New Delhi, Aug. 17: The Archaeological Survey of India has found “submerged structures” off the Dwarka coast but is treading cautiously to avoid triggering a hue and cry over “Lord Krishna’s city”.

If political parties can sink their teeth into the matter, Krishna’s mythical city in Gujarat can become an emotive issue.

In recent months, claims that underwater sand dunes off the Tamil Nadu coast were actually “Ram’s setu (bridge)” had sparked saffron efforts to stop the dredging of Palk Strait for the Sethusamudram navigation project.

The ASI, which carried out the underwater excavations in Dwarka with navy help, is determined not to stir controversy by hazarding a guess about how old the finds might be.

Three wooden blocks, each of them three metres long, will be sent to more than one testing centre for dating so that there’s no allegation of bias.

“These samples will be sent to laboratories in India and abroad,” superintending archaeologist Alok Tripathi told a news conference in New Delhi today.

The existence of submerged manmade structures off the Dwarka coast was already known, Tripathi said. But this was the first underwater excavation at the site.

“The main purpose of the dig was to date these structures, not to validate a myth,” the archaeologist said.

“A lot of work has been done on Dwarka. It’s a major underwater site. The government wanted the ASI to conduct an excavation there,” another ASI source said.

“We also carried out an excavation on land and found antiquities. There were lots of coins. These will have to be chemically cleaned, which will take time,” Tripathi said.

An interim report on the Dwarka excavation and its findings will be presented at a seminar on “Maritime heritage of the Indian Ocean” in Delhi later this month.

The ASI and the navy had earlier joined hands to explore a shipwreck off Lakshadweep five years ago. A joint excavation had found temples near Mahabalipuram in 2005.

Before the Dwarka excavation, navy divers had been taught how to handle antiquities.