Accordingly, a project, called 'Archaeology of the Ramayana Sites', was planned and initiated by the present writer in 1975 when he was working at the Jiwaji University, Gwalior. There was, however, an interruption and it was only in 1977, after the writer had joined the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, that the project was put on a regular basis. Until 1987 it was operated jointly by the Institute and the Archaeological Survey of India. The latter gave full financial support for the field-work and also deployed its officers and staff. Since November 1987, it is the Survey alone that is supporting the project by providing facilities for the preparation of the reports, which are likely to cover five volumes.

In the Ramayana story, the principal place is Ayodhya, the capital of King Dasaratha whose son, Rama is the hero of the epic. Located on the right bank of the Sarayu (Fig. 1) in Faizabad District, Uttar Pradesh, the site covers an area of over one sq. km.

Under the research project in hand, excavations have been carried out at five of the aforementioned places, namely Ayodhya.

Results of the Excavations:

Ayodhya - Judging from the size of ancient settlements, the mound at Ayodhya is fairly large. It covers an area of about one square kilometre and rises at places to a height of about 10 meters.

The excavated trenches consistently revealed that the earliest settlement at Ayodhya did not go back prior to the early stage of the Northern Black Polished Ware (NBPW) Culture. In these early levels a few stray shards of a late stage of the Painted Grey Ware (PGW) were also encountered, but sure enough there was no independent horizon of the PGW. Nor was there any such horizon of the Black-slipped and Black-and-red Wares.

Without any interruption, the habitation passed on to the Sunga, Kushan and Gupta periods.

A reference here may also be made to an inscription on a stoneslab, discovered not from our excavations but long back in a suburb of Ayodhya, known as Ranopali. Ascribable to the second half of the first century B.C., it refers to the construction of a ketana (shrine) by Dhanadeva who has been mentioned as Kosaladhipa, i.e. king of the Kosala'... From this inscription it is clear that Ayodhya continued to be the capital of the Kosala kingdom during the early centuries before and after the Christian era.

In the Janmabhumi area, the uppermost levels of a trench that lay immediately to the south of the Babari Masjid brought to light a series of brick-built bases which evidently carried pillars thereon. (This relates to the 11th century A.D. - Editor). In the construction of the Babari Masjid a few stone pillars had been used, which may have come from this preceding structure. However, in order to confirm this and to obtain a full plan and other details of this earlier structure, it would be necessary to carry out further excavation in the area.

Likewise, horizontal excavation is also necessary of the earliest levels in the Janmabhoomi area, since it is only through such an excavation that one can get the plans of houses and other buildings of the period around 700 B.C. when, as the evidence discussed in the following pages indicates the Ramayana episode is likely to have taken place.

A look back at the results obtained from the above would show that the earliest time when all these sites were under occupation was that of the Early Northern Black Polished Ware, which would be assignable to circa 700 B.C. The two earlier periods, viz., those of the Ochre Colour and Black-slipped Wares, encountered at Sringaverapura are limited only to that site and occur nowhere else. Thus, if the Ramayana episode has any basis in historical reality, the archaeological evidence available to us suggests that it could not have taken place earlier than circa 700 B.C.

But the archaeological evidence, such as it is still mute about the basic question viz the historicity itself. No contemporary inscription testifying to it is available to us. Nor is any such evidence likely to turn up since we have not come across any inscription prior to the fourth century B.C.But then does the Archaeological evidence completely fail to provide any clue whatsoever which might help us in solving the riddle of the historicity of the Ramayana even partially? The position is not so bad as it appears to be.

To sum up. The archaeological evidence does indicate that the Ramayana is not the figment of somebody's imagination but may have had a kernel of truth at its base. Thus, the description of houses, town-planning, etc. would correspond more to the period of the transcription of the text - from second century B.C. to second century A.D. - than to the actual period of the episode itself, which appears to have been around 700 B.C.

(Source: The Manthan Monthly, New Delhi, October, 1990)