Varanasi Banaras Hindu University (BHU) is putting together a crack team of experts, historians, philosophers and archaeologists for a new project – exploring whether Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi city, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency, and Gujarat’s Vadnagar town, his place of birth, shared an ancient connection.
The new project – titled Relationship Bond between Kashi and Vadnagar Since Ancient Times – was conceptualised by the department of history of arts, BHU. The university has now signed an agreement with the Union ministry of culture and the Gujarat cultural department for the project, said professor Atul Tripathi, head of the department of history at BHU.
“After excavation at Vadnagar, it came to light that area was a major centre of Buddhism. The relation between Kashi and Vadnagar cannot be ruled out as many stupas were found in Vadnagar. Many foreign writers have mentioned Vadnagar in their writings,” said Tripathi.
He said the project will focus on the factors that may have played a crucial role in developing a relationship between Varanasi and Vadnagar around 2,000 years ago.
The four-member team will comprise archeologist Vidula Jaiswal, professor of philosophy at BHU Mukul Raj Mehta, and art historians Tripathi and Lal Ji. More members may be added later. The team will soon visit Vadnagar and try to find evidence of a relation between the two cities since the fifth century.
“We will mainly focus on history, culture and archaeological facts,” said Tripathi, adding that the link between the two cities was established by Buddhist monks.
“Around 1500 to 2000 years ago, Buddhist monks traveled from Sarnath, the place where Buddha preached to his pupils, to Vadnagar via Mathura and Sanchi. There is evidence related to Vadnagar at both these places,” said Tripathi.
At an excavation in Vadnagar over a decade ago, a Buddhist monastery was unearthed.
Principal investigator Prof Mehta said, “Several similarities have been observed in Sarnath and Vadnagar in excavated remains.”
Under the project, different aspects of the excavated remains available in the two cities will be studied from cultural, social, contemporaneous, archeological viewpoint, he said.
