The untold stories of the 8th century Bhati Rajputs’ glorious capital at Laudravapur in Jaisalmer district will soon be unveiled with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) set to restart its excavation at the site next year.
Some remains of the ancient capital, including dome of a Ganesh temple, portion of a wall of the historic city, a round burj (pillar), godowns of the fort, were unearthed from two spots during an excavation exercise seven years ago. Lack of funds and protests by locals, though, forced the ASI to discontinue the excavation.
The ASI now plans to restart the excavation at the site, nearly 16 km from the main city, and is also looking at developing it as tourist destination once the exercise is complete.
The previous excavation exercise indicated at the existence of a big city, believed to have been buried somewhere between 12th and 13th century AD.
Among some of the artifacts recovered during the excavation were statues of Shiva and Ganesh, stone bowls for grinding and mixing stones and art on yellow stones. The ASI officials feel the site could be developed as a major tourist attraction once the entire process is complete.
According to some historians, Laudravapur was a glorious and prosperous city set up before the 8th century. Historian Nand Kishore Sharma said nearly 300 years before Jaisalmer district was established, Laudravapur was a prosperous city.
Between 8th and 13th century, several From 800-1200, the many glorious names were associated with Ludrava including Sheikh Yusuf, Devraj etc. At that time, attacking officers including Shahbuddin, Mohammad Gauri’s chief Kareeb Kutubuddin Ahmad etc had attacked many times.
src: TOI