An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v2.c40.55

v2.c40.55

**Nagarjunakonda**, **Nagarjunikonda**, (16°31'; 79°14'), Dt Guntur, on the right bank of the Krishna, the valley now submerged, first brought to light in 1926 by A.R. Saraswati of the ASI. Explorations by Kuraishi and Sastri in the same year and excavations carried out subsequently by Longhurst (1927-31) and then by Ramachandran (1938) created the impression that it was an extensive Buddhist settlement that came up during the rule of the Ikṣvākus who had their capital Vijayapuri in this valley itself. But the large-scale excavations, which commenced in 1954 consequent on the decision of turning the hill-girt valley into a reservoir of the Nagarjunasagar Dam across the Krishna, revealed a cultural sequence from the Lower Palaeolithic to the medieval times, besides unearthing the remains of the city of Vijayapurī, which flourished mainly in the 3rd and the 4th centuries A.D.