Dabhol is a small seaport town in the Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra in the Konkan region. In the 15^th and 16^th centuries, Dabul trade center, first under the Bahmani, later under the Adil Shahi sultans of Bijapur. At its height, it was the most important port between Chaul and Goa. It used to be the principal port of South Konkan region, carrying on trade with ports in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.

It was bombarded, sacked by Portuguese under Francisco de Almeida in 1508. The break-up of the Bahmani state into several smaller Deccan sultanates had accelerated Dabul’s decline and alternative, more convenient ports were cultivated.

Shahi Masjid with dome and minarets standing close to the port built in Adilshah’s Regime by Aisha Bibi (Adilshah’s Begum) in 1659-60.

Dabul was conquered by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj around 1660.

(2) Daimabad 

It is an archaeological site showing the Chalcolithic Culture located on the left bank of the Pravara River, a tributary of the Godavari River in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra.

Five distinct Chalcolithic cultural phases, based on painted ceramics are found:

1. Savalda culture
2. Late Harappan culture (Southern most Harappan site)
3. Daimabad culture
4. Malwa culture
5. Jorwe culture

The houses of mud walls, with hearths, storage pits and jars etc are found. Traces of a mud fortification wall are found in later phases.

The plant remains included barley, lentil, common pea, grass pea, gram etc.

The excavation yielded copper-bronze rings, beads of shell, terracotta, carnelian and agate, microliths, tanged arrowheads of bone, phallus-shaped object made of agate etc.

Terracotta seals with Harappan writings, inscribed potsherds, stone tools such as microlithic blades, beads of gold, stone and terracotta, bangles of shell, terracotta measuring scale are found.

A hoard of four bronze objects like sculpture of a chariot, a water buffalo, an elephant, a rhinoceros are found.

A copper-smelting furnace was found.

The ware found here are made on wheel. They are coarse fabric painted in ochre-red colour, fine red ware and black-on-buff-and-cream ware with linear and geometric designs painted in black. Its shape included dishes-on-stand, bowls-on-stand, dishes and vases.

Burials found were of different types like pit burial or post-cremation urn burial or extended burial in an urn.

On the basis of the occurrence of fire altars, certain structures were identified as religious structures.

Daman is situated on the west coast of India.The Portuguese captured it in the first half of 16^th century and it was settled as a Portuguese colony and remained so for over 400 years.

A large fort was built here in the 16th century to guard against the Mughals. Marathas collected Chauth in Damanthough it was under the possession of Portuguese.

Daman was incorporated into India in December 1961 after a battle between the Portuguese and the Indians.

(4) Dari-dungri

Debal was visited by Ottoman admiral Seydi Ali Reis in 1554. In 1568 Debal was attacked by the Portuguese in an attempt to destroy the Ottoman vessels anchored there.

(9) Dehradoon 

Deogarh is located on the right bank of Betwa in Jhansi district of Uttar Pradesh. The Gupta period temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu, the Dashavatara Temple, is situated here which is one of the earliest known Panchyatana temples in North India. It is in Nagar style and arks beginning of the Shikhara type of temples. Special features of this ancient temple include carved figurines of river goddesses Ganga and Yamuna on the doorway to the sanctum sanctorum, the Anantshayi Vishnu reclining on a serpent.

The sculpture on the Dasawatara temple show classical Gupta style.

The fort on the hill of Deogarh is dominated by a cluster of Jain temples, the oldest of these dating to the 8^th or 9^th century.

Dhauli is situated near Bhubaneshwar in Orissa. It has been identified with Tosali which is mentioned by ancient geographer Ptolemy as a metropolis.

It has major Edicts of Ashoka engraved on a mass of rock. The Rock Edicts found here include Nos. I-X, XIV and two separate Kalinga Edicts. In Kalinga Edict VI, Ashoka expresses his concern for the welfare of the whole world.

The rock-cut elephant above the Edicts is the earliest Buddhist sculpture of Odisha.

• Dholavira is an archaeological site at Khadirbet in Kutch District in Gujarat. It is one of the five largest Harappan sites belonging to the Indus Valley Civilization. It is located on the Khadir bet island in the Kutch Desert Wildlife Sanctuary in Great Rann of Kutch
• The site was occupied from 2650 BCE, declining slowly after about 2100 BCE. It was briefly abandoned and reoccupied until 1450 BCE.
• A coastal route existed linking Lothal and Dholavira to Sutkagan Dor on the Makran coast.
• Excavations unearthed large numbers of antiquities such as seals, beads, animal bones, gold, silver, terracotta ornaments, pottery and bronze vessels.

Architecture and Material Culture:

• The city of Dholavira has a rectangular shape and organization. Unlike Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, the city is composed to a pre-existing geometrical plan, of three divisions – the citadel, the middle town and the lower town.
• The acropolis (citadel) and the middle town had been further furnished with their own defence-work, gateways, built-up areas, street system, wells and large open spaces. The acropolis is the most carefully guarded.
• The towering “castle” stands in fair insulation and defended by double ramparts. Next to this stands a place called ‘bailey’ where important officials lived.
• Beyond the walls, yet another settlement has been found.
• The most striking feature of the city is that all of its buildings are built out of stone, whereas most other Harappan sites, including Harappa itself and Mohenjo-daro, are almost exclusively built out of brick.
• Dholavira is flanked by two storm water channels; the Mansar in the north, and the Manhar in the south.

Reservoirs:

• The kind of efficient system of Harappans of Dholavira, developed for conservation, harvesting and storage of water speaks eloquently about their advanced hydraulic engineering.
• Dholavira had massive reservoirs. They were used for storing the fresh water brought by rains or to store the water diverted from two nearby rivulets. This clearly came in wake of the desert climate and conditions of Kutch. A seasonal stream which runs in north-south direction of the site was dammed at several points to collect water.
• The inhabitants of Dholavira created sixteen or more reservoirs of varying size. Some of these took advantage of the slope of the ground within the large settlement.
• Reservoirs are cut through stones vertically. Reservoirs skirted the city while citadel and bath are centrally located on raised ground.
• A large well with a stone-cut trough to connect the drain meant for conducting water to a storage tank also found.

Seal Making

• Some of the seals found at Dholavira contained animal only figures, without any type of script and it is suggested that these type of seals represent early conventions of Indus seal making.

Hemispherical Constructions

• Seven Hemispherical constructions were found at Dholavira, which were constructed over large rock cut chambers.
• Having a circular plan, these were big hemispherical elevated mud brick constructions. One of the excavated structures was designed in the form of a spoked wheel. The other was also designed in same fashion, but as a wheel without spokes.
• Although they contained burial goods of pottery, no skeletons were found except for one grave, where a skeleton and a copper mirror were found. A necklace of steatite beads strung to a copper wire with hooks at both ends, a gold bangle, gold and other beads were also found in one of the hemispherical structures.
• These hemispherical structures bear similarity to early Buddhist stupas.The kind of design that is of spoked wheel and unspoked wheel also mentioned in the Satapatha Brahmana and Sulba-sutras.
• A soft sandstone sculpture of a male with phallus erectus but head and feet below ankle truncated were found.

Findings

• Painted Indus black-on-red-ware pottery, square stamp seals, seals without Indus script, a huge sign board measuring about 3 m in length, containing ten letters of Indus script etc.
• One seated male figure made of stone has also been found, comparable to high quality two stone sculptures found at Harappa.
• Large black-slipped jars with pointed base were also found at this site.
• A giant bronze hammer, a big chisel, a bronze hand-held mirror, a gold wire, gold ear stud, gold globules with holes, copper celts and bangles, shell bangles, phallus-like symbols of stone, square seals with indus inscription and signs, a circular seal, carleian humped animals, pottery with painted motifs, goblets, dish-on-stand, perforated jars, terracotta tumblers in good shape, architectural members made of ballast stones, grinding stones, mortars, etc., were also found at this site.
• Stone weights of different measures were also found.

Language and script

• The Harrapans spoke an unknown language and their script has not yet been deciphered. The direction of the writing was generally from right to left. Most of the inscriptions are found on seals (mostly made out of stone) and sealings (pieces of clay on which the seal was pressed down to leave its impression). Some inscriptions are also found on copper tablets, bronze implements, and small objects made of terracotta, stone and faience.
• The seals may have been used in trade and also for official administrative work.
• One of the most significant discoveries at Dholavira was Dholavira Signboard. The Harappans had arranged and set pieces of the mineral gypsum to form ten large symbols or letters on a big wooden board. The inscription is one of the longest in the Indus script, with one symbol appearing four times, and this and its large size and public nature make it a key piece of evidence that the Indus script represents full literacy.
• A four sign inscription with big size letters on a sand stone is also found at this site, considered first of such inscription on sand stone at any of Harappan sites.

• Paleolithic site.
• The city is famous for its Hindu traditional culture and philosophy and the Mathas. The temples of these maths are generally regarded to be very beautiful. The mathura Das Ji ka jaav, the well built by the maharaja of Jodhpur in 12th Century.
• The name Didwana used to be ‘Deen Deewana’ as this is a mystic land of Islamic Sufi movement and epicenter. Abdul Ghaffar Rumi stayed here while traveling with Khwaja Mueenuldin Chishti. The Sufi triangle of Ajmer, Nagaur and Didwana gave a mystic journey of anyone.
• Akbar made ‘Qila Masjid’ in the loving memory of the footsteps of Khwaja Mueenuldin Chishti.