Kharagpur, Sept. 2 -- Elephanta Island off the iconic Gateway of India in South Mumbai may have had a much larger role in ancient India than its better-known religious significance suggests, with evidence of imported Roman and West Asian artefacts, a massive water-storage structure and a possible submerged jetty prompting IIT Kharagpur, the Mumbai Port Authority (MbPA) and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to launch an interdisciplinary study into whether large ships once anchored around the island.
The Rs 1-crore project, funded by MbPA, will investigate how changes in climate and sea level influenced maritime trade, settlement and human activity around Elephanta famed for its Brahmanical and Buddhist caves along India's western co...