Ahar is a former town of historical significance, located on the north bank of the
Ahar River in the present-day city of
Udaipur
Udaipur (Hindi: , ) (ISO 15919: ''Udayapura'') is a city in the north-western Indian state of Rajasthan, about south of the state capital Jaipur. It serves as the administrative headquarters of Udaipur district. It is the historic capital of t ...
,
Rajasthan
Rajasthan (; Literal translation, lit. 'Land of Kings') is a States and union territories of India, state in northwestern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the List of states and union territories of ...
, in India.
History
Archeological excavations in the late 1950s and early 1960s revealed that Ahar was the site of the
Chalcolithic
The Chalcolithic ( ) (also called the Copper Age and Eneolithic) was an archaeological period characterized by the increasing use of smelted copper. It followed the Neolithic and preceded the Bronze Age. It occurred at different periods in di ...
Ahar culture.
Two distinct cultures have been identified at the Ahar archeological site - Ahar Period I (2580 BC to 1500 BC) and Ahar Period II (1000 BC onwards).
In the
pre-modern era, Ahar was a politically significant town after it became the capital of the Guhil rulers of
Mewar
Mewar, also spelled as Mewad is a region in the south-central part of Rajasthan state of India. It includes the present-day districts of Bhilwara, Chittorgarh, Pratapgarh, Rajsamand, Udaipur, Pirawa Tehsil of Jhalawar District of Rajasth ...
in c.948 and stayed so until c.1116 when the capital moved to
Nagda
Nagda () is an industrial town in Ujjain district of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It lies in the administrative headquarters of the city of Ujjain, in the Malwa region of western Madhya Pradesh. It is situated on the bank of the Chamba ...
.
Its other historical names are Aghatapura and Atpura.
Ahar (''Āghāṭapura'') seems to have been one of the most important commercial centres in early medieval Rajasthan. Contemporary records, including ones from 953 and 1278, indicate the presence of multiple merchant groups: local resident ''vaṇik''s, an organisation of ''deśī''s (itinerent merchants), and merchants from farther-away regions like Karṇāṭa, Madhya-viṣaya,
Lāṭa
Lata (IAST: Lāṭa) was a historical region of India, located in the southern part of the present-day Gujarat state.
Location and extent
''Shakti-Sangam-Tantra'', a Shakt sampradaya text composed before 7th century CE, states that Lata w ...
, and Ṭakka. This last group (merchants from outside Rajasthan) probably moved from one commercial centre to the next in periodic cycles as part of well-organised caravans. The merchandise all these various traders dealt in included (based on the 953 source) unspecified agricultural produce, oil, confectionery, and expensive animals like horses and elephants. There seems to have been more than one marketplace at Ahar. In addition, while no other prominent commercial centres are known to have existed in the Ahar area during this time, a comparison with other important centres like
Arthuna indicates that there was likely a cluster of smaller commercial settlements around Ahar.
See also
*
Ahar Cenotaphs
References
Udaipur district
Former capitals of Mewar
{{Udaipur-geo-stub