Place · early historic city · India
Pauni
The early historic Vidarbha urban centre at Pauni in Bhandara district, Maharashtra, on the Wainganga river — a 50-hectare fortified settlement with Buddhist monastic remains, excavated by S.B. Deo and the Nagpur University team from 1968-1970. The site documents continuous occupation from the 3rd century BCE through the 5th century CE. The excavated Pauni stupa, with its 23-metre diameter brick dome and surrounding railings, is one of the few major Buddhist monuments in the Vidarbha interior, documenting the eastward spread of Satavahana-period Buddhism from the Ajanta-Nasik corridor. The site's position on the Wainganga trade route to the Mahakoshala plateau helps connect the Deccan interior to the riverine and sea routes of eastern India. ASI protection since 1968.
- Function
- Archaeology & heritage
- Tradition
- Deccan archaeology and Maratha history
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 20.790, 79.320
Connections (1)
- Ancient VidarbhaNagardhan
Pauni's Satavahana-period stupa with its carved railing and the Vakataka capital at Nagardhan are two layers of the early urban and Buddhist landscape of Vidarbha — a region that had cities, a stupa tradition and a major dynasty, and which drops almost entirely out of the standard account of Indian history between the Mauryas and the Chalukyas.
Sources
Wikipedia, “Pauni”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
Open Pauni in the repository →