Even though I went to present a paper at an academic seminar at Sanghol in Punjab but I managed to catch the glimpses of its rural life and Buddhist Heritage too. The place is also known as Ucha Pind.
The seminar was hosted at Cordia Group of Institutions, Sanghol. On the first day after the presentations were over we went to the local lambardar’s fields. He was a sturdy man in Ray Ban glasses. They offered sweet tea to us.
It was sunset time, the perfect time to be in the sarson ke khet! Even I could not resist a selfie!
There was no time to walk or I would have loved to go and explore! Still, it was a joy to be watching the sunset in the lush green fields.
I can’t remember when I ate a sugarcane last. It used to be a regular feature during my childhood. I was a bit curious if my teeth were up to the task and they did not let me down. My former dean, Prof. Venkatesh remarked “You can take the girl out of Gorakhpur but not Gorakhpur out of the girl!”
The second evening was devoted to exploring the excavation sites near Sanghol. Sanghol is just about 40 minutes drive from Chandigarh on the Chandigarh-Ludhiana highway. There are two sites close by to the ASI office. The one above is known as SGL5.
The site is said to be dated from the Harrapan Civilization and it was continuously populated till the Gupta period. That means people lived at the site from about 2100 BCE to 6 CE! Then due to some reason it passed out from the cosmic favor! Now why is it that my travels are making me more curious about history?
There is a smaller site near the ASI building but I am not sure if it has any name, yet. Teja Singh ji, an ASI employee was quite excited about the finding of this wall. There was no excavation happening at present.
There were two ASI employees who mentioned that it looked like that this site hosted the rooms of the monks and SGL 5 was the meditation center.
On the smaller site there was a covered drain, and that immediately leads to the discussion that why can’t we achieve it now? We could not visit SGL 11 or the museum as they were closed by the time we ventured out of the college.
And finally here are the three people who are responsible for keeping me in academia. We used to call them the members of the power corridor. They were the finest team I ever worked with. As Prof Misra and Mr Yadav now work at Sanghol, they showed us around! February for me has started on the right note!
Great shots – I really love that first photo.
Thank you so much Lady Fi.
Beautiful Buddhist heritage. Isn’t it nice when you can squeeze out the time from an official trip to catch a glimpse of life and heritage?
Yes Somali even when I quit my job too 😀
Beautiful post, Awesome pics.
Thank you so much Rupam.
THat shot of sugarcane field took me back Home .. beautiful pics mam
Bikram’s
Thank you Bikram, they took me back to my childhood too!
Very nice post.
Thank you so much.
Beautiful pics, as usual. Well, your sugarcane was too short. I was assuming it as banana. 🙂
That is because the rest of it was inside my stomach! It was ganna out and out! 😀
amazing place and beautiful shot Mridula… the painting picture is really nice! 🙂 Lucky you!!!!
Thank you Archana, yes sometimes academic conferences give a glimpse into places too!
Loved the third and fourth capture that non chal ant smile and the serene ambience.
Thank you Chaitali 😀
Wonderful. Punjab is one of my favourite states in India because of it’s beautiful fields and the Punjabi language !!
And I have seen so little of Punjab!
Love the sunset and sarson khet pictures! Yum I wish I could eat some sugarcane!
And I want more sugarcane now!
Such a beautiful place. It was amazing to read about your experience 🙂
Thank you Purba, it was so much fun to meet my colleagues too!
A great Buddhist site. I always have a special interest for such excavated sites. Thanks for sharing, Mridula… 🙂
P.S. Loved the sarson ka khet wala selfie… 😀
Thank you Maniparna 😀
Sunset pics is beautiful.
Thank you Arun.
Sarson ke khet looks wonderful! Really wish I could be there!
Great pictures.
Thank you Arun. Now I want to go back and click better pictures!
The Buddist Monastery looks interesting. And wow! you are good a selfies 😀
Thank you Ami, I do click a few slefies per trip! And hopefully I am getting better!
You have some awesome shots! I like the place, seems to be full of history.
Thank you Indrani, the history is fascinating, also we had the whole monuments to us!
Never listen about this place ! But your efforts to show this place is very appreciative . You still indulge in academic ?
This was the first conference I did after quitting Yogi. I still review for a few academic journals too!
A fruitful journey through history.
Thank you so much.
Very interesting..!
Thank you Amit.
Good to see you keep in touch with academics as well, as you follow your passion of travel and photography- Nice pics & intriguing piece on history and its mystery…
Thank you so much Rajeev.
Didn’t know of a Buddhist heritage at Sanghol. Impressive. Often wondered why. These ancient civilisations abruptly shut down. Climate change?
No idea why the civilizations shut down, not even sure if it was abrupt.