Kausambi Revisited

Contents: Preface. 1. Introductory/B.B. Lal. 2. When Did Udayana Rule? In the Sixth Century BCE or the Sixteenth Century CE? An Assessment of the Dating of the Palace-complex at Kausambi/B.B. Lal. 3. Are the Defences of Kausambi Really as Old as 1025 BC?/B. B. Lal. 4. The So-called Syenachiti at Kausambi: A Fallen Brick-mass/B.B. Lal. 5. The Use of Arch in the Kushan Palace at Kausambi/K.V. Soundara Rajan. 6. The Fortification at Kausambi/A. Ghosh. 7. Stratigraphy and Chronology of Early Kausambi - A Reappraisal/K.K. Sinha. 8. To Conclude/B.B. Lal. References. Index. 

Located on the left bank of the Yamuna, at a distance of about 50 kilometres south-west of Allahabad, Kausambi is decidedly one of the most important sites of early historical India. 

Excavations carried out over here by the late Professor G.R. Sharma and his colleagues have brought to light many noteworthy structures and antiquities. However, some of the structures have wrongly been adjudged. For example, a fallen mass of bricks has been identified as a syena-chiti (eagle-shaped altar for sacrifice), or a medieval large-sized structure as the palace of the renowned king Udayana who in fact ruled around 500 BCE. 

This booklet seeks to set right these misinterpretations, giving cogent reasons in each case. This has been done not to malign anybody but to make the truth reveal itself.