Rescue Archaeology with respect to Ancient Buddhist Stupas in India

Thousands of archaeological sites are being destroyed every year due to development activities, mining and urbanisation. In populous developing countries, like India, the pace of destruction of archaeologically relevant sites is alarming, especially because most sites have neither been documented nor properly excavated, thus leading to an irrevocable loss in history. This paper attempts to study the significance as well as the agents of destruction on three such sites in India, which could have considerable impact on our understanding of Buddhism in India, the land of its origin. Since limited archaeological mapping and documentation has been done on these sites, most information is pieced together on the basis of personal observations of the authors.