Review of Archaeological Research on Medieval Gujarat

Avradeep Munshi1

1. Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology, Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute, Deemed to be University, Pune – 411 006, Maharashtra, India (Email: [email protected])

Received: 03 August 2017; Revised: 21 September 2017; Accepted: 02 November 2017 Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology 5 (2017): 631‐643

Abstract: Regardless of innumerable developments in Indian archaeological research through the ages when it comes to understanding the medieval mind of our ancestors over material cultures, we normally remained silent. Therefore this paper is intended to acknowledge the works of those scholars who initiated and tried their level best to put medieval archaeology into mainstream archaeological research. By correlating literary records with existed material cultural remains to understand the past derived from recent events. Hence, for a case study, this paper will focus on the research work that had been done over the years in Gujarat. With the help of published and a few unpublished works, the main aim of will be to give a brief review of the overall development of archaeological research in the medieval period of Gujarat.

Keywords: Archaeology, Excavation, Exploration. Gujarat, Medieval, Material, Culture

Introduction As we all agree with the point that archaeology is the only discipline which can investigate through material cultures the lifestyle of our predecessors, so, it is not difficult to judge what we should comprehend by the term ‘Medieval Archaeology’. As Prof Mate pointed out, it is an approach towards archaeological methods to know more and more precisely about various aspects of the life of medieval society, a society which has bequeathed much of the daily lifestyle of modern society (Mate, 2005:14). Medieval Archaeology or Archaeology of Medieval world essentially focused on studying those part of the history which is not longstanding more than several hundred of years. Thus it has been focused essentially to bridge the gap by combining its own methods with the evidence taken from written documents and oral traditions (Mehta,1979:7) to give a complete story of a particular society.

Keeping the above outlook in mind, this paper will focus to provide a brief review of the archaeological research works that had been done over the past few decades in the Medieval period of Gujarat. But, before doing the assessments of previous works, briefly, we will look at the political and economic segment of the contemporary region to have a better understanding of the plot above which the entire research work had been based upon. ISSN 2347 – 5463 Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology 5: 2017

Political and Economic Formation of ‘Medieval Gujarat’ The history of medieval Gujarat and its consequent repercussions in the arena of contemporary polity started alongside the demise of the centralized authoritarian control of Delhi over her subjugated regions. After Firuz Shah’s demise and Timur’s sack of Delhi around 1398 A.D – 1399 A.D, Delhi failed to control her provincial governments (Sheikh.2010:39) and with the disintegration centralized domination, many regional powers made their way to the mainstream polity and Gujarat was no exception in this case. It was the Muzaffaris who directed the new upliftment in political history of Gujarat province led by Zafar Khan, also known as Muzaffar Shah, founder of the new regime in Gujarat A.H 810 (1407 C.E) (Bayley, 1886: 67 – 68) by dethroning the former chief of the expense Farhat – u’l – mulk Rasti Khan (Misra, 1962 : 137).Essentially, it didn’t help him to inaugurate the beginning of new government rather it was just a commencement of the processes which ultimately lead them to a beginning of the new independent dynasty of Gujarat. During his sway along with his son Tatar Khan, he did a few expeditions, among which popular once are like his marching towards the Mandu in 1395 A.D, followed by towards the infidels of Idar around 1398 A.D (Bayley, 1886. 67 – 68) and lastly his ambitious campaign towards region on 1407 A.D. According to historians this last campaign basically scripted the initiation of long and eventful ‘inter – state’ relations between the two states of Gujarat and Malwa (Misra, 1962: 158). After him, it was his grandson Ahmad Shāh who took the epithet of Sultān Nāsir – ud – din and ascended the throne around 1411 A.D at Patan. But then, the initial days were not smooth for him until he made his mind to root out the semi‐independent from Gujarat after solving other problems related to his annexation to the throne. For this cause he initiated campaigning seasons against his antagonists like Raja Narsing Das of on 1419 A.D followed by other campaigns towards , Malwa around 1421 A.D and 1438 ‐ 39 A.D , Mandu in 1422 A.D, Idar on 1426 and 1428 A.D and a few more (Misra, 1962 : 128 ‐ 222). Next, to him, it was his son Muhammad Khan (ascended the throne around 1442 A.D) and later Mahmud Begada (1459 A.D) who actually put an utmost effort to concrete the position of the Muzaffaris in the history of Gujarat. “The Defender of the Faith” Mahmud Shāh Begada, ascended the throne in on 18th June 1459 (Faridi, 1899; 42). The voyage of Begada for expansion of his territory started from 1460 C.E. (A.H 864) when he sets his army towards the land of Kapadvanj (Faridi, 1899; 50). Later on, he marched all the way to Nazabār, in the land of Nizam Shāh, who seeks assistance, for throwing Mahmud Khilji out of Deccan region. However, among his expeditions, one of the most significant ones was to grab a hold over Girnar fort. For capturing the entire area he made a series of expeditions starting from the year of A.H 871 (1466 C.E) to A.H 877. Later on, he also made some invasion to capture other places like Sindh (Commissariat, 1938; 172), Sankhodwārā (Commissariat, 1938; 173), Sanjan (Commissariat, 1938; 181) etc. Nevertheless, the most important landmark of the Muzaffaris in Begada’s lifetime was to capture Champaner – Pavagadh, the land of Chauhans. After a long siege for 20 months on 21st Nov of 1484 C.E. he took control of Pavagadh by defeating the former (Faridi, 1899:66). Next,

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Munshi 2017: 631‐643 to him, it was Muzaffar Shah II, then Sikandar and Mahmud II followed by Bahadur Shah. It was during his reign when the Sultanates engaged in a conflict with Mughals at Gujarat and as a consequence, they were dethroned by their rivals around 1526 A.D. The capital was again gradually shifted back to Ahmedabad. Lastly, it was Muzaffar II who was on the throne from 1561 A.D ‐ 1572 A.D and with his demise Sultanate rule in Gujarat finally come to an end (Faridi, 1899).

Nevertheless, the key factor behind successful political mobilization of Muzaffaris within Gujarat was their better understanding of the land divisions. With respect to geographical features, the entire Gujarat can be divided into four parts – mainland, peninsula, coastal and desert region. And this respect Muzaffaris actually made different types of settlement plans and political strategies for each region. Like, making corridors in different provinces for maintaining smooth and successful trade network between Gujrat and the rest of northern India (Sheikh, 2010: 25‐100). And they did this via initiating long‐term policies of trade along with the political stability in the regions by constructing of big forts, city walls and even towns close to the trade routes. Like Ahmedabad, Champaner the capital cities of Gujarat and Kheda (not capital), these were laid down along with trade routes of Eastern Corridor and at Panchmahal region respectively. These areas were also fertile but forested and the material remains in this regions signifies that the Sultanates put an effort to make the areas suitable for cultivation by mounting wells along with step wells, reservoirs around the region which resulted in the production of chief crops like cotton, indigo, food grains etc.

Not only hinterlands even the coastal Gujarat also witnessed some developmental processes as they grew up as important trading centres along the sea route. However, documents suggest us that they were mostly independent of hinterland political activities. (Towns like Chaul, Bassein, Mahim, Diu were perfect example of this kind. Because, during 14th C A.D all provincial rulers of these areas engaged in tussles against the Sultan in search for claiming their sovereignty over the supreme and to have their on share over trading activities (Faridi, 1899 : 75). Even places like Kachchh and Somanath were infamous for the pirates who also played an important role in the control of trade (Sheikh, 2010:87). There were many small port towns which gradually came into existence by 14th C A.D. Like the port of Cambay or present‐day Khambat, due to its geographical location the port used to be a safe corridor for hinterland trading from Patan to the coast which with the coming of the Sultanates emerged as one of the most important ports of Gujarat.

So in nutshell, these were the overall state of affairs upon which the sultanate rule of Gujarat was established and the material culture what we find right now where the consequences of this process.

Medieval Archaeological Research in Gujarat The urge for finding new sites during the initial days in post‐independent era also indirectly affected the medieval segment of Indian Archaeology. It was under the

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leadership of late Prof. R.N.Mehta that this new story of archaeological research, in Gujarat came to the forefront. The types of work that had been done over the years on medieval archaeology of Gujarat according to their developmental phases can be divided into the following.

First Segment (1960‐69) The year 1963 initiated a new beginning of archaeological research on medieval Gujarat, as Prof. Mehta surveyed the left bank of Sabarmati river in Kaira district and plotted a few archaeological sites containing medieval cultural remains like Vallabhi (IAR; 1963 – 64, 9), Kapadvanj (IAR; 1963 – 64, 9) and Delmal (IAR; 1963 – 64, 9). Interesting among them were the findings at Kapadvanj since it contains material remains indicating the site was an iron smelting site of the medieval period (IAR; 1963 – 64, 9). Continuing with him there were some other scholars and organisations as well, who made an effort to understand the cultural phenomenon of medieval Gujarat, like ‐ J.P.Joshi (IAR; 1964 – 65, 10), (IAR; 1966 – 67, 10), (IAR; 1967 – 68, 13), M.P.Vora (IAR; 1964 – 65, 73), State Archaeology Department of Gujarat (IAR; 1967 – 68, 12) and a few more.

Second Segment (1970 – 2000) The excavation at Champaner – Pavagadh Archaeological Park (Mehta; 1988) can be marked as a watershed in the history of medieval archaeological research in Indian Archeology. As an overall tendency, in India, many of the archaeological sites come up with evidence of continuous human occupation up to medieval period (Thapar 1957; Sharma 1989; Mehta 1958; Ansari 1966; Varma 2007; Shinde et al 2011) even in many cases till modern days. However, in proportionate from the sites we receive medieval remains and the actual amount of works we do on medieval periods are always mismatch. And that’s why we need to discuss this specific field research because for the first time an archaeological site apart from its other material substances (Sonawane;1984, Mehta;1986) was studied solely to understand it’s medieval cultural remains.

The influence of processual thoughts in archaeological research also marked a new chapter in the development of Indian archaeology (Two monumental research work can be cited as contruvtions under the brackets of processual throughts in Indain Archaeological context. Those are in theoretical context ‘New archaeology and aftermath: A view from outside the Anglo Americal World’ (Paddayya, 1990) and in applied part ‘Excavation at Inamgaon’ (Dhavalikar et al., 1988)) including its medieval segment. R.N.Mehta, the pioneer of medieval archaeological research, came up with an idea of ‘preliminary reconnaissance’ which he visualized while working at and later he developed at Champaner (Mehta,1980; 3). The main idea was to do a thorough investigation of particular sites by making a base map with help of topographical data and other associated measurements to understand the very nature of the area before conducting any further research. Thus, as a part of a strategy, he

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Munshi 2017: 631‐643 along with his teammates made a basic map of the entire region including locating major monuments within the vicinity (IAR; 1969 – 70, 7) of Champaner ‐ Pavagadh.

The excavation started from 1970 – 71 and continued till 1975 – 76. The main aim behind the excavation was to understand the socio‐cultural lifestyle of a medieval society. To have a better understanding of the area, excavator took trenches over three different localities including Amir Manzil (also they levelled this area as Sector A, followed by the area ‘ K1’ which was occupied by the lower ‘middle class’ people, lying in between the main street running east‐west connecting the Kevda and Iteri mosques and lastly the shopping complex which was situated at the south‐west corner of Road No 1 (Sonawane, 2009). However, the excavation was not restricted only to study the material remains recovered from the excavation, rather to some extent it was an attempt also to understand the spatial context of architectural remains along with excavated materials within the intra‐site area of Champaner – Pavagadh.

In addition to this, there were a few more that happened in this phase, like excavation at Udayanarayana temple (IAR; 1975 – 76, 15) at Vadapadra, on Calico Mills (Mehta, 1978) at Ahmedabad, at Dwarka (IAR, 1979‐ 80; 25 ‐ 28), at Rajgadhi mound (IAR: 1987‐ 88, 17) and last but not the list the excavation on Hap (IAR; 1993 – 94, 40). Both the excavation at Vadapadra and Dwarka were conducted with a view to ascertain the cultural chronology of the sites. Whereas, the excavation at Calico Mills was another important venture conducted for a better understanding of cultural approach of medieval Gujarat. As the excavator selected the area to understand the functions of underground water chambers, he came up with a larger image of medieval habitation in relation with contemporary available water resources (Mehta, 1979). The excavation at Hap was a salvage operation conducted by excavation branch Vadodara. The project was designed to know the cultural sequence of the area which was supposed to be affected by the Sardar Sarovar Project (IAR; 1993 – 94, 40). The importance lies in the fact that, according to primary literature Hap was the place where one of the Chauhan prince of Pavagadh took refuge for a short time after driven out from Ahmedabad by Begda around 1484 A.D. Nevertheless, the investigation happened within five different places of fortified complex and the result shows that settlement was inhabited for a short duration of time.

The aim Prof. Mehta was to not only to excavate medieval sites. Rather on a bigger note, his vision was to understand the very nature of medieval Gujarat. As a consequence, inspired by him, a few of his students undertook separate projects in different parts of the state in a way to create a wider frame of Gujarat’s medieval culture. On one hand, where some of the projects were designed to understand the archaeological accumulations (including medieval) within different districts of the same, on the other, a few were also aimed at understanding specific problems related to medieval Gujarat. Noteworthy among these were the works on Banaskantha (Parikh; 1977), Kheda (Momin; 1979), Panchmahals (Sonawane; 1979), Ahmedabad (Mirchandani; 1980), Jamnagar (Bhan; 1983) and Bhavnagar (Jairath; 1989) districts of

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Gujarat state. Most of these were based on exploratory methods through the village to village surveys which articulated the importance of these zones in the medieval polities as they played key roles in shaping up the socio‐economic (including political) scenario of Gujarat. The other, include works based on some specific issues of medieval Gujarat. Like the studies on decorative motives of the mosques in Gujarat (Jadhav; 1981), town planning of Muslim towns (Ahmad; 1982) or ethnoarchaeological study on the potterʹs communities in Gujarat (Hasim; 1977) was worth mentioning about. Based on specific problems these studies in a way reflect the syncretic nature of Islamic culture in medieval Gujarat where the process of Islamisation was highly influenced by the former.

Figure 1: Showing the Excavated Medieval Sites in Gujarat

Apart from these interdisciplinary approaches this phase also witnessed some extensive and thorough surveys in search of finding medieval cultural remains within Gujarat. Important ones were in the districts of Mahasena (IAR; 1989 – 1990, 1992 – 1993, 1997 – 98), Banaskantha (IAR; 1991 – 92, 1992 – 93, 1993 – 94) and Panchmahal (IAR; 1997 – 98, 1998 – 99).

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Third Segment (2000 – Till Present) Apart from regular exploration and a few excavations, (Excavation at Champaner – Pavagadh Archaeological Park. This time excavation happened within the citadel. A small excavation, where “a trial trench was laid out in the front portion of the centrally protected monument of Three Cells, in order to check whether any octagonal shaped structure is extending towards this monument or not.” (IAR, 2011 – 12; 5). And a small trail trench had been taken in Bhagatra (Gaur and Sundaresh; 2016) the recent decades witnessed a new segment in the field of research in Gujarat’s medieval archaeology. Like the marine archaeological research conducted by National Oceanographic Institute, Goa on the coast of Gujarat. The urge of determining the role coastal zones behind the historical development of the state showed that during medieval times many port sites came into existence and a few of them also played a key role to control the trade network of that time. Like the port of Ghoga. Where they found that it was not only a mere port site, rather it might be stone anchor manufacturing centre which acted as a transit port between the upper part of Gulf of Khambhat and rest of the ports in Indian Ocean countries before Bhavnagar emerged as a major trading centre (Gaur; 2010, 2015). However, not only Ghogha but also there were a few more which came up as a result of extensive exploration over the coast like Navibandar; which played the role of an ‘auxiliary’ port to Porbandar (Gaur et al; 2013, 01) along with Miyani (Gaur et al; 2007, 2011), Visawada (Gaur et al; 2007, 2011), Dabhol (Gaur et al; 2009) and a few more. Even the exploration at Vallabhipur (Gaur et al; 2011, 96) suggests that the rapid changes in shoreline must have been affected the historical and medieval trade around Gulf of Khambat. Along with the previous, another notable project that needs to be mention was the work that had been carried out over the Kachh region of Gujarat by Dr Shirvalkar from Deccan College over the Nakhatrana and Bhuj taluka of the same district. The exploration brought to light a number of medieval sites starting from temples to underground storage structures with a varied range of archaeological materials. The importance lies in the fact that not only for the first time such a vast number of the sites with rich antiquities got reported from the Kachchh but also the sites showed that they had a connection (As the author said that the artifacts “were found from all these sites in various conditions was an important artefact to mark the cultural affiliations of these sites. In general archaeological material helps in validating the literature and legends but in this case oral traditions and legends have helped in putting the archaeological material in the context.” (Shirvalkar et al; 2015, 455)) with the popular folklore of the region (Shirvalkar et al; 2015) which in a way reveal their identities and talks about their beliefs. Based on these types of works, one can assume the upcoming trends in medieval archaeological research, combining multi‐ disciplinary approaches and giving priorities to new methods via opening different avenues to answer particular problems regarding medieval archaeology of Gujarat.

Material Culture of Medieval Gujarat Considering discarded materials as a medium to represents contemporary society and along with bearing in mind about their representation during medieval India, one can

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see that the material cultures what we are dealing with are widely varied in nature and even the process of their elucidations are sometimes tricky too. Because here not only one has to deal with some thrown away substances, abandon areas or primary texts to understand the situation but one also should keep in mind the complex temporal context of each and every finding they found. Thus while debating about the overall material culture of medieval Gujarat one have to keep in mind the formation process upon which the materiality is based on.

Habitation Site To start with, letʹs discuss habitation sites. Compare to other periods, in medieval, habitations usually got spread over vast areas which caused the emergence of a few large habitation sites around Gujarat Champaner (Ahmad;1982,Mehta; 1988, Sonawane 2009), Ahmedabad (Ahmad; 1982, Mehta;1979) ,Vadodara (Ahmad;1982), Bharuch (Ahmad;1982), a strategic location that the natural resources were also easily available for them. Khambat (Ahmad 1982), Patan (Ahmad; 1982) etc are good example of this kind. Among these, where a few enjoyed the status of capital cities rests acted as important pockets for controlling the overall polity and economy of the state. Even patterns of these settlements illustrate that all were laid on important trade routes along with on suchNonetheless not only the big cities that catch our attention rather small ports like Navibandar (Gaur et al; 2013, 01), Miyani (Gaur et al; 2011, 91) and even sites like Korda (IAR; 1992‐ 93, 24), Jakotra (IAR; 1992‐ 93, 24), Jhandada (IAR; 1992‐ 93, 24), Gadha (IAR; 1992‐ 93, 24) and many more small sites like these poised same equal importance behind the upliftment of contemporary Gujarat.

Ceramics, Bricks and Other Entities Sherds like plain and burnished red wares along with plain and burnished black wares are the dominant markers of medieval Gujarat. In addition, glazed wares also seemed to be quite popular during this stretch. Ceramics like painted glazed wares, green or blue glazed wares on red or buff body sherds, blue and white glazed ware on gritty white fabric, porcelains, celadon and well fired glazed wares were in dominance during the medieval period. Major shapes we can find in stratified contexts are bowls, deep bowls, jars, spouted vessels, lids, Lota, Ghada, handi, Malta, etc (Mehta; 1979, 1988). Even from the site of bhagtra carinated handi have been reported by the excavators (Gaur and Sundaresh; 2016, 86) However, recent studies reveal a different set of ceramic assemblages which were in use through the medieval days around Khachh region. As the researchers pointed out that these types are a “completely new set of ceramic assemblage” which “has not yet been reported from Kachchh or elsewhere in Gujarat” (Shirvalkar et al; 2015, 445). Potteries of this variety is mainly comprised of Red ware, Red slipped, Kaolinite Ware, Grey / Black ware, Islamic Ware and Moulded wares. However moulded wares are rare in compared to other wares found in this region and paintings are mainly reported on red ware and kaolinite ware. Since we do consider ceramics are to be one of the authentic identification markers of a phase then the findings of different varieties within the same region might instigate us

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Munshi 2017: 631‐643 to know their pattern of usage along with their purpose of using. Yet to what extent this type of findings affected the contemporary complex administrative and social units of medieval India, which in this case, Gujarat and vice ‐ verse, is a matter of discussion.

Like ceramics, bricks can also be categorized as a signature marker for a phase. Compare to other periods, bricks in medieval India were thinner in shape and it can found in great abundance from contemporary sites in the form of brickbats or in few cases in complete shapes. In Gujarat, the table bricks, which we are discussing right now, according to Prof. Mehta are having different varieties. As he pointed out that bricks reported of Champaner excavations were probably of late 15th C or early 16th C A.D. It measures 30 cm X 22cm X 5.5cm. And apart from Champaner, these type of bricks can also be found at other places like Ahmedabad, Baroda, Surat and other important centres. The other variety measures around 25cm X 20cm X 4.5cm. And it is dated back to 17th C A.D (Mehta; 1979). Therefore the importance of finding bricks from medieval sites are same as finding potteries because both can also help us to understand the relative chronology of a site.

The next part of this discussion is about the antiquities we usually recover from a medieval site. Since very less number of medieval sites had been excavated in Gujarat, therefore, a strong data in a stratified context regarding the antiquities of medieval Gujarat at this stage is tough to produce . However from the excavation reports and other published materials what we can observe that medieval Gujarat contains different varieties of antiquities. Like the glass bangles, shell bangles, beads, smoking pipe, columella, iron slags and iron objects, copper objects, they are common objects one will find from any medieval site. Together with this finding coins also posed equal importance to understand the cultural phenomenon of medieval sites.

However, finding stone anchors (Gaur et al; 2002, 2004, 2005, 2009, 2011, 2013) from coastal areas and terracotta objects (Mehta;1988, Shirvalkar et al; 2015) are worth to mention as a different class of antiquities. Because stone anchors provide sufficient amount of evidence in support of ongoing external trade activities in the medieval period of Gujarat province. For example, the studies on stone anchors of Dabhol (Gaur et al; 2009), Ghogha (Gaur; 2010) and Gulf of Kachh areas (Tripati et al; 2011‐12) indicate us that during medieval phase Gujarat had a strong economic relationship with Iran and Arab. Even the studies show through these anchors that the types of trades going on between the countries in a relation to seafaring activities. And last but not in the list are the terracotta objects reported from medieval sites in Gujarat. Though in general they are reported as toy objects however these products can also be seen as a platform to express the human emotions of contemporary society. Nevertheless, animal figurines were the dominant variety to be found and it seems terracotta horses were very popular among them. In general, these were fashioned with or without a saddle (Mehta; 1988). And the most interesting part is their connection with folklores in some region of Gujarat (Shirvalkar et al; 2015).

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Monumental Architectures Along with habitations come the monumental architectures. The reason behind giving a separate attention to monuments is due to its very nature of endurance. It shows that monuments are having a better chance of surviving in compare to other archaeological records and their multi‐functional ranges expressively attests their importance in complex societies (Trigger; 1990). In medieval Gujarat what we can observe that these monuments were varied widely in nature featuring large houses, religious buildings and buildings meant for special purposes. Even the architectural style which got develop during this phase was also very different from the rest. Known as Indo – Islamic style, this form was popular for its individuality among the rest as it got highly influenced by the contemporary Gujarati culture and evolved as a new art form during medieval Gujarat. Also, the majority of this art can be visualised in religious monuments which in a way raise questions about the very concept of Islamization; a popular myth which to some extent affected the course of Indian history. Nevertheless, apart from forts, temples and mosques, Gujarat can also be acknowledged for other types of structures. Whether they are related with hydrological structures like wells, step wells etc. (Neubauer; 1981) or route indicators like minarets (Monin; 1982‐83) or lighthouses (Gaur et al; 2010, 2011) all are equally significant. Thus, an understanding medieval society with the monuments seems to be a complicated task to accomplish. Because of their strategic locations. Since building architectures on important routes became a trend throughout this phase that’s why priority should be given to understand the surrounding landscape of each n every building one came across during surveys. Which emphasises the point that like other regions monumental architectures of Gujarat also carried some behind the scene moments by making themselves precious to understand the complexity existed during the medieval period.

Discussion From the above discussion, one thing can be ascertained and that’s an overall progress of medieval archaeological research in Gujarat. Starting from a scratch by the end of 19th C and early 20th C, research works now became much more problem‐oriented rather than giving a simple description of a site. However, volumes of cultural remains that survived and simultaneously the number of research problems that had been raised over the decades are still a mismatch. Which actually preventing us to develop ourselves with the advanced theoretical knowledge to understand our medieval past. Like, the survey methods. From the previous records, it can be seen that many of the archaeological sites that had been surveyed over years were either a part of some ongoing projects or got published as a part of yearly research activities. Which caused us down to the fact that on a precise note till now we don’t have many answers regarding how to track down medieval sites. Even there is no typological framework of medieval sites in Gujarat along with an understanding of their relations with other sites. And based on published records even it can be seen that where the researchers in different parts of India are now implementing different survey methods to understand the pattern of medieval settlements in various regions, in Gujarat there is a big lacuna

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Munshi 2017: 631‐643 because it’s still the village to village survey which is the most common method to be used without any serious modification in it. Even the idea of ‘preliminary reconnaissance’ which was developed by Prof Mehta during his time to document medieval sites have not been updated to its full, wherein worldwide for major field surveys usage of non‐destructive methods is trending. Also, over the years very few attempt had been taken to understand the landscape settings of medieval sites in Gujarat. Whereas a little more focus might help us a bit more about the mindset of our ‘recent’ ancestors. Nevertheless as our research methodologies are developing gradually what we can hope that with the help of these little modifications, in near future, same as other fields of archaeological research, medieval archaeology of Gujarat will also be able to shift itself to a new paradigm by making its own way towards one of the popular branch of Indian archaeological research.

Acknowledgement I would like to thank Prof. V.S. Shinde, for all the support he gave to me to write this paper. I am grateful to both the dept. of A.I.H.C and Archaeology and the librarian of M.S. University, Vadodara Mr Bhupesh Niranjan Pathak for granting me the permission to access all the necessary documents. And lastly, special thanks to Dr Soumi Sengupta for helping to develop the map and to Mr. Balaram Kumar for helping me to do the editing.

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