An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c17.s11.1

v1.c17.s11.1

Votive tanks are hand-modelled terracotta miniature tanks and/or shrines, used as popular ritual objects with certain peculiar features. They have been generally assigned to the period between the 3rd-2nd century B.C. and the 4th century A.D., though most of them belong to the period between the 1st and 3rd centuries A.D. They are distributed from Taxila to CHIRAND in the e. and Kolhapur in the s. Their occurrence farther s. is not reported except stray specimens from NAGARJUNAKONDA and a doubtful one from ARIKAMEDU. Among the important sites are Taxila (both Bhir Mound and Sirkap), AHICCHATRĀ, HASTINĀPURA, PURANA QILA, SONKH, SANGHOL, SAMBHAR, BAIRAT, RAIRH, AHAR², BESNAGAR, UJJAIN, BHITA, MASAON, RAJGHAT⁴, CHIRAND, RAJGIR, NAVDATOLI, SHAMALAJI, DEVNIMORI, NAGAR, NEVASA, PAUNAR, NALA SOPARA, TER, BHOKARDAN, KAUṆḌINYAPURA and BRAHMAPURI (Kolhapur).