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Micro Network of Early Historic Sites Near Wai, Satara District, Maharashtra and Its Importance in the Early Historic Period of Deccan Shantanu Vaidya1 and Jayendra Joglekar1 1. Department of A.I.H.C. and Archaeology, Deccan College Post Graduate Research Institute, Pune-411006, Maharashtra, India (Email: [email protected], [email protected]) Received: 28 July 2016; Accepted: 07 September 2016; Revised: 03 October 2016 Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology 4 (2016): 401-416 Abstract: On the background of recent discovery of fortified Early Historic site at Pandhrewadi (Bavdhan) by the authors, an intensive attempt was made, to look into the Early Historic sites in the area near Wai town of Satara District of Maharashtra. Wai, being an important town in the present days, was a place known long back according to the textual references. It is the first place where Krishna River descends on the plains from the hilly tract of Mahabaleshwar. Remains of Early Historic pottery have also been noticed earlier at Wai, but the exact whereabouts are not specified. Lohari and Bavdhan rock-cut caves of early historic period were reported since 19th century near Wai, but habitation sites were not traced. Wai, being on the eastern side of Sahyadris, has a strategic location as it could very well have been on a trade route connecting the coast (Konkan) with the western Maharashtra (Desh). Hence, to verify our hypothesis that there must be some more Early Historic sites in the vicinity of Pandhrewadi (Bavdhan), explorations were carried out. Google Earth images and Toposheets were used before the survey was conducted actually in the field. The results of our recent field observations are presented in this paper. The results are preliminary in nature and there is a good scope for further studies in this region. Keywords: Early Historic, Habitation Sites, Kadegaon, Wai, Pandhrewadi, Rock-cut Caves, Deccan Introduction The studies in the early history of the Deccan (including present day Maharashtra, northern Karnataka and Telangana) began as early as the end of 18th century by the work of Col. Mckenzie (1822) at Amravathi Stupa (Paddayya 2005). Later work by epigraphists such as Buhler (1874) and Bhagwanlal Indraji (1883) led to a deep enquiry in the Early Historical period, especially the Satavahana dynasty. The need to locate the Satavahana settlements identified from inscriptions and also the need to identify the possible network of the many rock-cut caves of the period was the outcome of this initial research. Another ruling dynasty well known as the Kshatrapas were also ISSN 2347 – 5463 Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology 4: 2016 creating an impact and a struggle was ensued among these two dynasties; this was another aspect which was being extensively studied as an outcome of this research. The inscriptions at Karle and Nasik tell of many Yavanas donating for cave excavation and following Buddhism as well as Brahmanism. This led to the confirmation of the interaction with foreigners as a result of trade with Romans. It was also well evident from the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea (Schoff 1912), records of Pliny the elder (Majumdar 1960) that the Roman world had a prosperous trade with the Indian subcontinent. The various inscriptions were in fact a testimony to these written records. The early workers had in fact toiled hard to identify places with their ancient names and also some initial digging at a few places, Sopara for instance by Indraji (1883) was such a noteworthy attempt. Sopara in fact stretched the antiquity of the region to the Mauryan period due to the presence of an Asokan edict at the place (Indraji 1883). The archaeology of the Early Historic period in Deccan took a new turn after the excavations at Brahmagiri by Wheeler (1948) in 1940’s and Kolhapur-Brahmapuri by Sankalia and Dikshit (1952).The stress was more on the identification of places mentioned in the literature and epigraphs as well as copperplates (Kapre 1961). At around the same time Khare and other historians from Pune (then Poona) excavated Karad (1949). It was another site having remains of the Satavahana period. Subsequently the studies related to Satavahana-Kshatrapa period were being excavated in the Maharashtra-Karnataka-Andhra Pradesh (now Telangana and Andhra) region mainly comprising of Nasik (Sankalia and Deo 1955), Ter (Chapekar 1969), Nevasa (Sankalia et al. 1960), Satanikota (Ghosh 1986), Sannathi (Howell 1995), Adam (IAR 1988: 50-62), Maski (Thapar 1957), Nagarjunikonda (IAR 1954-55: 22-23), Paunar (Deo and Dhavalikar 1968), Pauni (Nath 1998), Junnar (Shinde et al. 2008) and so on. Many of the sites like Satanikota, Adam, and Pauni have given evidences of fortification of mud whereas sites like Junnar, Chaul (Gogte 2003, 2006-07), Karad are in the vicinity of early historic rock-cut caves. Thus during the Early Historic a picture can be seen in Maharashtra where, there are sites important from the aspect of trade and commerce (Ter, Kolhapur, Nevasa), sites which are situated on strategic locations on ancient trade routes and assuming political importance (Junnar, Paithan, Sannathi, Maski, Karad) and some recently investigated port sites (Chaul, Palshet, Mandad) (Gogte 2004, Gogte et al. 2006, Gogte 2006-07). All these along with the earlier mentioned fortified sites, probably political centres develop a larger geographical network of a complex urban state. However, not much attention was given in the past to the recording of smaller settlements and their role in the entire early historic milieu for a long time. But recently certain attention has been given to this aspect. Few habitation sites south of Karad were reported by Kulkarni (2003), one site of Shirwal near Shirwal caves (north of Karad) was reported by Joglekar and others (Joglekar et al. 2004), and site of Pune was reported by Shinde et al. 2003 and Joglekar et al. 2006-07. Even the work done by Deotare and his colleagues in Purna basin of western Vidarbha (Deotare et al. 2007, 402 Vaidya and Joglekar 2016: 401-416 2012), Thomas, Joglekar and others in Marathwada region, Gogte and colleagues, Joglekar and Hampe (2002) in Solapur region, Amol Kulkarni in lower Marathwada (Kulkarni 2009) as well as by the first author in Nagpur district (Vaidya 2014) are some attempts which need to be mentioned. Early Historic period in Maharashtra during Satavahana period was marked by around thirty fortified settlements as mentioned by Pliny the elder in his text (Majumdar 1960). Even though such surveys and study of site-interactions has been carried out, the favourite aspect of early historic archaeology is the association of rock- cut caves with habitation sites and the possible trade routes going from mainland Maharashtra towards the then ports of Konkan. Hence there is a general trend to associate sites with the cluster of caves (Dhavalikar 1999; Ray 1986). While such association can be done, there is a need to find more sites in the vicinity and neighbouring areas of the caves and also the micro-level association of the sites. The authors recently noticed an early historic fortified site near Wai, at Pandhrewadi (Joglekar and Vaidya 2016). After this discovery of Pandhrewadi (Bavdhan), it was decided to carry out further explorations in the surrounding areas to investigate further potentiality of the region. Earlier some pottery was reported from Wai (IAR 1968-69: 20). Between these sites there were vast spaces that are yet to be explored. Rock-cut caves of Karad, Wai (Lohari), Bavdhan, Shirwal were well known (Fergusson and Burgess 1880). Wai, being an important place since it is the place where Krishna River first enters a plain region and fertile tracts of land are formed, it was thought necessary to investigate in the region around. As mentioned above the remains at Wai were sporadically noticed earlier but the site was not mentioned as per its location and extent. The find at Pandhrewadi was hence a stepping stone towards probing the region and understanding the dynamics involved in the presence of rock-cut caves and sites in the region. Google Earth images and toposheets were reviewed before going for field visits. Accordingly few such spots were selected where river Krishna is taking a meander or some small stream (nala) is joining the river. Recent Field Observations For the present field survey the authors selected 4 villages, namely Pachwad, Asle, Kadegaon, and Wai. Wai has been reported Early Historic site in 1968-69 Indian Archaeology-A review, but in the report it is just mentioned that few Early Historic potsherds have been found (IAR 1968-69:20). Unfortunately, information regarding exact location of the mound, extent of the mound, and other details has not been given. During the survey at Pachwad and Asle only pottery and few structures of Medieval period were noticed. Both villages were surveyed thoroughly but no evidence (neither pottery nor any antiquities) of Early Historic period were noticed. Pandhrewadi (Bavdhan) The site (17° 54.415’ N, 73° 53.498’ E, Elev.747 m AMSL) (Fig.1) was reported by the authors (Joglekar J. and Vaidya 2016) near Bavdhan caves. It is a small fortified 403 ISSN 2347 – 5463 Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology 4: 2016 settlement of about 2 ha situated on the left bank of a small odha (small stream). Fortification on the northern side is pretty much intact (3-4 m in height) (Fig. 2). During recent fieldwork it was observed that on the north western side of the fortification bedrock basalt is high, almost up to 3.5 m, so the Early Historic people have used that naturally available high ground and not much of mud rubble fortification was used at this spot.

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