Shambhudan Gadhvi is a former master clerk and amateur

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...

from Gujarat who discovered the Indus valley site of

Dholavira Dholavira () is an archaeological site at Khadirbet in Bhachau Taluka of Kutch District, in the state of Gujarat in western India, which has taken its name from a modern-day village south of it. This village is from Radhanpur. Also known loc ...

in the early 1960s.

Discovery of Dholavira

During the Kutch famine in 1960s, Shambhudan Gadhvi was supervising on a

drought A drought is a period of drier-than-normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, ...

relief work at Kotda ( from the Dholavira site) when he found Harappan seals with the shape of animals. While supervising the digging of a small dam to collect the monsoon waters, he discovered numerous artifacts; prominent among them were fragments of Indus seals. He recognized that the seals belonged to the

Harappan civilization The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation, was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form from 2600 BCE t ...

by comparing it to the pictures that he found in his son's history textbook issued by the

Gujarat government The Government of Gujarat, also known as Gujarat Government, is the supreme governing authority of the Indian state of Gujarat and its 33 districts. It consists of an executive of the legislators appointed by the Governor of Gujarat, a judiciary ...

. He subsequently searched for more seals and collected numerous artifacts — decorative ceramics, fragments of carnelian beads, and metal objects. Shambhudan preserved the ancient relics in his house and also sent many relics to

Kutch University Krantiguru Shyamji Krishna Verma Kachchh University is a state university in Gujarat, India that promotes higher education in regional and rural areas of the country. It is named after Shyamji Krishna Varma of Kachchh, Gujarat. History Colle ...

. He collected some beads, pottery shards, and artefacts from the Dholavira site and went to the curator of

Kutch Museum Kutch Museum is a museum located opposite to the Hamirsar Lake in Bhuj, in the Kutch district of Gujarat, India. It is the oldest museum of Gujarat which was founded in 1877. It is located opposite Hamirsar Lake. The museum was earlier known ...

Bhuj Bhuj () is a city and the headquarters of Kutch district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Etymology According to legend, Kutch (Kachchh) was ruled by the Nāga chieftains in the past. Sagai, a queen of Sheshapattana, who was married to King B ...

and reported the site to the

Archaeological Survey of India The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is an Indian government agency that is responsible for archaeological research and the conservation and preservation of cultural historical monuments in the country. It was founded in 1861 by Alexander ...

(Archaeology Department). Gadhvi also published the news of the discovery in '' Kutchmitra'' at Bhuj to garner official support from the government.

Excavation

Due to the continued efforts of Shambhudan Gadhvi, excavation work finally began in 1990 and lasted until 2005. The government of India started research in Kotda. Under the observation of Ravindra Singh Bist, in around three years, they found a town. It revealed a city that had a

citadel A citadel is the most fortified area of a town or city. It may be a castle, fortress, or fortified center. The term is a diminutive of ''city'', meaning "little city", because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core. ...

, an intermediate city, a lower town, fresh water reservoirs, underground sewage pipes, bead-making workshops, copper smelters, etc. R. S. Bisht was the first ASI official to visit the site in the mid-1980s. By that time, Gadhvi had the backyard of his house laden with artifacts, ceramics, and structural members from the site. Gadhvi has been an important collaborator with RS Bisht in the late 1980s, when extensive exploration work was underway in the area to map the settlement of Khadir Island, where Dholavira is located. Shambhudan also contacted people in other villages to help ASI discover more sites. Once the excavation work began in 1990, Gadhvi assisted the ASI to set up the camp and recruit

laborer A laborer ( or labourer) is a person who works in manual labor typed within the construction industry. There is a generic factory laborer which is defined separately as a factory worker. Laborers are in a working class of wage-earners in whic ...

s from the village of

for the first season of excavation.

Recognition

Despite Shambhudan's efforts at bringing light to the discovery of Dholavira, his work remained unacknowledged by the state government and the ASI. The credit of the discovery of Dholavira was instead given to

J. P. Joshi Jagat Pati Joshi (born 14 July 1932) is an Indian archaeologist who discovered the Indus Valley sites of Dholavira and Surkotada. Joshi served as the Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) from 1987 to 1990. However, it is ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gadhvi, Shambhudan 20th-century Indian geologists People from Gujarat Gadhavi (surname) Living people Archaeologists of the Indus Valley civilisation 20th-century Indian archaeologists People from Kutch district Year of birth missing (living people)