Excavation

Piprahwa (1973-74), Dt.-Basti, Uttar Pradesh

1973 to 1977 Go to Gallery
  • 1973-1977 Late Shri K.M. Shrivastava, Retd. As Dir.
  • 27°26'; 83°7'

Near the border of Nepal, well-known for having yielded one of the earliest relic caskets with Brahmi inscription in the excavation by Peppe, an English zamindar of the area.The site is generally identified as Kapilvastu. In 1972 another relic caskets contained in two burnt-brick chambers at a depth of 6 m, was found. The two soapstone-caskets contained charred bones. The casket was contemporaneous with the NBPW.

Piprahwa remained under occupation approximately from the 5th century B.C. to the 3rd century A.D., when the site was engulfed in a fire and abandoned. The limited antiquities from the site include copper bowls and thali, stone weight, iron pan, hook, nail and sockets, copper Kushan and Ayodhya coins, punch-marked coins both in copper and silver, copper antimony rod and a borer, stone head, terracotta and carnelian beads, a terracotta mask and fragments of the NBPW.