Syed Jamal Hasan, the director (excavation) at the Archaeological Survey of India, shows shards of pottery collected at the burial ground

New Delhi, Nov. 24: Two burials, 26 years apart, have thrown up clues to a 2,600-year-old history at a city thought to be less than seven centuries old.

It all began in 1988. Syed Jamal Hasan, a junior officer with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), had reached Jaunpur 24 hours after his father’s death in the eastern Uttar Pradesh city, 60km from Varanasi.

Although tired after the 800km trip from Delhi, he went straight to the burial ground from the bus stand to release the emotions he had been choking back through the train-and-bus journey.

There, through all his tears and grief, his trained eyes still picked up something twinkling at him from the freshly dug earth by his father’s grave.

They appeared to be shards of ancient pottery, seemingly several thousand years old.

“I didn’t know whether to continue crying to relieve my heavy heart or get to work collecting those precious pieces of history strewn around me,” Hasan said.

“My family, distant relatives and neighbours were all watching… and my tears were falling on the pottery.”

Hasan the son won over Hasan the archaeologist and the shards lay forgotten.

Cut to November 2, 2014. Hasan, now director (excavation) at the ASI, was home for Muharram.

New ASI director-general Rakesh Tewari, a few months into the job, was returning to Delhi after inspecting monuments in Varanasi and had planned a stopover at Jaunpur, which too has protected monuments.

As they met and conversed, Hasan narrated the 1988 story. He then led a curious Tewari to the family burial ground.

Muharram was two days away, and black flags flew atop shops and homes to mark the mourning period.

There had been another death in Hasan’s family. This time the earth had been dug for his 43-year-old cousin.

“My cousin died of a heart attack on the day of Id, October 6. Her husband called me to ask if she could be buried in our graveyard since theirs was right in front of his home,” Hasan said. “He feared that his four young children would spend their days hugging their mother’s grave.”

Tewari, freshly back from Varanasi, had chandan bibhuti smeared on his forehead while Hasan wore black ahead of Muharram.

Along with team members from the ASI’s Sarnath circle, they saw in the still fresh earth, dug less than four weeks ago, what Hasan had spied at the same spot back in 1988.

The team collected several pottery fragments. “We plan to start an excavation soon,” Tewari said.

Delhi sultan Feroz Shah Tughlaq is believed to have founded Jaunpur in 1359 and named the city after his cousin and the previous sultan, Muhammad bin Tughlaq, whose name was Jauna Khan.

“Till now we believed that Jaunpur dated back only to medieval times but the little evidence that we have seen indicates a much older history,” Tewari said.

“It seems to have been continuously inhabited for 2,600 years or more.”

Historians say that in 1388, Feroz Shah Tughlaq appointed Malik Sarwar, a eunuch, as the region’s governor. A little over a decade later, Sarwar declared independence and his adopted son Mubarak Shah became the first ruler of the Sharqi dynasty.

The Sharqis ruled Jaunpur for nearly a century before Sikandar Lodi, then sultan of Delhi, annexed it in 1495. Lodi destroyed many of the monuments built under Sharqi rule. There are now 16 that the ASI protects.

Hasan’s family perhaps expected him to become a gun seller like his brother or follow his grandfather into the perfume business. Instead, he says, “archaeology chose me”.

“I remember staring at the 14th-century fort opposite our home as a child — while playing football, while studying for exams…. I couldn’t have followed any other profession,” he said.

His house is a few metres from Jaunpur Fort, a Sharqi monument.

Hasan completed his primary schooling from the local madarsa, Deen--Duniya. Folklore says the 16th-century emperor, Sher Shah Suri, had studied there for 14 years.

Days before his father’s death, Hasan had come to visit him but had to return to Delhi to submit an application for the post of superintending archaeologist.

“When I was leaving, he held my hand and said, ‘You won’t be able to meet me again’,” Hasan said, taking sips of water to contain his rush of emotions.

He was in no state to fill in his application form after receiving the news of his father’s passing.

“I merely signed the form, told my colleagues to fill it in and submit it, and rushed to the railway station,” Hasan said.