Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c42.s1.4

v2.c42.s1.4

Off the shore of the modern Dvārkā, lies the ruin of the mid-second millennium BC port of Dvārakā or Dvārāvatī, founded by Lord Kṛṣṇa. Underwater expedition has shown fortification wall of limestone blocks and stones measuring around 2 × 1 × 0.5 m sizes. Some moonstone pieces recovered from the debris suggest that a religious structure existed there. The retrieved chert blades and sherds of lustrous redware and black- and redware are clearly of the Late-Harappan origin; the triangular and prismatic shaped stone anchors having three holes each are analogous to the anchors used in the fourteenth century BC Syria and Cyprus. A small seal of conch-shell has an animal motif, reminiscent of the Bahrainian art. A jar bears an inscription in the Late-Harappan characters (partly resembling Semitic and partly Brāhmī) which has been deciphered by Rao (1988:52) as *mahahagacha Shah Pa* conveying the sense ‘Sea Lord Protect’. Rao had earlier (1982) deciphered the Indus Valley Script and showed how this script was eventually transformed into the Late-Harappan and the Brāhmī.