River’s secrets

KALIDASA wrote endearingly of it in the Meghdoot. But it’s difficult to relate Kalidasa’s pristine Verawati river to the sullied B...

KALIDASA wrote endearingly of it in the Meghdoot. But it’s difficult to relate Kalidasa’s pristine Verawati river to the sullied Betwa. Fortunately, all that has begun to change. A six-month old initiative to clean the Betwa has not only brought the sparkle back to the waters but also thrown up ancient sculptures, two of them belonging to the Gupta period—rare finds in this area.

The voluntary project was headed by collector Sudha Choudhary. ‘‘The condition of the ghats was very bad but I could see that the people here were emotionally attached to this river. Many of them were deeply upset with the state of the Betwa.’’ The shramdan slowly picked up. The riverbed has been desilted for over a kilometre and retaining walls built.

As the desilting work proceeded from Hanumanghat to the older Mahalghat, the volunteers chanced upon ancient sculptures from the riverbed. For the residents of this town, archeological finds are not entirely rare. At the entrance to the district archeological museum stands a 12 foot Kuber statue from the second century BC, the only one of its kind. Before it was found in the mid-60s, it was being used as a platform for washing clothes on the ghats.

Surrounded by the past

A thriving trading town in Mauryan times, it was from Vidisha that Mahendra and Sanghmitra, Emperor Ashoka’s children, set out to spread Buddhism in Sri Lanka. History comes alives in Vidisha and its vicinity.
• Sanchi: 10 km south of the town, it’s a world heritage site with stupas and an Ashokan pillar dating back to the third century BC.
• Heliodorus Pillar: North of the town. A monolithic column dated to 140 BC, the pillar bears an inscription that states that it was a Garuda Pillar, raised in honour of Vasudeva by Heliodorus, a resident of Taxila.
• Udaigiri Caves: Cut into a sandstone hill, 5 km from Vidisha are a group of rock-cut cave sanctuaries. An inscription in one of these states that it was produced during the reign of Chandragupta II (382-401 AD).
• Bijay Mandal: A mosque built by Aurangzeb at the site of a Parmar sun temple. The site also has a Baoli dating back to the seventh century AD pointing to the pre-Parmar origin of the sun temple.

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What has been surprising however is the large number of artefacts found —132 of them ranging from the Gupta period artefacts dating to fourth century AD to sculptures from the Parmar periods of the eleventh century.

According to D K Mathur, curator of the district museum: ‘‘While Vidisha has an unbroken record of human habitation ranging from the rock painting of Nimkeria to the present day town, the Gupta period finds are rare.’’

And this is just the beginning. Says Sudha Choudhary: ‘‘Most of the larger pieces are still lying on the riverbed and are now under water. My guess is that a dismantled temple lies there. We were unable to arrange for a crane to pull out some of the structures, now we will wait for next year when the water recedes.’’

Betwa may throw out more surprises.

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