One of the promising sites on the left bank of the Indus has since been taken up for regular excavation by Dr. E. G. H. Mackay for the American School of Indic research, whose fruitful operations during 1935-36 are to be resumed next cold weather, In the Punjab no regular survey has so far been attempted, though two sites, one as far east as Rupar in Ambala district and another near Harappa, both contemporary with the Indus Valley culture, were surveyed by, Mr. M. S.
Vats.
1t is hoped, therefore, that the survey which it is proposed to undertake next winter will throw more light on India's ancient history, which is particularly obscure in the period between the prehistoric Indus culture and the historic age, commencing with the birth of Buddhism, found in the Lower Gangetic basin.
Another piece of very important work which it is proposed to carry out is a systematic survey and excavation of the sites and mounds in the United Provinces, of which over a couple of hundred are protected but very imperfectly known.
A beginning has been made this year in the Saharanpur and Bijnor districts, where Dr. K. A. A. Ansari has discovered several important sites. Very great interest attaches to this survey now after the discovery of the prehistoric civilization in Sind, for it is here that the history of India between 2,500 B.C. and 700 B.C. is sure to be found, buried in the lower strata of some of the extensi mounds which appear to have been in unbroken occupation owing to the continued fertility of the Gangetic plain as contrasted with the progress sive drying up of the lower Indus images from its buried monasteries, the latest discovery there—one of great technical importance—being mounds which appear to have been in that of a four-chambered furnace and foundry, where these images were regularly cast.
In Bengal also, where, on account of the alluvial and diluvial action of the rivers and the rank vegetation which is the result of the heavy rainfall, one can hardly expect well preserved remains of an earlier period, the existence of a site representing one of the later phases of
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.