Submerged Ports and Towns

Dwarka Explorations

Dwarka on the west coast of India, is a well known ancient port, now believed to have been submerged. The excavations carried out during 1979 in the Dwarkadhish Temple Complex revealed three temple remains. In all, eight settlements can be distinguished at Dwarka. The first settlement made in the 15th century B.C. was submerged or washed away and so also the second one made in the 10th century B.C. After a long gap the third settlement was made in the 1st century B.C./A.D. as suggested by the Red Polished Ware and copper coins known as Karshapanas. It is during this phase that Temple I, was built. The lime-plastered surface of its stone masonry still retaining a few lines of red ochre painting suggests that the plinth was open to view above the then working level. After the first temple was destroyed the second temple came to be built on the ruins of the first. When the second temple was also destroyed, the third temple was built in the 9th century. It was perhaps in the 12th century a storm-wave blew away the roof leaving only the walls and plinth. The fourth temple came into existence soon after. The present temple of Dwarkadhish is the fifth in the series. Temples I to V represent respectively settlements III to VII and the modern town is the eighth settlement at Dwarka. It is this sequence finding of which led to present explorations at Dwarka.

A marine archaeologist has to gather as much information as possible from literary sources and oral tradition before selecting a site for excavation. He has to visualize the plan and extent of the submerged city and salient features, if any.

During 1983-1992 underwater archaeological explorations have been carried out almost every year in Dwarka waters. The successive underwater investigations off Dwarka in about 4 to 12 m water depth have revealed the presence of a number of submerged stone building blocks such as remains of wall, pillar and bastion and also stone anchsors of various types like three-holed, prismatic and triangular were noteced in various places. SDDE and SCUBA systems were used for the underwater exploration along with ‘Aquazepp’ the underwater scooter. The survey boats were chartered and were equipped with underwater camera, underwater TV system and airlift equipments for exploration and excavation.

At Dwarka approximately 9,80,000 sq. m area was explored between the water depth of 3 to 12 m off Samudranarayana Temple. Diving operations were undertaken in various locations covering 8 zones of detailed investigations. The important findings were documented mainly with still photography, underwater video filming and underwater drawings. The position of the objects were fixed with the help of sextants. The Geophysical survey equipment also used in Dwarka waters for survey purposes.

The onshore explorations nearby Bet Dwarka revealed the presence of Late Indus seal depicting 3 headed animal, earthen vessel inscribed in the characters of Indus-Brahmi transition phase of about 1500 B.C. and the large quantity of pottery similar to Lustrous Red Ware bowl and the Red Ware dishes, dish-on-stand, perforated jar and incurved bowls which are datable to 1600-1500 B.C. in Dwarka, Rangpur and Prabhas.

Among antiquities which are crucial to dating and determining the cultural sequence of submerged cities of Dwarka and Bet Dwarka are the Late Indus type seal, chert blades, an inscribed votive jar, 3-holed stone anchors, a stone-mould, an Olpin with loop-handle and a sprinkler-neck in pottery are important. The chronological sequence proposed on the basis of the antiquities can be corroborated by distinct ceramic wares.

A small rectangular seal (20 x 18 mm) of conch shell with a perforated button at the back was found in trench UW6 of Bet Dwarka. A composite animal motif representing the short horned bull, unicorn and goat are engraved in an anticlockwise direction.

A votive pottery vessel inscribed in post-Harappan script analogous to Sematic script. The inscription read Mahagachashah pa (mahakachashah-pa) meaning ‘Sea Lord; Protect’ in Old Indo-Aryan-Iranian language.

Preliminary underwater explorations off Somnath were carried out during 1992 and 1995. The surveyed area falls into 3 zones, where diving operations were undertaken at 15 locations. The findings were a three-holed triangular stone anchor and a three-holed prismatic stone anchor measuring in lenght about a meter and a one holed circular stone object similar to that found in Dwarka. The findings were documented. The positions of objects were fixed with the help of GPS System and plotted on map.

Poompuhar Explorations

On the east coast, south of Madras, Poompuhar is believed to be a flourishing port in the beginning of the Christian etc. The Manimekhalai, a well known Tamil epic, mentions that the Chola King had lost his son and in his great grief he forgot to celebrate the annual Indra festival. This enraged the goddess Manimekhalai who caused the city to be swallowed by the sea. Though the reference is only to a supernatural incident, it may be taken as an echo of some actual furry of high tidal waves that lashed upon the city and passed down the generation by way of folklore.

Marine archaeological explorations are being carried out since 1991 in Poompuhar waters in collaboration with the Department of Archaeology, Government of Tamil Nadu in persuit of the truth, an evidence that can throw some light to confirm the legend.

The main objective of this survey is to delineate the submerged extension of the ancient town of Kaveripoompattinam, north of the present river Kaveri and to explore the deep water. Extensive diving and airlifting operations were undertaken north of the river Kaveri at a water depth of 5-7 m.

Offshore exploration was carried out in shallow waters, north of river Kaveri and south of the present Poompuhar village. A few dressed stone blocks were found in various water depths. One of them was semicircular with an L-shaped cut. Airlift operations yielded building blocks of stone and a number of potsherds of the early historical period (300 B.C. to 300 A.D.). Geophysical explorations carried out with the sub-bottom profiler revealed a submerged palaeochannel of the river Kaveri in the north of Poompuhar. The width of the channel varies from 300 m to 500 m and it is buried 20 m below the sea bottom.

Explorations carried out in deeper waters (23 m depth) revealed presence of an U-shaped stone structure which was located about 5 km seaward of Kadaikaddu. The structure lies in north-south direction. Maximum height of structure on the outer side is about 3 m, while on the inner side it is less than 1 m and maximum length of which is 40 m and its width is 20 m.

Vijaydurg Explorations

The underwater explorations on the western side of the Vijaydurg Fort, about 100 m seaward revealed a stone structure at a water depth of 8 to 10 m It measures 122 m in length, 7 m in width and 3 m in height. Besides it a tidal dockyard was also located around 3 km from Vijaydurg fort on the left bank of Vaghotan river. The dockyard is 110 m and width is 75 m. It was hollowed out of a rock. The southern and eastern side is cut out of a natural rock and rest is dry masonry. In addition to this a number of grapnel and triangular stone anchors were noticed in the adjoining area of dockyard.

Sindhudurg, the Ocean Fort was constructed by the Maratha King Shivaji on a low island about 1 kilometer off Malwan. Probably Malwan was a port in ancient times. During Satavahana rule in this region the ports of Maharashtra were reached to their zenith. In cosurse of exploration three triangular and three grapnel types of stone anchors were noticed at the entrance of the Sindhudurg fort. Anchors were made out of local available sand stones. Presently these anchors are cemented on the platform of the small jetty of the fort, presently, two other grapnel type of stone anchors are used as the mooring stones. The original place of these anchsors is not known. But, it should be from nearby area only, where there might have been a number of ancinet wrecks. The submerged rocks of adjoining area caused for wrecks due to inexperienced navigation. Local fishermen informed about the several shipwrecks behind the fort.