Agroha, locally known as ''Ther'', is an

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...

located in Agroha, in the Hisar district of

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Location

The mounds are located about 1.5 km from the town of Agroha, 20 km from Hisar city and 190 km from

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

in Hisar district of

Haryana Haryana () is a States and union territories of India, state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out after the linguistic reorganisation of Punjab, India, Punjab on 1 November 1966. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with les ...

. It lies on National Highway 9 (old NH-10).

Rediscovery and excavation

The excavations first started in the year 1888–89 under C.J. Rogers. It restarted in the year 1978-79 by the Archaeological Department of Haryana under the supervision of J.S. Khatri and Acharya.

Belief

The Agrawal community believes that the archaeological findings are related to their legendary founder— Maharaja Agrasena, whose capital is said to have been at Agroha. Agrawal organizations such as Akhil Bharatiya Agrawal Sammelan and Agroha Vikas Trust have supported archaeological research at the site.

Historical significance

According to the official website of Hisar, the excavations at Agroha belong to the period from the 3rd-4th century B.C. to the 13th-14th century A.D. A wall for defense, shrine cells and residential houses can be observed in the mound.

Notable artifacts

Around seven thousand artefacts were recovered during the excavations.

Coins

Silver and bronze coins belonging to different periods have been found at the site. The coins hoard includes four Indo-Greek coins, one punch-marked coin, and fifty-one coins of Agrodaka. They belong to Roman, Kushana, Yaudheya and

Gupta Empire The Gupta Empire was an Indian empire during the classical period of the Indian subcontinent which existed from the mid 3rd century to mid 6th century CE. At its zenith, the dynasty ruled over an empire that spanned much of the northern Indian ...

. Language used is

Prakrit Prakrit ( ) is a group of vernacular classical Middle Indo-Aryan languages that were used in the Indian subcontinent from around the 5th century BCE to the 12th century CE. The term Prakrit is usually applied to the middle period of Middle Ind ...

Seals

Many seals have also been found. They are inscribed with words like ''Pitradutt'', " Sadhu Vridhasya", "Shamkar Malasya", "Madrsya", etc.

Others

Besides the numerous stone sculptures, iron and copper implements and beads of semi-precious stones have also been found.

References

Bibliography

{{DEFAULTSORT:Agroha Mound Tourist attractions in Hisar district Archaeological sites in Haryana Agroha (town) Buddhist pilgrimage sites in India Buddhist sites in India