Contradicting TV reports about discontinuation of the gold hunt inside the ruins of an 18th century fort in Daundiya Kheda village of Unnao district in Uttar Pradesh, a senior Archaeological Survey of India official said in Lucknow on Tuesday that the excavation in search of gold will go on.
“Work will remain suspended on Wednesday simply because it is the weekly off given to the team involved in the excavation”, the official said.
Meanwhile, excavation that was undertaken in the ten pits carved at the site has gone as deep as 4.18 metres. “We have struck a hard surface from where we will proceed further from Thursday,” he added.
The excavation was initiated at the behest of a popular local godman Baba Shobhan Sarkar, who claimed to have witnessed a dream showing presence of 1000 tons of gold under the ruins of the said fort. His close disciple and spokesman Om Baba had been claiming, “The team will find the gold once the digging has touched 16 feet (approx 5 metres).”
On Tuesday, Om Baba added another condition, “Gold will surface only if the government gives an explicit assurance that the entire treasure will go entirely to the Reserve Bank of India and neither to the ASI nor to the state government or to any other claimant”. – Rediff, 29 October 2013
A spirit moves India to launch a treasure hunt (Video)
Realistically, does 1000 tonnes of gold exist in Unnao?
Filed under: india | Tagged: archaeological survey of india, ASI, baba shobhan sarkar, british india, daundia khera, gold, gold hunt, golden hoard, ram baksh singh, sadhus |
Treasure hunts go on all the time in the world. Some are sponsored by government and many more are financed by private companies. Often the searches fail to produce anything of interest, but this does not mean that they should not have been initiated in the first place.
The ASI had for long planned to excavate the Daundiya Kheda village area. Even the British were interested in the place. It had ancient Buddhist associations and may have been visited by the Chinese pilgrim traveller Huan Tsang in the 7th century.
The criticism and ridicule heaped on the ASI for their dig in the old fort is unscientific and unacceptable. The so-called liberal secularists, which include intolerant, dogmatic rationalists and the usual gang of ‘progressive’ media brown sahibs, sometimes called commentators, who spit and spout off about the ASI search on TV and in the newspapers, would be advised to swallow their venom and bide their time. The dig isn’t finished yet—it may not be for a long time—and the highly respected mahant baba, known for his integrity and extraordinary social work, has staked his reputation on his claim. He may be completely mistaken, but for the time being he should be given the benefit of the doubt.
It would be bad science to refuse to investigate a story that is very old and does have historical support. Indian freedom fighters did raid the Allahabad fort on 14 June 1857 when in rebellion against the British, and the huge quantity of gold they confiscated was moved around and eventually hidden in Rao Ram Bux Singh’s fort at Daundiya Kheda.
Therefore it is quite logical to dig in the fort for the gold—isn’t it?
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