An Archaeological and Geospatial Investigation of Lost Forts and Fortalices in Yamuna Valley with Special Reference to Vairat and Mungra Forts in Garhwal (Central) Himalaya, Uttarakhand, India Nagendra S. Rawat1 1. Department of History and Archaeology, Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University, Srinagar, Garhwal – 246 174, Uttarakhand, India (Email: [email protected]) Received: 13 June 2018; Revised: 24 August 2018; Accepted: 01 October 2018 Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology 6 (2018): 872‐886 Abstract: The medieval forts, called Garh or Garhi in Garhwal, Uttarakhand which were raised in the mountainous terrain around 1000‐1500 AD have never attracted the attention of historians and archaeologists alike. To fill this gap the present work carried out multidisciplinary investigation combining remote Sensing and GIS with archaeology to examine the structural, defensive aspects and the distribution pattern of medieval forts, particularly the Mungra and Vairat fort in Yamuna valley, Western Garhwal, Uttarakhand. The present study has wide ramifications in understanding the role of forts and fortalices in the medieval warfare and defensive practices in Garhwal Uttarakhand. Keywords: Garhwal, Himalaya, Yamuna Valley, Fort, Satellite Image, GIS, Archaeology Introduction The tradition of fortification played an important role in history of human settlements as it has always been a prime necessity of all times (Mishra 2008: 5). Archaeological explorations and excavations yielded various kind of forts worldwide which were constructed during different periods of history. But at the same time, it is important to point out that the size, location and architectural pattern of the forts varies due to the geographical condition of the area and availability of natural resources. However, towards north in the Garhwal Himalayan region it has been found that the small size small forts were developed in Garhwal Himalayan region during the medieval period as compared to forts raised in central, western and southern part of India during the same period. Medieval structures are known locally as Garhs or Garhis of which, we have found that, the large structure corresponds to forts and the smaller structures, or Garhi as fortalices based upon their architecture and the size (Rawat 2017: 128). It has been further found Rawat 2018: 872‐886 that forts were used largely also for residential or residential cum watch tower purposes while fortalices were raised only as watchtowers (Rawat 2017: 129). Generally, it is assumed that these forts emerged after the decline of Katyuri dynasty in around the fag end of first millennia, when this part of Central Himalaya was under local chieftains who constructed these forts as their residence or as watch towers as a part of their defensive strategy in order to keep a watch over any possible aggression by invaders. This situation of political hierarchy continued up to the 15th century AD, when AjayPal (one of the chiefs) became powerful and brought all other chiefs of the region under his power. Since then, this part of Central Himalaya, which was hitherto known as Kedarkhand came to be known as Garhwal (The region of Garhs) from fifteenth century onwards (Raturi 1928:1). Although Garh (forts) are a part of history of this region not much is known. This is due to the lack of sufficient historical records and poor interest of archaeologists, this subject has never been studied in wider perspective. Therefore, this paper is an attempt to study the forts dotted in entire Yamuna valley of Garhwal with multidisciplinary approaches of archaeological explorations and geo‐spatial applications of remote sensing and geographical Information system. Study Area Garhwal is an administrative division of Uttarakhand state of India, this region is well known for its natural beauty and for the four main sacred places viz. Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri. Yamunotri is the source place of river Yamuna which meets river Ganga at Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh). In Garhwal Himalaya, Yamuna basin extends from the latitude 30°31’N to 30° 45’N to 77°50’ to 78° E which covers an area of 6120.31 km2. The basin is bounded by higher Himalaya from north, the south limit of river Yamuna in Garhwal is marked by Shivalik and in western direction Yamuna basin forms its boundaries by an elevated ridge with a group of peaks crossed by the Shatul and Burenda passes and the eastern flange is bounded by the valley of river Bhagirathi. The origin of river Yamuna is Yamunotri Glacier which is at an altitude of 6,387 meters msl on the south western slopes of Banderpooch peaks (38059ʹN 78027ʹE). It covers a total distance of 170 km in the hills passing through the elevated valley of Dehradun before it cuts through the Siwalik Hills to enter the plains of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. River Tons, Asan and Kamal are the main tributaries of it in Garhwal Himalaya (Figure1). Methods For the present study, the primary information about the locations of forts and fortalices in Yamuna basin, particularly of Mungra in district Uttarkashi and Vairat fort in district Dehradun was collected from different books and other published literatures. After looking in to the published literature the locations were identified by using the available Topo‐sheets and the open source high resolution satellite data of Quick bird (which is popularly known as Google earth imagery) and Bhuvan, an Indian satellite of the area under study. Finally a series of field surveys were also done 873 ISSN 2347 – 5463 Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology 6: 2018 with the help of the Global Positioning System (GPS) to get the exact coordinates of the sites. During the field work a detailed study of Mungra fort has also been done to examine the architectural remains, and other associated aspect of these forts. Under the present study the open source and freely available satellite imageries of Quick Bird (Google earth) and Bhuvan have been used and the data was processed in ArcGIS application to analyze the distributional pattern of the medieval forts on Yamuna valley as well. Figure 1: Map showing the Yamuna basin Garhwal Himalaya in Uttarakhand 874 Rawat 2018: 872‐886 Figure 2: (a) Satellite view of Vairat fort in Bhuvan, (b) ‐ Satellite view of Vairat fort in Google Earth Figure 3: Historical images of Vairat fort (a) Image captured in May 2004, (b) Image captured in December 2011, (c) Image captured in January 2018 Figure 4: The longest southern facing outer wall of Vairat fort Published Literature on Medieval Forts As mentioned above, the published literatures are the primary source of this research. They provide names but not the exact location of a good number of forts scattered in this region. At the same time the earlier workers have provided divergent account as far as the number of the forts are concerned. For instance. Raturi reported around 52 forts in Garhwal Himalaya (Raturi 1928: 154‐57), and only seven Hill forts in Yamuna valley. Thereafter, Katoch threw some more light on forts of Garhwal providing three different lists of forts in Garhwal Himalaya, wherein he mentioned a total of 102 names 875 ISSN 2347 – 5463 Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology 6: 2018 of forts in Garhwal region and 10 forts in Yamuna valley (Katoch 1996:118‐34). While Bijalwan has reported 69 Hill forts only in Tehri and Uttarkashi district, and 15 Hill forts in Yamuna valley (Bijalwan 2007: 351‐370). In this tradition another scholar Rana published a list of 21 Hill forts in Yamuna valley (Rana 2005: 173‐74). In view of these divergent accounts of forts it had become a challenge to identify the exact locations of forts in Yamuna valley. Following section of the paper will elaborate the results obtained by applying the multidisciplinary methodologies of Geo‐spatial tool and archaeological field work. Remote Sensing Data and Signature of Medieval Vairat Fort Although the published literature by different workers provides us the names of the forts in Garhwal Himalaya including the Yamuna valley but the location of a large number of such forts is completely unknown or some of the medieval forts have gone unnoticed or not recorded by earlier workers. Vairat fort, is one such fort which remained unnoticed by the earlier workers and therefore, it has not been included in the list provided by the earlier workers. Therefore, in view of this, the application of the open access satellite imagery of Quick bird revealed some anomalies on the surface of the ridges and top of the hill located towards west of small village of Nagthat in district Dehradun (Figure 2). A closer look into the series of imageries taken during different period of years through google earth shows three rectangular features enclosed within each other (Figure 3). Another interesting anomaly on this imagery is the series of curved lines at some interval towards south of the rectangular feature. All these anomalies encouraged us to undertake archaeological exploration for confirming whether or not these features are natural or manmade. Ground Truthing and Arc GIS Mapping A detailed exploration of the area was conducted to ascertain the nature and type of the structure. The field investigation revealed that the feature (as seen on the imagery) are basically two rectangular stone structures enclosing each other and covering a very large area on the hill top as mentioned above. However, only the southern masonry wall of the structure is fully intact, and its larger part is equally exposed. The wall measures 15 Meter in length and 5 meter in height (Figure 4). Another measurable feature on this site is a burnt brick made Well, the opening of the well is 2.5 meter in diameter (Figure 5a), but the semi‐rectangular moat and other features around the stone structure (Figure 5b) including the ditches on southern slope of the ridge are not very clear and measureable.