Page:Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India 1927-28.pdf/23

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 * } ing from Sir John Marshall's deputation on Special Duty the editing of this Report has devolved upon his successor.
 * } ing from Sir John Marshall's deputation on Special Duty the editing of this Report has devolved upon his successor.

In the last Report the Director General gave a brief résumé of the policy of the Department in the matter of the rival claims of conversation, exploration, research and epigraphy, and pointed out that the increased grant of two and a half lakhs now rendered it possible to devote adequate attention to exploration. The provision of this same grant in 1927-28 enabled excavations to be carried out at Mohenjodaro and Jhukar in Sind, Harappa and Taxila in the Punjab, Sarnath in the United Provinces, Nalanda in Bihar, Paharpur in Bengal, Nāgārjunikonda in the Madras Presidency and at Pagan and Hmawza in Burma. While it is unfortunately impossible to report such sensational finds as those recorded in 1926-27, the detailed accounts set forth in the Report give ample evidence that the excavations have generally yielded results of great archæological interest.

Save for the researches of Major Mockler in Makran over fifty years ago and my own in Sarawan and Jhalawan in 1925, Central and Southern Baluchistan had remained, from the archæological point of view, an entirely unexplored region. That it remains so no longer is due to Sir Aurel Stein who, in continuation of his valuable researches in Wazīristān and Northern Balūchistan toured extensively between November 1927 and April 1928 in the Sarawān, Jhalawān, Khārān and Makrān divisions of the Kalāt State. During that period he surveyed no less than sixty-five sites and at fifteen of these carried out trial excavations. These explorations, dealt with below, have resulted in the discovery of remains dating from early chalcolithic to historic times and reveal the former existence of these regions of a very widespread chalcolithic civilisation. In the case of the curious stone embankments so abundant in parts of these regions, and known locally as gabrbands, it is interesting to note that Sir Aurel Stein, confirms the opinion advanced in the Annual Report for 1925-26 that these are to be attributed, not to the Zoroastrian period as the name suggests, but to the chalcolithic age.

In the matter of conservation it is gratifying to be able to record an increasing realization by local bodies of their obligations in this direction and a recognition that the maintenance of ancient monuments is not entirely the concern of the Central Government. In this connection it may be noted that one-third of the total cost of the repairs to the tank and temples of the ghat at Viramgam in the Bombay Presidency was borne by the local Municipality while to the total coast of Rs. 20,017 expended on the conservation of the remains at the fort at Rohtasgarh, the Government of Bihar and Orissa generously contributed on-half.