2,000-Year-Old Trade Center: Brick Structure, A Vishnu Sculpture Among Findings In Andhra Pradesh

Conny Waters – AncientPages.com – The remains of a huge settlement surrounded by a massive brick enclosure, has been discovered during the 1st  phase of excavation by a team of Archaeological Survey of India’s Excavation Branch – VI, Bangalore at Gottiprolu near Naidupeta in Nellore (now renamed as Sri Potti Sri Ramulu) district, Andhra Pradesh.

A 4-armed Vishnu standing over a pedestal carrying chakra and conch in his upper right and left hands. The lower right is in the bestowing boon and the left hand in katihastha (resting on the hip) posture. The iconographical feature like the elaborate headgear, thick holy thread, and decorative drapery dates the Vishnu idol to the Pallava period (circa 8th cent. CE). Credit: ASI

Among many other antiquities unearthed are one life-size Vishnu sculpture and a wide variety of pottery of the early centuries of the current era.

The site of Gottiprolu (13° 56’ 48” N; 79° 59’ 14” E) lies on the right bank of a distributary of river Swarnamukhi about seventeen kilometers east of Naidupet and eighty kilometers from Tirupati and Nellore.

Detailed topographical study and drone images have helped in identifying an early historic settlement surrounded by a fortification and the possibility of a moat encircling it. The fortification is very much clear on the eastern and southern side of the mound while its other arm seems to have been leveled as a result of modern settlements.

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