Centre for Interdisciplinary Archaeological Research

Vision

CIAR aspires to inaugurate an era of exciting and successful cooperation among various categories of research workers in the university. The idea is faculty-driven and is a consequence of a sustained and serious conversations between historian-archaeologists and biologists. With the core emphasis on interdisciplinary research, the seed of this idea could only be planted at Ashoka which provides the ideal institutional space for an interface between archaeology and the sciences. CIAR represents true integration of high-quality research and education at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels. This is a novel platform that will meld the research interests of the humanities scholars with the science faculty with the primary goal of investigating and teaching the Indian past.

Call for Applications: Centre for Interdisciplinary Archaeological Research

Centre for Interdisciplinary Archaeological Research at Ashoka University invites applications for a full-time faculty position at the level of Tenure-track Assistant Professor in Archaeology.

Ashoka University has established a Centre for Interdisciplinary Archaeological Research (CIAR) which aims to create a state-of-the-art facility that brings archaeology and the sciences to deepen the study of the Indian past. For a nation with an abundance of archaeological riches that can throw light on a range of issues that are of contemporary significance, it is of utmost importance to break the silos and enable cross-talks between science and history/archaeology departments.

Ashoka fellowships in ancient and medieval Indian history/archaeology funded by Anupa Sahney

With the generous funding from Anupa Sahney the Centre for Interdisciplinary Archaeological Research (CIAR) of Ashoka University invites qualified scholars to apply for fellowships in ancient and medieval Indian history/archaeology. These are aimed at encouraging field research, interdisciplinary collaboration, and documentation of archaeological remains, museum collections, manuscripts, vernacular writings, and archives. 

Foray into the forest: Bandhavgarh National Park and its Archaeology

Bandhavgarh National Park is known for its lush biodiversity and its famed resident- the Royal Bengal tiger, and for that reason, is one of the crown jewels of Madhya Pradesh. With a core area of 105 sq. km and a buffer area of about 400 sq. km, it was declared a national park in 1968 and became a tiger reserve in 1993. The Tala segment of Bandhavgarh, the locale of our archaeological exploration, is a tapestry of two high forest clad hills Bandhavgarh and Bandheini, among stretches of flatlands with extensive meadows. The Bandhavgarh hill dominates the landscape with its rectangular plateau on the summit marked by a medieval hill-fort giving it the name. The forest here is a moist tropical deciduous one, dominated by Sal trees, bamboo clumps, and other varieties ranging from woody ficus to the gnarly Indian frankincense.

Sonipat – Sites and Sights

What is it about Sonipat and its surrounding areas that speaks of its history? And how does one sight the sites where this is inscribed? With the aim of exploring old places there, Ashoka University’s Centre for Interdisciplinary Archaeological Research commenced a survey in February 2023.

The surveyed terrain ranges from sites in the floodplain (or ‘khadar’) of the Yamuna river to older alluvial tracts (or ‘bhangar’) in Sonipat district (Haryana) and Baghpat district (Uttar Pradesh) which lies on the eastern side of the river. What we encountered was a hodge podge of archaeological remains that are surviving cheek by jowl in the midst of modern villages and towns, fields and factories. There are ancient mounds which look like low and high hills standing above the flat plains. The ceramics lying on the surface and in eroded sections of such mounds are indicators of their antiquity. There are also pottery scatters in cultivated fields, and there are medieval relics ranging from Mughal ‘kos minars’ (distance markers) to wells. All of this – the archaeological sites and the monuments – gives a first-hand feel of being in the presence of a past going back to the second millennium BCE and continuing into the sixteenth century and later.