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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
Ravindra Singh Bisht - A Scholar and An Excellent Field Archaeologist
Yadubir Singh Rawat*
Ravindra Singh Bisht is foremost among a few Indian scholars and field archacologists who have contributed immensely on the study of the Harappan civilization. Born in 1944 in Bhimtal in Nainital district of Uttranchal, he passed his M.A. in Ancient Indian History and Culture from Lucknow University in 1965 and obtained PGDA from School of Archaeology, ASI in 1967. He has been awarded Ph.D by Kumaun University on his thesis ‘Emerging Perspectives of the Harappan Civilization in the Light of Recent Excavations at Banawali and Dholavira'. R.S. Bisht has vast experience of carrying out archacological field-work, in different parts of India, spanning
more than three decades as a carrier Archaeologist. At Ravindra Singh Bisht
present he is holding the post of Joint Director Gencral of Archaeology in the Archaeological Survey of
India. R.S.Bisht is known world over as the excavator of the Harappan city of Dholavira. But before Dholavira excavation in Gujarat State, he had excavated also proto-historic sites such as Banawali in Haryana, Sanghol in Punjab and Chechar in Bihar, early Iron Age and historical sites like Semthan in Jammu and Kashmir and Nalanda in Bihar. His cxcavations at Banawali have brought to light a proto-urban/ Harappan phase, which indicated a gradual development in the pre-Harappan culture resulted into the emergence of first urban civilization in the sub-continent. It has also revealed for the first time a unique feature of the Harappan defense system i.e., provision of 2 decp moat around the fortified settlement at Banawali, a small but prosperous town on the River Sarasvati. The site has firmly established the regional dynamics of the Harappan Civilization. The site has produced many valuable antiquitics but the most remarkable find is the clay model of a plough. The Semthan excavation for the first time yielded antiquarian remains of Pre-Northern Black Polished Ware and NBPQ phases hitherto unknown in the Kashmir valley.
R.S. Bisht also carried out many archeological explorations general as well as problem oriented - in diverse regions spread over most of the States of north India. He was the leader of the Indian team in the Indo-French Archaeological Expedition
* Director, Dept. of Archaeology, Gujarat State.
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