Sculptural Bas reliefs in Western Indian Caves (2nd Century BC to 3rd Century AD)
During 1990 Shri N M Deshpande, one of the doyens of Indian archaeology, suggetsed that as nobody had studied the sculptural bas reliefs in early Buddhist caves in Maharashtra, I should try to study them. While conducting the primary study on the area, I was transferred to Madras, and lost hope of continuing my interest with this transfer and shelved the project, but a friend suggested that I apply to the NTICVA for a grant. I did so and was very happy to receive the grant.
Ships in Ancient Indian Art
There are a good number of ships represented in ancient Indian art, which are valuable evidence, capable of throwing light on ancient Indian shipping and shipbuilding technology. Some of these representations were referred to by scholars here and there, but no complete and systematic study of these ships was carried out.
The excavation of a Chalcolithic site in North West Rajasthan
With funding from the NTICVA between January and April 2005 I assisted with a number of archaeological projects in India. Firstly I spent one and a half months excavating at the site of Gilund, Rajasthan. The excavations at this Chalcolithic site were being conducted jointly by Vasant Shinde of the Deccan College Pune and Gregory Possehl of the University of Pennsylvania. The second part of my project consisted of three weeks studying at the Deccan College. Lastly I spent one week assisting a student from the University of Chicago with fieldwork for her PhD dissertation.
Malabar coast: Trade systems in the early historic period
The proposed programme was mainly intended to collect literature on Indo-Roman trade, and to interact with experts in the UK and Europe in the field of early historic Indian ocean trade, to gain knowledge of the imported ceramics of the Roman period and Gulf region, and to get expertise in the newly emerging field of geo-archaeology. The research was carried out at the Centre of South East Asian Studies, the School of Oriental and African Studies, and various other institutions in the UK.
