Oldest Harappan Caravanserai Unearthed in Gujarat’s Kotda Bhadli

At Kotda Bhadli in Kutch, Gujarat, the remains of the oldest known caravanserai from a 4,000-year-old Harappan settlement have been discovered. This inn, located along a road, was equipped with organized facilities that provided traders and their pack animals with shelter, food, security, and stables.

• At Kotda Bhadli in Kutch, Gujarat, a 4,000-year-old Harappan settlement has been identified as the oldest known caravanserai—a fortified rural outpost that supported long-distance trade between 2300 and 1900 BCE.
• Bronze Age traders passing through Gujarat would stop at organized roadside facilities that provided their pack animals with shelter, food, security, and stables.
• A new multidisciplinary study conducted by the Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute, Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts, and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), New Delhi, published in L’Anthropologie (Elsevier, 2025).
• These findings push back the origins of organized trade infrastructure in the subcontinent by more than 2,000 years, showing that the Harappans not only developed urban planning and maritime trade but also organized land-based logistics with fortified rest stops, animal shelters, and food supply centers.
• The site, excavated between 2010 and 2013 by Deccan College in collaboration with the Gujarat State Department of Archaeology, has now been reinterpreted using advanced techniques—including ground-penetrating radar, magnetic and satellite surveys, isotopic and lipid analyses, and three forms of dating.

Key features of these discoveries

• Experts have identified Harappan trade outposts in Kutch, stating that the infrastructure predates the Silk Road by 2,000 years.
• Although Harappan trade with Mesopotamia and inland India is well established, the mechanism by which traders, animals, and goods actually moved across land had remained unclear.
• The new study proposes that Harappan commerce relied on a network of small fortified outposts strategically located along trade routes between urban centers such as Dholavira, Lothal, and Shikarpur in Gujarat.
• Early excavations revealed a multi-room central building, fortified walls with bastions, and large open spaces possibly used for keeping animals and goods—all consistent with the layout of a caravanserai.
• The team discovered copper tools from the Khetri region of Rajasthan, steatite beads from Haryana, glauconite and nontronite beads from Kutch, and marine shells from the coast.
• Bones of marine fish—including shark, barramundi, and catfish—were also found at the site, over 50 kilometers from the sea. This suggests that even perishable food items were transported to inland regions.

Harappan Civilization

• It is also known as the Indus Valley Civilization. It was a Bronze Age civilization that developed around 2500 BCE. It was one of the largest urban civilizations of the ancient world, along with those of Egypt and Mesopotamia.
• Its period spans from 6000 BCE to 1300 BCE, with its mature phase lasting from 2600 BCE to 1900 BCE.
• Discovery: Dayaram Sahni discovered Harappa in 1921–22, and Rakhal Das Banerjee discovered Mohenjo-daro in 1922. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), under the leadership of Sir John Marshall, excavated these sites.
• The total area of the Harappan Civilization was about 1.3 million square kilometers, extending from Manda (Jammu and Kashmir) in the north to Daimabad (Maharashtra) in the south, and from Alamgirpur (Uttar Pradesh) in the east to Sutkagendor (Pakistan) in the west.