Kutch, India – A groundbreaking study has revealed that a sophisticated trade infrastructure, belonging to the Harappan civilization, existed in the Indian subcontinent 2,000 years before the famed Silk Route. This discovery redefines the timeline of organized trade networks in the region, pushing back its origins by millennia.
The research, conducted by a multidisciplinary team from Pune-based Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute, Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts, and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), New Delhi, focuses on the Harappan settlement of Kotada Bhadli, located in Kutch, Gujarat. The study, published in L'Anthropologie (Elsevier, 2025), identifies the site as the earliest known caravanserai, a fortified rural stopover that facilitated long-distance trade between 2300 and 1900 BCE.
Lead researcher Prabodh Shirvalkar from Deccan College, in an interview, highlighted the significance of the finding. "This is the first confirmed archaeological evidence of a caravanserai in the Harappan world – a type of infrastructure previously known only from later historical periods," Shirvalkar stated.
The Kotada Bhadli site, excavated between 2010 and 2013 in collaboration with the Gujarat State Archaeology Department, has been re-examined using advanced techniques. These include ground-penetrating radar, magnetic and satellite surveys, isotopic and lipid analyses, and three forms of dating, providing a comprehensive understanding of the site's function and importance.
Researchers Esha Prasad and Yadubirsingh Rawat, part of the research team, emphasized that the discovery fills a critical gap in understanding the Indus Valley Civilization's trade mechanisms. It demonstrates how long-distance overland trade was sustained by a well-organized system of rest stops and logistical hubs, a structure previously believed to have emerged much later in history.
The existence of Harappan trade with Mesopotamia and inland India has long been established. However, the specifics of how merchants, animals, and goods traversed the land remained unclear. This new study suggests that Harappan commerce relied on a network of small, fortified stopovers strategically located along trade routes. These caravanserai provided shelter, food, security, and stables for pack animals, enabling traders to efficiently move goods across long distances.
The Silk Road, a network of trade routes that connected the East and West, played a significant role in the development of civilizations from China to Europe. While silk was a major trade item from China, common goods such as salt and sugar were also traded, and religions, philosophies, technologies, and diseases traveled along these routes. Though many scholars place the origins of globalization in modern times, others trace its history to long before the European Age of Discovery and voyages to the New World, and some even to the third millennium BCE.
The finding at Kotada Bhadli demonstrates a far earlier example of organized trade infrastructure in the Indian subcontinent. This Harappan caravanserai showcases the ingenuity and sophisticated planning of the Indus Valley Civilization, highlighting its pivotal role in early global trade networks. The discovery challenges existing narratives about the development of trade infrastructure and offers a new perspective on the economic systems of the ancient world.
