58]This inscription is from their vassal days.

[00:06:01]Which means that this was an important city even through the 7th century. But wait a minute, the Roman artifacts found here predate the late 4th century and early 5th century of the Traikutaka dynasty.

[00:06:14]So, it might be an even older port settlement going as far back >> [music] >> as the Satavahanas or even the Mauryas. And what's more is that this settlement survived well into the Chalukya period in the 7th and 8th century. Which means that some trade with the West survived in India even as Egypt fell to the Islamic invaders. More needs to be excavated before we jump to any more conclusions. Even the copper plates require more restoration before they start to tell us what's written on them. But, this was a spot we knew to look at. It was a pretty sure bet that more history can be found here if we excavate. But, the next site was a shot in the dark and it somehow holds the key to change everything we knew about ancient India.

[00:07:10]See, in Odisha, majority of its excavation were limited to its eastern half, closer to the coast, where the Kalinga kingdoms used to usually reside.

[00:07:21]And this is where most of the major cities in modern Odisha are. Western Odisha is usually believed to be part of the tribal belt of India.

[00:07:30]So, there were not a lot of excavations done in this area because we just assumed that it was always a tribal area.

[00:07:38]That was until the School of History at Gangadhar Med University Sambalpur got involved. They believed that there was a deeper history to their region. And so, in the course of the last 5 years, they got to excavating. Oh, and over the course of that time, they found many significant things, including new numerous prehistoric sites, some early historic settlements, and even some temple remains. And several other smaller archaeological localities. But most recently, they have found something significantly more important.

[00:08:12]A city. A city of iron smelters.

[00:08:17]Over 20 iron smelting apparatuses have been found around the same general area in Purunagar. Now, this wasn't an area that was selected because some major text talked about it or some cave was nearby, but because it was a place where a river protected from three sides and a man-made moat protected it from a fourth. This was almost a shot in the dark. But what they have found here has shocked everyone. It had evidence of settlement from prehistoric Stone Age to early medieval period with completely different material culture from Eastern Odisha or literally anywhere else nearby. What's more insane is that there is thousands of pieces of slag or waste product from melting iron found here.

[00:09:04]And hundreds of kilns used to make pots. Put together, it paints a picture of an industrial town that produced clay and iron products in scale. Not just for itself, but presumably for export as well. It may have outfitted Kalinga and most of Eastern India with its craft for centuries. This site has drawn the attention of multiple scholars from across India because of its significance. Now, the problem with this site is that we do not know the exact age of any of these layers. Some reports say that it's 2,000 years old. Some reports say it's older.

[00:09:43]Some say it's newer.

[00:09:45]But we really, really don't know. There's no official report telling us its date. When exactly did it shift from Stone Age to Copper Age to Iron Age? Did it follow the timeline of Eastern Odisha, the Indus Valley, or did it develop at its own pace? We don't know. More need to be dug and understood to understand its timeline. This is just the preliminary report of the first dig that started in May of this year and is still ongoing. We may find out more soon. But based on the results of this dig, we may see the history of this entire region shift if it started turning into Iron Age during the Mahajanapada era, then it would match [music] the history of Kalinga. If it is later, then it would tell you an interesting insight into the history of this region. But if it is earlier, it might change our understanding of Eastern India forever.

[00:10:46]But these three sites, when put together, tell you one thing. Ancient India was more connected with itself even into areas we thought were uncivilized for a long time and connected with the rest of the worlds even in times we thought that the trade had fallen apart. So, in conclusion, [music] I would like to say that ancient and medieval India was more connected than we thought before.