Kampil
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Contents |
Kampil
Village in the Kaimganj tahsil of Farrukhabad District, United Provinces, situated in 27 degree 35' N. and 79 degree 14' E., 28 miles north-west of Fatehgarh. Population (1901), 2,366. Kampil is mentioned in the Mahabharata as the capital of South Panchala, under king Drupada. Here his daughter, Draupadi, married the five Pandava brethren. The villagers still show the mound where the Raja's castle stood, and the place, a few miles away, where the swayamvara, or ceremony at which Draupadi chose her husband, took place. At the end of the thirteenth century, Kampil appears as a nest of highway robbers, against whom the emperor Ghiyas-ud-din Balban marched a force in person, and built here a fort. The town and its vicinity constantly gave trouble in later years, but the Rathor inhabi- tants were gradually suppressed. West of the town stretches a long series of ruins in which ancient coins are found. There are a fine Jain temple and a primary school with about 60 pupils.
History
Draupadi Trust has taken upon itself the task of preserving the crumbling ruins her birthplace
Anubhuti Vishnoi
January 23, 2015
More than 300 km from the ruins of Indraprastha, the fabled city of the Pandavas, lies the long-forgotten town their queen is believed to have come from. The fire-born princess Draupadi, who was married to the Pandavas, is said to have sprung to life from a sacrificial yagna kund, known as the Draupadi Kund, on the banks of the Ganga in Kampilya.
Today, Kampilya, the capital of Panchal Pradesh that was thought to be ruled by Drupada, the princess's father, lies in Farrukhabad district of Uttar Pradesh. A dusty town of neglect and apathy, it is now called Kampil.
Battling everyday municipal problems of the modern world, there is little by way of reminder of Kampil's legendary grandeur, as narrated in the Mahabharata. However, look closer and there are signs interpreted as clues. Ravaged sculptures dating back to the pre-Kushan period lie scattered and unheeded around the crumbling ruins of King Drupada's fort, which overlooks the Draupadi Kund. A key remnant of Kampilya's mythical past still continues to attract the odd worshippers and draws thousands to congregate annually for a fair at the havan kund, where Draupadi and her twin brother Dhrishtadyumna are said to have emerged out of the proverbial fire of knowledge. The Mahabharata says this was after King Drupada performed a yagna to avenge his defeat to Guru Dronacharya. The latter is said to have annexed half of Drupada's kingdom, helped by his disciple Arjun, who later went on to win Draupadi's hand in marriage at a swayamvar. A site where Arjun achieved this feat is said to lie in the vicinity of Kampil town.
The birthplace of Draupadi
The land that is said to have raised the strong-willed Draupadi, however, seems to have forgotten her legend. Today, the Draupadi Kund is a pond of filthy water, and the sacrificial havan kund a cesspool. A few feet away from it flows an open drain, ensuring constant stench for the few who walk upto the kund to pay obeisance.
Once majestic, the walls of the fort lie in ruins. The mound, listed as a protected site by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and which is said to have housed the Mahabharata-era fort, has been encroached upon; tobacco farming has taken over almost the entire area. While Indraprastha, the mythical city of the Pandava brothers, occupies a pride of place among ancient sites that the ASI protects, the royal consort's supposed birthplace is a study in neglect.
It need not be, for among its many monuments, the Agra circle of ASI lists "the easterly mound of isolated tilas", under which the remains of Drupada's city are said to lie buried.
Excavation of the site
However, like many other abandoned sites, Kampil also seems to have been forgotten. There is no board or boundary to indicate any historical or archaeological value associated with the sites of Kampilya.
Kampil was excavated in 1975-76, according to the Agra circle of ASI. While excavation has been carried out in the past in the area, top ASI officials say not much was done to protect or conserve the site.
First surveyed in 1878 on the orders of the first Director General (DG) of ASI Alexander Cunningham, the exploration work was followed up by another ASI DG, B.B. Lal, who reported finding Painted Grey Ware and Northern Black Polished Ware from the site in 1954-55. V.N. Mishra of Deccan College, Pune, explored the site in the 1960s and reported large quality of Painted Grey Ware. K.K. Sinha of the Department of Ancient Indian History and Archaeology, Banaras Hindu University, is said to have excavated six trenches in 1976 in different parts of the mound and found 2.4-metre-thick deposits of Painted Grey Ware above the natural soil.
Neera Misra: Draupadi Trust
But over the years, as the ASI lost interest in the ancient site, in came Neera Misra, a Delhi-based social entrepreneur who traces her ancestry to Kampilya. She decided that the mythical queen deserves better. Moved by the state of the Draupadi Kund and the Panchala king's fort, Misra took matters into her hands. She set up the Draupadi Trust in 2003 and set off on a twin mission: "One was to restore the site associated with the birth of Draupadi-a true feminine icon who questioned patriarchal authority and norms. The second was to help other women achieve what Draupadi did in that time and age-independence of mind."
Objective
The Draupadi Trust, Misra told India today, works with the women and girls of Kampil, training them in vocational and computer courses to help them sustain a living.
While she operates the trust's educational and social work out of a dharmshala in Kampil, her efforts have brought her knocking on the doors of the central government and its affiliate agencies. Misra says she has repeatedly asked the ASI to protect the sites but has had little luck so far.
Misra, however, did not give up. The Draupadi Trust got IIT-Kanpur's Civil Engineering Department to conduct ground penetrating radar investigations in 2012. The IIT report indicated presence of distinctive structures, a stone-paved road, linear waterways and deserted wall structures, she says. With ASI's permission, the trust also got an excavation conducted through Lucknow University's Department of Ancient History and Archaeology in 2010-12.
Professor D.P. Tiwari, who headed this excavation, says his team managed to establish a chronology for Kampilya. "We dug 30 trenches in the area and finally found archaeological material from five different cultural periods under the mound where the Drupada fort is said to lie. Starting with the pre-painted Grey Ware, there were pottery remains from the Painted Grey Ware culture, Northern Black Polished Ware culture, Kushana and Gupta period and the medieval period. Interestingly, there was also Ochre Coloured Pottery, probably dating back to 370 BC. While the Draupadi Kund is more of a memorial with little archaeological significance, the mound known as Drupada Kila is where there are possible archaeological remnants," Tiwari told India today.
The problem, Tiwari said, is similar to those encountered across many historical sites. While habitation has taken over most of the mound area, the other part has been taken over by locals for farming. This has not only disturbed the archaeological site but also left very little space for proper excavation. Add to this the little interest or will shown by agencies responsible for conducting research at these sites, and your cup of woes runs over, Tiwari says.
"The Draupadi Trust was mainly keen in pushing for excavation of the site; no one else, including the district or state administration, has shown interest," he adds.
Amid such disinterest, it is no surprise that locals pulled out most sculptures they took fancy to, even taking bricks off fort walls for construction purposes. Misra's trust tried to salvage some of the sculptures, and has managed to get some of them placed at a temple complex in the town.
But the Draupadi Trust's mission to give the fabled Pandava queen her due has more to it than just archaeological excavation. Misra has hosted a series of events to generate greater awareness and sensitivity for Draupadi, who had five husbands. "Draupadi symbolises the fact that a woman can live on her own terms if she feels empowered in her head. While sites related to the Pandavas or Ahichatra associated with Dronacharya or Hastinapur are all well-preserved, it pained me to see Draupadi's site so utterly neglected. I knew I had to do something about it and I will continue to try," says Misra.
