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Art and Architecture
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bats. Associated with it was a moat, the full width and depth of which has not been so far determined. The original rubble fortification wall was strengthened gradually by brick wall in course of time.
At Rajghat’ near varanasi, an enormous clay rampart dating back to the first quarter of the first millennium B.C. has been discovered. Built directly over the natural soil and available to a height of about 10 metres, the rampart has a pronounced slope towards the river. It has been breached several times by heavy floods, but it was in existence in 600 B.C. That a large urban population existed at Mathura in the sixth century B.C. is proved by the vast Katra mound. Furthermore, an exploratory survey revealed the existence of two rings of mud-ramparts—the first elliptical in shape and the second quadrangular and comprised within, the first, as if signifying a: citadel.3 From the excavations at Srāvasti, it is clear that there was habitation in the sixth century B.C. and the mud rampart was erected in the fourth century B.C.4
At Eran, a moat and a mud-defence wall built in the late phase of the chalcolithic occupation have been discovered. They continued even during the sixth century B.C.
The excavations at Ujjain reveal a continuity of occupation on the site from a date prior to 600 B.C. The massive rampart with a moat can be traced back to the earliest period of occupation on the site, which coincides with the Pradyota period. This type of fortification was of mud and belonged to a citadel, but the humbler habitations were situated undefended in the outside area. The rampart cnclosed an area approximately two kilometers with a basal width of a little over two hundred feet and a maximum extent height of forty-two feet. The contours of the arca occupied by the rampart show several openings of varying dimensions, suggesting gateways. The rampart was built by the dumping of
1. I. Ar.-A revicw 1961-62. 2. lbid, 1960-61, p. 37. 3. Ibid, 1954-55, p. 15. 4. Ibid, 1958-59, p. 47. 5. Ibid, 1963-64, p. 15. 0. Ibid, 1956-57, p. 20; 1957:58, p. 32.
