Identify the following places marked on the map supplied to you and write a short note of about 30 words on each of them in your Question-cum-Answer Booklet. Locational hints for each of the places marked on the map are given below seriatim :
(i) Har

Question

Identify the following places marked on the map supplied to you and write a short note of about 30 words on each of them in your Question-cum-Answer Booklet. Locational hints for each of the places marked on the map are given below seriatim :
(i) Harappan burial site
(ii) Harappan site with radial town planning
(iii) Jain cave painting
(iv) Large Megalithic dolmen complexes
(v) Ancient port
(vi) Ancient capital
(vii) Meso-Chalcolithic site
(viii) Group of early medieval temples
(ix) Ancient capital
(x) Megalithic site
(xi) Neolithic site
(xii) Terra-cotta ring wells
(xiii) Mauryan fort
(xiv) Ancient Buddhist site
(xv) Mesolithic site
(xvi) Megalithic burial site
(xvii) Neolithic ash mound site
(xviii) Site with evidence of monastery, Stupa and Shiva temple
(xix) Chalcolithic and early historic site with five occupational phases
(xx) Buddhist site (50 marks)

UPSC Answer Check · Accepted Answer

(i) Juna Khatiya (Kachchh, Gujarat)
Early Harappan cemetery with numerous graves containing pottery and other grave goods; important evidence for Harappan funerary practices and social structure in Kachchh.

(ii) Banawali (Fatehabad, Haryana)
Fortified Harappan town excavated by R. S. Bisht from 1974; its radial street plan departs from the usual grid; yielded a terracotta plough model and street soakage jars.

(iii) Sittannavasal (Pudukkottai, Tamil Nadu)
Rock-cut Jaina cave (Arivar Koil) with a Pandya-period fresco-secco ceiling painting of the Samavasarana lotus tank with fish and geese; nearby Jaina stone beds bear Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions.

(iv) Hire Benakal (Koppal, Karnataka)
About 400 Iron Age granite dolmens and passage-chamber tombs (c. 800–200 BCE), among the largest megalithic necropolises of south India; on UNESCO's Tentative List since 2021.

(v) Korkai (Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu)
Early Pandya port on the Tamraparni, identified with the Kolkhoi of the Periplus; famed for its pearl fishery and overseas trade; now several kilometres inland owing to silting.

(vi) Karur (Karur, Tamil Nadu)
Sangam-age Chera capital (Karuvur) on the Amaravati river; a major commercial centre where Chera, Roman and punch-marked coins have been found, confirming its place in ancient trade.

(vii) Pandu Rajar Dhibi (Purba Bardhaman, West Bengal)
Chalcolithic settlement in the Ajay valley excavated by P. C. Dasgupta (1962–65); yielded rice, copper objects, Black-and-Red Ware and human burials.

(viii) Batesvar–Padavali (Morena, Madhya Pradesh)
Group of about 200 small sandstone Shaiva and Vaishnava temples of the Gurjara-Pratihara period (8th–10th centuries CE), re-erected by the ASI; a key example of early medieval temple architecture.

(ix) Ujjain (Ujjayini, Madhya Pradesh)
Capital of the Avanti mahajanapada on the Shipra; a major political, commercial and religious centre associated with Mahakala worship, and important under the Mauryas and Guptas.

(x) Junapani–Mahurjhari (Nagpur, Maharashtra)
Representative sites of Vidarbha megalithic culture; the c. 300 stone circles (cairn burials) at Junapani yielded iron tools, horse bits and black-and-red ware, illuminating Iron Age funerary practice.

(xi) Koldihwa (Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh)
Belan-valley Neolithic site excavated by G. R. Sharma; cord-impressed pottery and rice husk in potsherds; its early rice date is disputed, but it is key to early Ganga-basin farming.

(xii) Bangarh (Dakshin Dinajpur, West Bengal)
Ancient Kotivarsha, a fortified early historic city occupied from the Maurya to the Pala period; excavated by K. G. Goswami (1938–41); yielded terracotta ring wells, NBPW and terracotta plaques.

(xiii) Sisupalgarh (Khordha, Odisha)
Early historic fortified city excavated by B. B. Lal in 1948; a near-square rampart with gateways, dated to the Mauryan–early historic period; major evidence of planned urban defence in Kalinga.

(xiv) Nagarjunakonda (Palnadu, Andhra Pradesh)
Vijayapuri, the Ikshvaku capital (3rd–4th centuries CE) and a major Buddhist centre with stupas and viharas; its limestone reliefs represent the late Amaravati school; now largely submerged by Nagarjuna Sagar.

(xv) Birbhanpur (Paschim Bardhaman, West Bengal)
Type Mesolithic site of Bengal on the Damodar, excavated by B. B. Lal in 1954; yielded non-geometric microliths on quartz and chert, with post-holes suggesting simple huts.

(xvi) Pallavaram (Chengalpattu, Tamil Nadu)
Megalithic burial site with urn and cist burials and black-and-red ware; also where Robert Bruce Foote found India's first recognised Palaeolithic handaxe in 1863.

(xvii) Utnur (Mahabubnagar, Telangana)
Type site of the Southern Neolithic ash mounds, excavated by F. R. Allchin in 1957; the mounds are vitrified heaps of burnt cattle dung within stockaded pens, evidence of early pastoralism.

(xviii) Sirpur (Mahasamund, Chhattisgarh)
Ancient Sripura, capital of the Panduvamshis of Dakshina Kosala; Buddhist viharas and a stupa stand beside the brick Lakshmana temple and the Gandheshwar Shiva temple, showing religious coexistence.

(xix) Noh (Bharatpur, Rajasthan)
Excavated by R. C. Agrawala; five successive phases: Ochre Coloured Pottery, Black-and-Red Ware, Painted Grey Ware, NBPW and Kushana-Gupta, a clear cultural sequence.

(xx) Sri Surya Pahar (Goalpara, Assam)
Principal Buddhist archaeological site of the Brahmaputra valley, with scores of rock-cut votive stupas alongside Jaina and Shaiva images.

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