Sanghol

One Punjab village site preserves two entirely different civilisations. Its soil holds a Late Harappan settlement, and centuries later, a major Buddhist treasure carved in a famous artistic style.

A Site Spanning Two Civilisations Need to Know

• Sanghol is an archaeological site, in Punjab’s Fatehgarh Sahib district. Locally, it is called Ucha Pind, meaning “the high village.”
• Its earliest layer belongs to the Late Harappan period, roughly 2000-1300 BCE. Specifically, it is a Bara-culture site, a regional Late Harappan tradition of the Sutlej valley, distinct from the earlier Mature Harappan cities.
• For the broader Harappan civilisation, its major cities, and its economy, see AncHist0004 and AncHist0005. Sanghol’s own layer is a later, regional phase, not one of the major Mature Harappan cities covered there.
• Bara-culture pottery, found at Sanghol, is wheel-turned and self-slipped, painted in a dull chocolate or black.
• The site’s history spans over 3,000 years, across several distinct civilisations, on the same ground.

The Stupa and Its Mathura-School Art Good to Know

• Sanghol’s Buddhist stupa was originally built in the 3rd century BCE. Its attribution to Emperor Ashoka comes from the 7th-century Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang’s account, not from a contemporary inscription.
• The site reached its peak in the 1st and 2nd centuries CE, under the Kushan Empire. It sat on the Uttarapatha trade route linking Taxila and Mathura.
• Excavators first uncovered the stupa itself in 1968.
• In 1985, they made a spectacular further find: 117 sculpted red-sandstone pieces. These included 69 pillars, 13 coping stones, and 35 crossbars, from the stupa’s surrounding railing.
• These pieces belong to the Mathura school of art. The red sandstone itself was quarried near Mathura, hundreds of kilometres away, showing how far Mathura’s finished sculpture and style travelled.
• The carvings depict yakshis, salabhanjikas (tree spirits), dancers, musicians, and Jataka tale scenes.
• Mathura-school sculpture uses this red sandstone, in a full-bodied, sensuous indigenous style. This differs from Gandhara-school sculpture, which used grey schist and Hellenistic-influenced modelling. See AncHist0079 for that comparison in depth. Sanghol’s own pieces are Mathura-school work, with no direct Gandhara connection.

Test Yourself

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1. Sanghol’s earliest occupation layer belongs to which specific Late Harappan tradition?

The Mature Harappan urban phase

The Ochre Coloured Pottery culture

The Gandhara Grave culture

The Bara culture, a regional Late Harappan tradition of the Sutlej valley

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The Site Beyond the Railings Great to Know

• Excavations at Sanghol have recovered more than 15,000 artifacts in total, across all periods.
• The Kushan-era town was fortified, with three moats. Later excavations found a Kushan-era palace, complete with fire altars and cisterns.
• A dedicated Sanghol Museum opened on 10 April 1990, to house these finds. It operates under Punjab’s Department of Cultural Affairs, Archaeology and Museums.
• That makes Sanghol unusual. One site preserves both a Late Harappan settlement and a major Kushan-era Buddhist centre, with famous imported artistry, on the same ground.