An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v2.c39.220

v2.c39.220

**Mahurjhari** 921°14'; 79°30′), Dt Nagpur, 15 km w. of Nagpur on Nagpur-Katol road, with a number of Megalithic stone circles [4.17.6] of different dimensions. It lies exactly opposite the classic site of JUNAPANI which has probably the largest number of stone circles in India. In a sense Mahurjhari can be taken to be virtually the continuation of JUNAPANI now separated by a road which has artificially divided the Megalithic field and in the process destroyed some stone circles. The site was first noted by G.A.P. Hunter in 1933, when he also published a detailed account of the antiquities recovered at the site in the Annual of the Śāradāśrama, an institution located at Yeotmal in Vidarbha. However the antiquities reported by him are essentially of the early historical period having no relation with the stone circles there. They comprise seals [3.2] and intaglios [10.3], baked bricks of the size of 41 to 43 × 25 to 27 × 7·6 to 8·8 cm assigned by him to the Gupta period, a seal reading *apumāda* or *apramāda*, an intaglio in Vākāṭaka characters, another seal in red sandstone which, he thought, is ‘an exact replica of the Proto-Elamite seal’, a third seal in rock crystal and a fourth referred to as ‘a Nāga seal’, in addition to an abundant number of beads of semiprecious stones like agate, carnelian, quartz, rock-crystal, glass, turquoise, garnet, jade, jasper, etc. Hunter further observed that Mahurjhari must have been a bead-making centre and that the beads produced here were probably exported to c. Asia where, according to him, similar beads have been found at Buddhist sites. Hunter also drew attention to the headless female sculpture known as *nagnakabandha*, a fertility symbol very common in early historical India. Mahurjhari continued to yield antiquities of the historical period even in subsequent times. In 1971 a terracotta seal bearing the name *Mādhavarāja* in a script assignable to the Gupta-Vākāṭaka period and a copper-plate grant of Pravarasena II of the Vākāṭaka dynasty were found. The plates issued in the 17th regnal year of the king do not mention either Mahurjhari or any place adjacent to it.