Excavation at the Raja Rao Ram Baksh Singh fort has yielded only pottery and artefacts, but no gold as predicted by seer Shobhan Sarkar.
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has finally decided to wind up the excavation work at a fort in Daudiyakheda village of Unnao district as nothing of much significance has emerged after more than 20 days of digging at the site.
The excavation at the Raja Rao Ram Baksh Singh fort would be stopped soon, ASI director Syed Jamal Hasan told reporters on Sunday. He asserted that the exercise had been carried out on the basis of the survey report of the Geological Survey of India (GSI).
“We never started the excavation due to the dream or vision of any seer. We were not looking for any treasure,” he said. “We take up digging at various sites which hold promise of revealing anything of historic value. Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we don’t,” he explained.
The ASI has spent over Rs 50 lakh on the excavation at this site.
The excavation was started at the site on October 18 after a seer Shobhan Sarkar claimed that 1,000 tonnes of gold was buried there. The GSI had carried out a survey and said in its report that a large deposit of metal was indeed buried under the ground in the fort premises. It is only on the GSI’s recommendation that the ASI had started the excavation.
The seer has, however, said that the gold would not be recovered unless the excavation is carried out under his specific instructions. Sarkar has also shot off letters to prime minister Manmohan Singh and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav demanding amendment to the Indian Treasure Trove Act and transparency in the ongoing works.
He said that 80 per cent of the gold which would be recovered from the site should be handed over to the Reserve Bank of India while 20 per cent should be spent on the development of the area in Unnao where the fort is located.
Sarkar had also pointed out in the letter that if the government feels that his demands would not go down well with the people, the government has the right to stop the excavation work as he would have then have no responsibility of its results.
The excavation till now has yielded only pottery and artefacts belonging to the first century BC, seventh century AD, and 17th and 19th century AD. Some shards of black slipped ware, a shard of northern black polished ware along with red ware shards of early historical periods have been found.
The antiquities that have been recovered so far include glass bangles, iron nails, hopscotch (game), fragmentary miniature stone figure of lion, and terracotta arecanut shaped beads.
Also, burnt brick structures like Lakhauri-brick wall, burnt brick wall (1.46 metre long) having brick size — 47 x 24 x 6.75 cm — burnt brick wall (0.97 metre long) having brick size — 48 x 24 x 6.75 cm and two hearths have been found.
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