The lost city of Indore

Excavations in the year 5995 A.D.

A number of excavations recently carried out at a site about 60 km. south of Ujjain indicate the existence of a city lost to the world for the last 30 to 40 centuries. Archaeologists involved in the excavations are more or less certain that parts of the city now located by them belonged to the lost city of Indore, well known upto the 20th century as the city of pensioners, blessed with temperate climate and clean environments. The limited excavations so far carried out have revealed a network of roads, boundary walls encompassing large compounds, terraced buildings, amusement parks, etc. The findings are bound to enhance the knowledge presently available on the rich cultural heritage of this part of India.
The part of the roads now exposed present interesting findings on the then prevailing approach to building roads. Between stretches of bitumen, one could see deep cavities on these roads. Such cavities could be indicative of the root space occupied by trees planted all along the middle of the roads. If that be so, the Indoreans appeared more conscious of their environment than the inconvenience involved in finding their ways to reach their destination.
These Indoreans had novel ideas even in their concept of providing road drainage. The large pits seen all along the side walks indicate that the entire city’s drainage was to get collected in these pits and in due course enrich the ground water table. Probably mosquitoes were never there in that clean city.
The now exposed compound walls in some areas give a good account of the innovativeness of these people in the art of mass publicity. Every available wall space is filled with advertisements of some products or services. To the present generation, this may appear a queer form of publicity. But if one visualizes the situation prevalent 40 centuries ago, when even newspapers were considered as luxuries, it would be clear that they had to find novel methods.
A chance excavation at a site about 5 kms. north of the present site, has exposed the ruins of a sprawling colony. From the etchings seen on some walls, it appears that the colony was then known as Vijaynagar. Here too the roads had deep cavities dotting the entire road width.
Excavations here also revealed a number of pipelines laid much below the road levels, connecting the adjoining buildings. Pieces of pipes dug out did not show any indication of rusting. Considering the immense potential of these Indoreans in the art of innovation, it is possible that these pipes carried gases for air-conditioning these buildings.
Discussions with the archaeologists who are scanning the data, brought out a different picture altogether. According to them, the deep cavities seen on the roads were nothing but pot-holes, indicating badly constructed and poorly maintained roads. Regarding the pipes, they were certain that those were meant for water supply only. To the query as to how the city got buried when there were no historical records of earth-quakes or lava flows, the officers had no ready answers.
“The data is too meager to arrive at any plausible explanation,” they stated. “But looking at the present evidence of ill-kept roads, defaced walls, badly maintained water supply system etc., it appears that those people never bothered about their environment. Hence a safe guess could be that the city was allowed to decay and in due course of time it was gobbled up by its garbage.”
Further excavations in progress are sure to reveal more about these interesting people of the lost city of Indore.

( Free Press, Indore, dt.12- 01-1996 )