bet dwarka underwater archaeology

Migration & Diffusion, Vol. 6, Issue Number 21, 2005

ANCIENT DWARKA: STUDY BASEDON RECENT UNDERWATER ARCHAEOLOGICAL

INVESTIGATIONS

by

A.S. Gaur, Sundaresh and Sila Tripati

Summary

Dwarka, one of the best-studied underwater sites in India, has commanded much attraction,also because the site is considered as one of the four Dhamas (sacred place for pilgrimage) ofthe Hindu religion. According to ancient Sanskrit literature, the Lord Krishna founded theholy city of Dwarka, which subsequently got submerged under sea. Marine archaeologicalexplorations off Dwarka have brought to light a large number of stone structures, which aresemicircular, rectangular and square in shape in water depth ranging from inter tidal zone to6 m. They are randomly scattered over a vast area. Besides these structures, a large numberof varieties of stone anchors have been noticed along the structures as well as beyond 6 m water depth. These findings suggest that Dwarka was one of the most busy port centresduring the past on the west coast of India. The comparative study of surrounding sitesindicates that the date of the structures of Dwarka may be between Historical period and latemedieval period. The paper reviews the earlier hypothesis about the identification and datingof these structures in light of new evidences from the recent underwater explorations.

Introduction

DWARKA, one of the most importantreligious place / pilgrim centre for Hindus,has also attracted tourists from all over theworld, primarily, due to its fabulousarchitectural planning of the temple Thetown has association with Lord Krishna whois believed to be the founder of this town byreclaiming 12 yojana land from the sea [1].During its heyday, Dwarka was a city ofbeautiful gardens, deep moats, several pondsand palaces [1], but it is believed to havesubmerged just after the death of Lord

Krishna [2]. Dwarka is headquarter of theOkhamandal taluka in Jamnagar District andis situated in the extreme west coast of theSaurashtra peninsula on the Arabian Sea(Figure 1). Gomati creek is flowing on thesouthern side of Dwarka which istraditionally supposed to take its origin fromthe village of Bhavda, about 10 km to theeastward, is known as Mul-Gomti (originalGomati).

Dwarka has been the attraction for historianssince the beginning of the 20th century. Theancient town Dwarka has been described as

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Fig.l: Dwarka is headquarter of the Okhamandal taluka in Jamnagar Districtand is situated in the extreme west coast of the Saurashtra peninsula on the Arabian Sea.

Migration & Diffusion, VoL 6, Issue Number 21, 2005

Baraca by the writer of the Periplus ofErythrean Sea [8]. Dwarka is situated at themouth of the gulf, presently known as theGulf of Kachchh. In the Periplus, the Gulf iscalled Barake and is described as of verydangerous navigation. In Ptolemy, Barake isthe name of an island in the Gulf [9].Controversy surrounds every aspect ofDwarka of the Mahabharata period, rightfrom its location, findings, age etc. Severalliterary references have been cited to confirmor dispute the location Dwarka of theMahabharata period. Pargiter [3] was first tosuggest that Dwarka was located near theRaivataka mountain and elsewhere also hehas mentioned that the city was constructedon the remains of Kusasthali [4], Pusalkar [5& 6} accepted that modern Dwarka was theoriginal Dwarka of the Mahabharata period.The earliest epigraphical reference aboutDwarka came from Palitana copper platedatable to the 6* century AD. Sankalia [7]has strongly argued in favour of modernDwarka as the original Dwarka of theMahabharata period.

Dwarka was the first site in India wheremarine archaeological explorationcommenced and investigations continued foralmost two decades. The paper deals withthe results of marine archaeologicalexplorations undertaken by the MarineArchaeology Centre of the National Instituteof Oceanography, Goa, between 1997 and2001. Though several papers have beenpublished on the findings off Dwarka onvarious aspects from time to time, theprimary objective of this presentation is toappraise comprehensively the earlierobservations and to assess the nature and theinterpretation of structures and their dates.

Methodology

THE PRIMARY data were collected by theunderwater visual survey mainly throughSCUBA diving system. The artefacts likestone structures and anchors were located anda marker buoy was tied to each finding for

detailed measurements and recording.Thereafter, important structures were cleanedmanually by weeding out vegetation andbrushing off sediment particles. At selectedlocations airlift operations were undertakento expose the buried artefacts. Positions ofeach important object were obtained usingGlobal Positioning System and compassreading was taken. Findings were alsodocumented by underwater drawings as well as still and video camera.

Results

THE FINDINGS off Dwarka includestructures hying underwater and stone anchorsof varying sizes in different types such astriangular, prismatic and ring stone. Theresults of inter-tidal zone, near shore zoneand relatively deeper area have beendiscussed here.

In the course of onshore exploration theformation of sand dune was noticed on themouth of river Okhamadi and it is understoodthat the river was navigable about 2000 yearsBP. However, no archaeological objects werenoticed around this area confirming this.

During field season of 2000-2001 four stonestructures of circular in shape have beennoticed in inter-tidal zone of Dwarka (Figure2). These are similar to those found offshoreDwarka earlier. They are lying adjacent tothe mouth of the Gomati creek. A largenumber of rectangular blocks were alsonoticed in this area. The diameter of onestructure is about 2 m. A single-holed conicalstone object is lying well above the highwater line south of Dwarka. Seven stoneanchors were noticed at a depth of 0.5 m to 1 m during low tide. Three of them aretriangular and others are grapnel type. All theanchors are made out of limestone. One ofthe grapnel anchors is the heaviest among thestone anchors so far found in Dwarka area. Ithas two rectangular holes at lower side andan upper circular hole.

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Fig.2: During field season of 2000-2001 four stone structuresof circular in shape have been noticed in inter-tidal zone of Dwarka.

Migation & Diffusion, Vol. 6, Issue Number 21,2005

Findings from offshore Dwarka

The extensive diving operations have beenundertaken in depths ranging from inter-tidalzone to 25 m waters in about 1 km2 offDwarka between 1997 and 2001. On thebasis of archaeological findings entire areahas been divided into 2 locations (Figure 3).The brief description of the findings is givenbelow. For the purpose of convenienceunderwater structures are discussed firstfollowed by stone anchors.

Location A

THE STRUCTURES: The site is lyingopposite to the mouth of Gomati creek, about200 m offshore and southern side of thetransit line of Dwarkadhish (Figure 4) andSamudranarayan temples. The water depthranges between 3 m and 5 m. The seabed iscomprised of natural beach rock formation,which is covered with densely grownvegetation/ seaweeds. Thick deposition ofsand also noticed in the small channels. A large number of scattered stone blocks werenoticed and many of them are found partiallyburied in sediments. Several semicircularstructures were noticed and a few of them arefully scattered. The blocks of semicircularstructures are L-shaped (Figure 5) andprovision for dowels and a few of them havecementing material, which have boundedthem till date. These structures have 2 - 3courses with a 60 - 80 cm height. Theaverage size of one block of semicircularstructure is 95 X 55 X 25 cms.

Besides semicircular blocks a large numberof rectangular blocks have been noticed inthis area (Figure 6). They are scattered inlarge area and do not form any kind ofregular form/ shape at present. However,semicircular structures near these blocksindicate that they are part of the samestructures. The rectangular blocks havevarious size and important ones are120X60X16 cm, 115X50X17 cm,110X50X18 cm, 85X48X16 cm and

45X30X15 cm. These blocks are lying onrocky seabed and a few of them are buried insand. Northern side of this zone a channelwas noticed in which a few structures werenoticed. The exposed portion of these blocksis covered with thickly grown seaweeds and a pinkish layer of marine growth. Theimportant findings may be included a rectangular stone block bearing Gujarati script which may not be very old.

Stone Anchors: From this area 13 stoneanchors were noticed during last three yearsonly, besides those found earlier. They arelying near to the scattered blocks. Amongthem 3 triangular, 7 grapnel and 3 ring stoneanchors have been reported. These are ofvarious sizes. All of them are made oflimestone. Triangular anchors have uppercircular hole and lower two holes are squareand have even thickness. Similarly, grapneltype anchors have a circular upper hole andlower two holes on either side arerectangular. Three ring stones are significantin this area as these were also reported earlierin water depths beyond 8 m in Somnath andin Dwarka waters. Vegetation growth hasbeen noticed over the anchors.

Location B The stone anchors:

1) THE AREA is located westward of thelocation A in the transit line of Dwarkadhishand Samudranarayan temples. Water depthranges from 5 to 8 m. During the season2000-2001, it was first time that we noticedsuch a large number of stone anchors, fromthis site; as during previous explorations thisarea was found to covered with sand. Theseabed in this area is comprised of rockoutcrops and a few sandy patches coveredwith thick vegetation.

Total 34 stone anchors lying randomly in thisarea were recorded. They are of various typeand sizes. A few anchors are partially buriedin sediment however majority of them arelying exposed over rocky seabed. Every

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Fig3: On the basis of archaeological findingsentire area has been divided into two locations.

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Fig.4: Samudranarayan temples.

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Fig.5: The blocks of semicircular structures are L-shaped.

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Fig.6: Besides semicircular blocks a large number of rectangular blockshave been noticed in this area.

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Migration & Diffusion, Vol 6, Issue Number 21,2005

exposed anchor has a thin layer of pinkishmarine growth. Among them 7 triangular, 5 grapnel and 12 ring stone anchors arereported. One of the biggest triangular stoneanchor (Figure 7) has been reported from thisarea (estimated weight is 496 kgs) and so farthis size of the anchor has not been foundfrom any where in India. Similarly, twograpnel anchors of 2.3 m in length have beenreported from this zone, which are perhapsthe heaviest anchors found in Dwarka waters(Figure 8). All the triangular and 13 grapneltypes of anchors are made of limestone white2 grapnel anchors are made out of basalt.

TWELVE RING stone anchors of differentshape and sizes are lying in this area. Ingeneral, ring stone anchor is hemisphericwith a circular axial hole in the center (Figure9), variation include flat topped with orwithout a rough and porous surface. They aremostly made of limestone.

2). The area falls on the southern side of thetransit line of Dwarkadhish andSamudranarayan temples. The water depthranges between 8 and 16 m. The seabed hereis comprised of random rock boulders and a ledge running parallel to shore and insouthern side, a deep channel filled withsand. Airlifting in the channel revealed thedeposition of sand, clay, rubbles and rockbed. In this area very less marine growth wasobserved while anchors were covered with a thin layer of grayish marine growth. A largenumber of anchors were reported from thiszone and they are lying exposed on rockybed, trapped in between rocks and sometimepartially buried in sand. Total 28 stoneanchors of different types and sizes arereported which include 20 grapnel type and 8 triangular type. All of them are made oflimestone except one grapnel anchor made ofbasalt rock. The most interesting point aboutone triangular anchor is the presence of a rectangular hole on upper side which isunique and not reported so far, however it'supper circular hole is broken. The anchor is

made of fine-grained limestone with eventhickness. Another triangular anchor haveadditional circular hole in the center (Figure10), which is also a new phenomena and notreported earlier from here. However, recentlysimilar kinds of anchors have been reportedfrom Bet Dwarka waters. Besides above twotypes anchor, 4 ring stone anchors were alsoreported from this zone. Two were lyingexposed on the seabed while other two werepartially buried in sediment in the channelarea and were exposed by using airlift. Onering stone is made of basalt while other threeare of limestone.

3). The area is situated on the northern sideof the Dwarkadhish and Samudranarayantemple transit line. Water depth ranges from3 to 8 m. The sea bed here is comprised ofrock outcrops and sand accumulations inchannels. At times anchors have been seentrapped in the rock outcrops. Six stoneanchors of different types have been reportedfrom this part. All of them are made oflimestone. Among them two are triangulartype and one of diem is broken upper side.Three grapnel type anchors are intacthowever one of them have been integratedwith rock bed and other one is lying inchannel which was partially buried in sand.The lone ring stone anchor was noticedextreme northern side towards the lighthouse.This is small in size compared to the ringstones of zone 2 and 3. The area isovergrown with seaweeds and other marinegrowth.

Discussions

EXTENSIVE explorations in a large area ofDwarka brought to light a number ofstructures and stone anchors between inter-tidal zone and 16 m water depth. Theseinclude semicircular structures, rectangularand square blocks, different types of anchorsand single holed stone objects. A briefdiscussion on the importance of the findingsis given below.

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Fig.7: One of the biggest triangular stone anchor.

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Fig.8: A grapnel anchor has been reported from this zone,which is perhaps the heaviest anchor found in Dwarka waters.

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Fig.9: In general, a ring stone anchor ishemispheric with a circular axial hole in the center.

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Fig.l0: Another triangular anchor have additional circular hole in the center.

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Structures

Submerged stone structures have beennoticed opposite to mouth of the Gomaticreek between inter-tidal zone and 6 m waterdepths. The structures are lying in a vast area(225 X 275 m) and they are fully scattered.They include semicircular structures anddressed blocks of different sizes.

Semicircular and Circular structures

OFTEN THE structures are lying scattered.Some of them are intact on an average of 2 to3 courses. The blocks used for thesestructures are similar to those found in intertidal zones of Dwarka and Rupen Bandar (about 2 km north of Dwarka) [11]. However,the circular type structures from inter-tidalzone of Dwarka suggest that the offshorestructures may also be circular in shapeearlier and later they collapsed and remnantform is semicircular one. The study of inter-tidal zone structure suggests that dressedblocks were used outer side and centre wasfilled with irregular blocks with bindingmaterial. The position of the structures ininter-tidal indicate their linear alignment,however, offshore structures are disturbedand difficult to comment on their alignment.It has been suggested that these structurescould be the bastions of some fortifiedstructure of a habitational site [12 & 13].However, it is important to note that the basicrequirement for a habitational site such aspottery, coins, seal or any other day to dayuse items has not been recovered so far fromthe offshore structures even after extensiveairlifting in the vicinity. Interestingly, a largenumber of similar kinds of structures havebeen observed near Rupen bundar-a siteadjoining to Dwarka. They are part of a recent jetty, which is now collapsed and lyingsubmerged in the sea and gets exposed duringlow tide. The presence of stone anchorsalong with these structures in Dwarka waterssuggest that may be during earlier period,boats were used to anchor here and it was a very busy port on the Gujarat coast. These

structures in that case, might have served asthe pillar of a jetty.

Dressed stone structures

Along with circular and semicircularstructures, a large number of dressed stoneblocks are observed off Dwarka. They are ofvarious sizes but thickness is same. Thesestructures are identified as remnant offortification wall [12, 13, 14]. Similar kind ofdressed blocks have been noticed in Rupenbundar as well, which forms the structurebetween two pillars. As mentioned earlier,there is no evidence of any habitation fromDwarka. As suggested above, ifsemicircular structures were the part ofpillars of a jetty, then these dressed blockscould be the part of super structure.

Dwarka, being situated on the open sea coast,is prone to storms and coastal erosion. Theexamples from other coastal sites of ancientperiod suggest that generally ancient portswere situated in sheltered places such asclose to the islands, bank of creeks andbackwaters.

Probable date

THESE STRUCTURES have been variouslydated from protohistoric period [12 & 13] tohistorical period [15] but juxtaposingfindings off Dwarka with those from BetDwarka - a site 30 km away without givingany conclusive argument. Bet Dwarka havewell defined evidence of protohistoricsettlement [16]. On comparison of structuresfrom both sites one finds that the structuresof Dwarka comprises of very fine dressedstone blocks and binding material seems tobe of lime mortar while the stone blocks usedfor Bet Dwarka structures on land and inter-tidal zone are not dressed properly andbinding material used is clay mortar further,bastion has not been observed in Bet DwarkaIsland. Therefore, the evidence from BetDwarka Island cannot be used to compare

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with Dwarka structures and both have to beconsidered on merit independently.

The study of the protohistoric settlements inIndia suggests that the bastions have beengenerally provided only in very importantcities and not in each and every town orvillage. One of the most important site ofHarappan period at Lothal does not have a single bastion on it's defense of thefortification wall [17]. Similarly, atNageswar another Harappan site does noteven have any fortification and bastions [18].On the other hand Dholavira (authors visitedthe site), Surkotada [19], Kuntasi [20],Bagsra (first author visited the site) andnumber of other important Harappan siteshave square or rectangular bastions.Interestingly, in Dwarka bastions are circularin shape. The circular bastions came intoexistence only in 11th-12th century AD inIndia. The discovery of rectangular stoneblock with Gujarati script from offshoreDwarka suggests that these structures are ofthe late Medieval Period.

THE FINDINGS and dates of Dwarka haveevoked keen curiosity in the scientificcommunity. At times methodology has beenseverely criticized by several scholars. L.B.Kenny [10] opines, "Unless archaeology, anauxiliary science of history, is usedscientifically, along with literary sources, theexcavations of Dwarka would continue to bea pseudo-scientific as they appear to betoday. History is interpretation based onhuman reasoning, not on emotion". In lightof such strong criticisms regarding thevalidity of date of these structures found insubmerged Dwarka, there is an urgent needfor continuing the excavation on scientificlines to arrive at logical solution.

Stone anchors

The out standing discovery of Dwarkaexploration is a large number of stoneanchors of different types and sizes. Anchors

are the fundamental requirement of navigation as every ship need to be anchoredin the sea. The primitive method of anchoringa small boat and craft in the sea might havebeen of a simple stone tied with rope to a hole and throw it in the sea. Subsequentlywith some experience in navigation andrequirement, based on usage and experienceand also availability of material, the shapeand size of these anchors must have evolved.

MORE THAN 120 stone anchors of differentvarieties have been noticed in Dwarkawaters. They are made of limestone, basalt,sand stone and laterite. These are lyingbetween inter-tidal zone up to water depth of16m [21]. Broadly, these anchors can bedivided into the following three groups.

i) Composite type

Most of the 'composite' anchors are made outof locally available calcareous rock,limestone. The nearest source of this rock isat Dhangadra in the Okhamandal area. Theanchors generally have a smooth and evensurface. They usually have a upper circularhole and lower two holes are either circularor rectangular/square. Upper hole is referredas rope hole and lower ones as fluke hole. Incase of the anchors in Dwarka, the upper holegenerally does not have any rope marksexcept a few, which suggest that upper holewill have wooden log with circular sectionand both side of equal length and rope wouldbe tide with this wooden log. This will havetwo advantages i) whatever way anchor fallson the sea bed the upper portion of the anchorwould not be touching seabed due to woodenlog, which will increase grip of lowerwooden flukes on the seabed, ii) there will beless chances of trapping of the anchor in therock since one side is always above theseabed. Raban [22] has suggested that thecomposite anchors from the Indian OceanCountries might be having metal flukes inlower holes; however, in the present casenone of anchor holes had any metallic fluke.

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Though wooden flukes were also not found,however, it is possible that wooden partswould have floated away after breaking ordisintegrated with time. A 17th centuryshipwreck in Goa waters does not have a single piece of wood in Goa waters while thestone anchors are much older. A few anchorsfrom Mediterranean Sea have the remains ofwooden fluke dating back to 14th century AD.However, it should be remembered thatIndian waters, being in tropical conditionswith high productivity could causedeterioration of wood much faster than theMediterranean Sea.

ii) Grapnel type

THE INTRODUCTION of larger boats forlong voyages across the sea, necessitated theinvention of a new type of stone anchor(different from traditionally composite type)which can hold the boat firmly in the sea.Generally, grapnel anchors are long, heavy,and made of fine raw materials compared tocomposite anchors of Mediterranean Sea.Grapnel anchors are confined to the traderoutes and ports visited by Arab tradersaround the Indian Ocean. Therefore, thecredit to introduce grapnel stone anchor goesto the courageous Arab traders. The anchorshave been modelled in such a way thatgripping in sandy and rocky seabed isexcellent and while lifting it will come outeven from a small passage. Often grapnelanchors are very strong and will not be easilybroken while lifting or throwing in the sea.Another quality of this anchor is that itoccupies space on board as compared to othertypes. On several occasion grapnel anchorswere reused as mooring stones. Perhaps allthese qualities led to the extensive use of thiskind of anchors along the Indian Ocean. Thisis evident from the discovery of a largenumber of grapnel anchors from Dwarka,Vijayadurg and Sindhudurg area on theIndian coast [23].

Honor Frost [24] terms these anchors as'Arabic' and 'Grapnel type'. HoweverKapitan [25] has recently argued, that"anchor shanks with rectangular cross sectioncannot belong to grapnels. Shaft of four-armed grapnels is square or round". Hisarguments may be valid when we comparewith modern iron grapnel type however, theidea of introduction of these anchors in placeof composite type suggest that some wherethe thoughts on grapnel type was hidden andeven the function of these anchors could belike grapnel type. Further Kapitan suggestedthat "the use of these anchors as stone shanksand they were not so much applied as shipsanchors to be cast from on board, but servedas mooring anchors." However, recentdiscoveries from Dwarka and Bet Dwarka donot confirm his hypothesis as out of total 80anchors only 2 anchors have a length morethan 2 m and a maximum estimated weightless than 600 kgs while a majority of anchorsare between lm to 1.5 m long and have anestimated weight between 100 to 250 kgswhich can be lifted easily by 3-4 crewmen.From Dwarka only two anchors can serve asmooring and rest of the anchors(individually) cannot hold big boats like ArabDhows. However, a few anchors might haveserved as mooring stones on jetties as theylack upper circular hole and their uppersection is circular which indicate that boatswould have been tied with them but certainlythey can not serve as moorings in seabed dueto their less weight. Kapitan's [25] anotherargument that around the Indian Ocean thereare no safe harbour and they need ananchoring point and these anchors served asmooring anchors is also not on firm footingas a number of places where these anchorsare reported have safe harbour like BetDwarka and Vyaydurg on the west coast ofIndia. However, there are instance wherethese anchors have been reused as mooringstones on jetty and dockyard at Vijaydurgand Sindhudurg. One may be surprised tonote that these anchors were also used aslintel stone in Vijaydurg fort but that was notthe original function of these anchors.

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iii) Ring-stone type

RING-STONE TYPE anchors are thirdvariety found in the Dwarka waters. Twenty-five anchors of this type were found andthese lie scattered from inter-tidal zone to16m water depths. An importantcharacteristic of the ring-stone anchor is itscircular shape, with an axial hole. Often, thebase of ring-stone is flat and top is semicircular rising to a certain height. Most of thering-stone anchors remain exposed on theseabed; however, a few are partially buried inthe sediments. Up to a depth of 8 m, theexposed portion of ring-stones is coveredwith marine growth such as seaweeds.Beyond this depth they are covered with a thin layer of greyish marine growth. Theyare normally found lying in vertical position,tilted and flat positions are not uncommon. A few ring-stones also have the evidence ofchisel marks on their surface, around the holeand on the flat bottom side. There have beenvarious suggestions on the uses of these ring-stones such as doorjamb [13] and fish netweight however, recently Gaur et al. [26-27]have conclusively proved that these wereused as anchors for boat and also originatedat Saurashtra coast therefore they have beentermed as Saurashtra anchors.

Probable date of the anchors

The dating of stone anchors is very complexin the absence of any archaeologicalassociation and markings. A few anchorswith marking have been reported from theMediterranean [28]. In the absence of directevidence the stone anchors have to be datedby comparing them with anchors of similarshape and size elsewhere as was donepreviously by Honor Frost [29]. Such datedanchors fall within a large range ofarchaeological time, between 2500 BC andAD 1400 in the Mediterranean. In India theearliest anchors have been reported fromLothal and Kuntasi and were dated to theHarappan phase [17 & 20]. The presentanchors are entirely differently in shape and

size compared with those from Lothal andKuntasi. Therefore, the anchors of Dwarka,are not to be associated with the Harappan orthe Late Harappan Phase.

Onshore explorations on the Maharashtracoast brought to light stone anchors atVijaydurg [30], Sindhdurg [31] and in Goawaters [32]. In Vijaydurg 8 grapnel typeanchors used as lintels in the parapet wall ofthe fort during Maratha period have beenidentified. This suggests that these anchorswere in use prior to the Maratha Period.Further, mooring stones have been identifiedon the unused dockyard located on theVaghotan riverbank. Archaeologically theseports are dated earlier than the Christian era.Honor Frost [33] terms grapnel anchors asArabic and Proto Grapnel. Raban [34]believes that if these anchors werefundamentally made for safer anchorage in a coral bottom typical of the Indian Ocean,then they were not necessarily confined toArab boats of modelled by Arab influence.Parallels to this type of anchor have beenfound in the Red Sea on the Lone Mushroomwreck [34]. A similar type of grapnelanchor is reported from Kilwa Kisiwani andMogadishu on the East African coast [35].Whitehouse's [36] excavations at Siraf on thePersian Gulf have yielded two fragmentarystone shanks of a similar nature, which hecompares with a complete specimen found bythe villagers at the same place. According tohis dating these stratified fragments are notlater than the 8th century.

THERE ARE several references aboutanchors in Arabia stories of 10th -12th

centuries related to navigation, which refer tosometime very heavy anchors [37].Therefore, it seems an obvious assumptionthat they were stone anchors and also veryheavy ones. They might have been grapneltype anchors. When a ship was overloaded,anchors were dropped at a known place andon the return voyage they were picked upagain. In the process they were losing

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anchors and these are often found underwatertoday.

From the above mentioned examples thedates of the stone anchors from theOkhamandal area may not be earlier than thehistorical period but not later than the 14th

century AD. To achieve a firm dating anchorwill need to be found associated with otherarchaeological material; for instance,shipwrecks or a dated context on land.

Conclusions

THE CONCENTRATION of the dressedstone blocks and structures are observed onlyat one location opposite to Gomati rivermouth, and at no other locations in the area.It is therefore inferred that the constructionalactivity was limited only to this area and theport town (jetty) was not covering the largearea. Anchors found beyond these structuressuggest that the boats were anchored awayfrom these construction sites.

Based on extensive, systematic underwaterscanning of the area and specially absence ofany pottery or other artefact even after airliftoperations / underwater excavation at severalplaces during last few years, presentexploration do not suggest that they belong tosome habitation site, they rather appear to bethe remains of a jetty.

The studies of surrounding archaeologicalsites indicate that the submerged structuremay not be as old as suggested earlier. . However, the date of these structures may bestill a matter of debate. A stone block withGujarati script, found from the area indicatesa later date for the stone structures. Recentdiscoveries of stone anchors from all over thecoasts of Indian Ocean suggest that Dwarkaanchors may be related to Indo-Arab tradebetween 8th century and 15th century AD.However the date of stone anchors is subjectto revision in the light of their associationwith some archaeological sites.

A large number of stone anchors fromDwarka waters indicate that Dwarka was oneof the most active ports in the past.

Explorations and excavations in Okhamandalarea have brought to light two protohistoric(Harappan Period) sites at Nageshwar andBet Dwarka so far and few historical periodsites such as at Dwarka, Bet Dwarka,Dhrasanbel, Positra and Pindara. Othermodern villages probably came into existenceduring medieval period. The findingssuggest that Okhamandal area attracted theseafarers and settlers from the very beginningof the civilization in India and continued tilltoday, perhaps due to the richness of thevarieties of shells, fishes, conducive climateand safe harbour.

Acknowledgements

Authors are grateful to the Director, NIO forfacilitating the study and permitting topublish the paper. Thanks also due to Shri.K.H. Vora, Scientist-in-Charge of MarineArchaeology Centre for suggesting variousimprovements in the manuscript and advisingto publish in the Journal of Migration andDiffusion. We are thankful to Mr. S. N.Bandodkar for underwater photographs. Mr.S. B. Chitari prepared line drawings and Mr.G. R. Desai assisted in the field and we thankthem.

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Correspondence address:

A.S. Gaur, Sundaresh and Sila TripatiNational Institute of Oceanography

Dona PaulaGoa India 403 004

e-mail: asgaur@darya. nio.org

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