In Vadnagar, a 1,000-year-old seated skeleton awaits a resting place

Experts believe that the skeleton is of someone who was buried in a seated or ‘samadhi’ position – a practice prevalent “across all religions in Gujarat” during those times. The Archaeological Survey of India’s (ASI) stratigraphic study — a study of layers and deposits at a site that helps determine the ages of artifacts — estimates that it belonged to someone from the 10th to 13th Century AD.

Since its discovery, there has been uncertainty over who has possession of the skeleton and where it needs to be placed. It was initially kept in the corridor under the stairs of the government quarters in Vadnagar. Only two years ago, it was moved to its present location – inside a protective iron casing in the tarpaulin-and-cloth tent pitched on a ground some 400 metres from where it was dug out. Until recently, it had two security guards watching over it, but with their contracts lapsing in January, it now sits alone in the tent.

According to the state government’s Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, the skeleton is in the ASI possession and a call is yet to be taken on where it will be placed eventually. “The discussions (on whether to place it in the recently inaugurated Vadnagar Experiential Museum) are still on. There are conservation issues too… it’s fragile. Though the skeleton is still in the ASI possession, there are talks of it being a part of the upcoming Lothal maritime museum,” says Pankaj Sharma, Director, Directorate of Archaeology and Museums.

The ASI, however, says the skeleton was in its possession until last year, after which it was handed over to the government for it to be placed in the Vadnagar museum. “We handed over the skeleton, along with over 9,000 antiquities, to the state government. Earlier we were assured that it will be a part of the Vadnagar museum’s Belief gallery but now we are told that it is already full and they are not able to keep it there,” says Abhijit Ambekar, who was superintending archaeologist of Archaeological Survey of India’s (ASI’s) Vadodara circle before being posted in the Mumbai Circle in January this year.

Ambekar was closely associated with the Vadnagar excavations that led to the skeleton’s discovery in 2019 and has been part of a team that published a paper on the discoveries in the ‘Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology’, a peer-reviewed journal by the Department of Archaeology, University of Kerala.

But Sharma, of the Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, says it is still in ASI’s possession. “We had a detailed discussion on its placement only Wednesday,” Pankaj Sharma says, adding that no decision was taken yet.

A view of the tent in which the skeleton has been kept in Vadnagar, Mehsana | Express photo

Vadnagar excavations & the ‘sitting samadhi’

Vadnagar was first excavated by archaeologists B Subbarao and R N Mehta from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in 1953 mainly to understand its ‘ceramic sequence’ – a method to date pottery to establish a chronology of the site’s occupation. The excavations revealed a flourishing chank – or conch shell – industry at the site. Eventual excavations by the Gujarat state directorate of archaeology established Vadnagar as a thriving centre of Buddhism.

In 2014, the ASI took up excavations at Vadnagar’s Ghaskol, Darbargadh and Badi Garbano Sheri sites. These excavations, conducted for eight continuous field seasons till 2022, were aimed at finding the cultural chronology and associated cultural assemblage of Vadnagar. According to historians, most of the findings here — including a fortification, a Buddhist monastery and votive stupas, and an elliptical structure — are from before the 2nd Century BCE to the Gaekwad period (18th– 19th century CE).

It was part of the ASI excavation that the skeleton was found in 2019. In a paper titled ‘Vadnagar: A Thriving Composite Town of Historical Times’ — published in the ‘Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology’ journal in 2022 — Abhijit Ambekar and other authors make specific mention of the ‘Skeleton in Seated Posture’, saying “a rare type of burial has been exposed on the north-western part of the square platform”.

“It comprises an intact, well-preserved skeleton buried in a seated cross-legged posture within a pit. The head facing towards north is straight, with the right hand placed on the lap while the left hand found raised up to the chest level, possibly resting on a wooden stick (danda) which has perished. The antiquity of this Samadhi type of burial can be datable to probably 9th-10th century CE onward, presumably when the square memorial stupa was no longer in usage,” the paper says, adding that until 2022, this type of burial had been reported from only three other sites — Balathal in Rajasthan, Tripuri in Madhya Pradesh and Adam in Maharashtra.

Given Vadnagar’s Buddhist links, it was initially believed that the skeleton was of a Buddhist monk, but DNA analysis now shows that he could have been of local Gujarati ancestry.

“Now which group of Gujarati people it belongs to is important since despite any caste or religion discrimination, samadhi was in practice across all religions in Gujarat,” says Dr Niraj Rai, senior scientist and group head of the DNA Lab at the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences (BSIP) in Lucknow whose team conducted a complete genome sequencing on the skeleton.

As uncertainty continues over where the skeleton will be housed, Vadnagar residents say it belongs in the experiential museum.

“Locals are of the belief that since the Babaji is in a samadhi position, it could be one of our ancestors only from Vadnagar, and it belongs here,” says Girishbhai Patel, a BJP Councillor from Vadnagar.