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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
is one among the five largest settlements, known so far, of the period. The site is noteworthy for its distinctive stone architecture which includes thoughtfully designed gates furnished with precisely shaped pillars, a series of water reseroirs- rock-cut and stone masonry one and a network of under-ground drains large enough to enable a person to pass through them. The site has also yielded a unique 3.20 m long inscription consisting of 10 large-sized signs of the Harappan script. Each sign is found shaped from many small pieces inlaid on a wooden hoarding which has since perished but left is traces on the floor on which it was found lying. R.S. Bisht rightly believes it could be the carliest signboard of the world.
During the Years 1985-6 and 1986-7 R.S. Bisht conducted further cxploration in the district of Kachchh to understand the significance of the long shoreline of the Gulf of Kachchh in the dynamics of the Harappan Civilization. These explorations have brought to light 11 harappan sites. Most of them are located along the shoreline of the Gulf thus indicating that the Gulf of Kachchh and the Rann could have played a special role during proto-historic times.
R.S. Bisht also took keen interest in the structural conservation of monuments and cxcavated remains in the Gujarat state in the capacity of the Superintending Archaeologist while he was in Gujarat. He studied the problems related to the many of the Gujarat monuments, which are located both in the salt and sand laden high velocity coastal zone as well as in the semiarid climatic zone. Ran-ki-vav at Patan, monuments of Champaner-Pavagadh, Dwarkadhish temple at dwarka, excavated remains of Dholavira arc some of the monuments to which he paid special attention, Later on, from the ASI Directorate Head Office, New Delhi also first as a Director and presently as the joint Director General, he is making all efforts to conserve and develop many of the Gujarat monuments. He is very keep to see Dholavira developing as an International Centre for Harappan Studies and a Worldclass tourist destination.
R.S. Bisht has contributed to Gujarat Archaeology in various ways. He has published several research papers" on the Harappa culture and Dholavira excavation in Gujarat. Some of the articles published in journals and books are listed below. - "Somc Glimpses of Mercantile and Maritime Activitics of the Rig Vedic Aryans'.
Marine Archacology of the Indian Ocean Countries. (cd.) S.R.Rao, Goa, 1988. 'The Harappan Colonization of the Kutch: An Ergonoinic Study with Reference to Dholavira and Surkotada'. History and Art, (cd.) Krishna Deva and Lallanji
Gopal, Delhi, 1989. - 'A New Model of the Harappan Town Planning as Revealed at Dolavira in
Kutch: A Surface of Its Plan and Architecturc'. History and Archaeology. (ed) Bhaskar Chtterji, Delhi, 1989. "Dholavira: New Horizons of the Indus Civilization'. Puratattva, No.29, New Delhi, 1989-90.
ulas • Has – gaus-al!l22-242342, 2003 • 23
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