Speaking Archaeologically™

“Once through this ruined city did I pass I espied a lonely bird on a bough and asked ‘What knowest thou of this wilderness?’ It replied: ‘I can sum it up in two words: ‘Alas, Alas!’”                                         -Khushwant Singh Members Diptarka, Simran and Debyani at the site. I still remember those trips to my grandparents’ house in Faridabad. Almost with a childlike wonder, would I ask them, whenever we passed by Tughlaqabad, “What is that ancient looking, broken structure? Does anyone live there?” and their response would usually include a laugh and the retelling of the famous story of the curse of Tughlaqabad. That curiosity, though diminished over the years, still left that little spark in the corner of my mind. And so when D...

The Manauli Fort, Mohali The morning of August , the day of the season’s first site visit carried with it a wave of familiarity. In the car, on the way to the site, as we were seated alongside a bunch of eager new recruits, memories from Batch 2018’s first site visit last year dropped by to say hello. The Manauli fort, located in a tiny hamlet in Punjab, approximately 15.5 Km from Chandigarh, was once a symbol of bolstering defence and Sikh pride. Several local testaments reveal that the fort was built sometime in the 17th Century, by a certain Mughal ruler. A century later, as the Sikh-Muslim enmity took shape in the form of several battles and Misls came to power in the state of Punjab, Nawab Kapoor Singh of the Singhpuria Misl clinched the fort from the Mughal ruler and encouraged his fellow Sikhs to settle in the area. Today, akin to an old man with several afflictions, it’s a desolate piece of history crumbling away amid state apathy The present state...