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Kalibangan was hiding in plain sight. It deserves more than a footnote to Harappan history

Kalibangan was once dismissed, overlooked and buried in survey records. Its excavation revealed a sophisticated Harappan settlement with fortified cities, planned streets and ritual spaces.

More than a century ago, when the Harappan cities still lay buried beneath the earth, when the history of the subcontinent was thought to begin only in the 6th century BCE, and when there was no known evidence of an Indian Bronze Age, an Italian Indologist, traveller and explorer traversed the undulating sand dunes and flat alluvial plains of the erstwhile Bikaner state on camelback.

Between 1916 and 1919, Luigi Pio Tessitori, who was entrusted by John Marshall, surveyed this rich landscape marked by ancient mounds along the dry channel of the Ghaggar. During his survey, he recorded bardic lore, documented monuments, inscriptions and ancient theris, also known as archaeological mounds. It was the time when archaeology in undivided India was transforming under the keen eyes of Lord Curzon, who appointed young Marshall to head the Archaeological Survey of India over a decade ago.

In the winter season of 1915-16, Harold Hargreaves, superintending archaeologist, was supposed to take a trial trench at Harappa. He had surveyed the site along with YR Gupte, assistant surveyor, who had found two to three seals from the mound of Harappa. While Hargreaves was unimpressed by the site, Gupte was intrigued by the curious characters and animals carved on the piece of steatite. He decided to write about these in an article to be reviewed by Marshall. By 1916, neither was the site excavated by Hargreaves, nor did Gupte publish these seals, and Harappa was pushed into the background until 1922.

However, in 1917, Tessitori stumbled upon a large site near Suratgarh, located close to the dry channel of the Ghaggar. His fascination with the site led him to take up excavation at this site, similar to what Hargreaves was supposed to do at Harappa. This limited excavation by Tessitori brought to light a few brick structures, pottery, some antiquities and three seals, similar to what Gupte found at Harappa a few years prior.

When Tessitori submitted the excavation report to Marshall, he omitted the mention of these seals. If these seals were revealed to Marshall and other archaeologists familiar with material from Harappa, this site and this geographical region would have changed the initial understanding of........

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