Archaeological sites in Madhya Pradesh :

Bharhut Stupa :

Bharhut  is a village located in the Satna district of Madhya Pradesh, central India. It is known for its famous relics from a Buddhist stupa. The most famous donor for the Bharhut stupa was King Dhanabhuti. The Bharhut sculptures represent some of the earliest examples of Indian and Buddhist art, later than the monumental art of Ashoka (circa 260 BCE), and slightly later than the early Sunga-period reliefs on railings at Sanchi Stupa No.2 (starting circa 115 BCE).

Buddhism continued to survive in Bharhut until 12th century. A Small Buddhist temple was enlarged around 1100 AD and a new statue of Buddha was installed. A large Sanskrit inscription from the same period was found at the site, however it appears to have been lost. This is different from the inscription Lal Pahad inscription of AD 1158 mentioning the Kalachiri kings.

Bahrut Yavna :

The Bharhut Yavana is a high relief of a warrior which was discovered among the reliefs of the railings around the Bharhut Stupa. It is dated to circa 100 BCE, with a range from 150 BCE to 80 BCE. The relief is currently in the Indian Museum in Kolkata. The man in the relief has been described as a Greek, called "Yavanas" among the Indians.

Characterstics :

The role of the stading warrior is that of a dvarapala, deities who were Guardians of a temple gate.

Many elements point to the depiction being that of a foreigner, and possibly an Indo-Greek, called a Yavana among the Indians of the period. Elements leading to this suggestion are the hairstyle (short curly hairstyle without an Indian turban), the hair band normally worn by Indo-Greek kings on their coins, the tunic, and boots. In his right hand he holds a grape plant, possibly emblematic of his origin. The sheath of his broadsword is decorated with a srivasta or nandipada, symbols of Buddhism. He is holding in his right hand a vine, which could also be ivy. This type of head with the band of a Greek king is also seen on reliefs at Sanchi, in which man in northern dress are seen riding horned and winged lions. It has been suggested that the warrior is actually the Indo-Greek king Menander who may have conquered Indian territory as far as Pataliputra and is known through the Milinda Panha to have converted to Buddhism.

Bhimbetka Rock shelters :

The Bhimbetka rock shelters are an archaeological site in central India that spans the prehistoric paleolithic and mesolithic periods, as well as the historic period. It exhibits the earliest traces of human life on the Indian subcontinent and evidence of Stone Age starting at the site in Acheulian times. It is located in the Raisen District in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh about 45 kilometres (28 mi) southeast of Bhopal. It is a UNESCO world heritage site that consists of seven hills and over 750 rock shelters distributed over 10 kilometres (6.2 mi). At least some of the shelters were inhabited more than 100,000 years ago.

Chichali :

Chichali is an archaeological site located on the left bank of the Narmada River in India, 7 km west of village Nimrani on the Mumbai Agra Highway. The site was discovered in 1996-1997 by the Prehistory Branch of the Archaeological Survey of India, during the course of exploration headed by Shri S.B. Ota.
Chichali has produced twenty examples of anthropomorphic figurines, variously on pottery (12), in stone (3), ivory (4) and bone (1) from different levels of Early Historical Period. Two examples were found, having well marked head, torso and legs. These have parallels from comparable levels at Kaundinyapur, Amravati district, in Maharashtra.

Deur Kothar :

Deorkothar is a location of archaeological importance in Madhya Pradesh, Central India. It is known for its Buddhist stupas and was discovered in 1982.These stupas are credited to the Mauryan emperor, Ashoka. P.K. Mishra (Archaeological Survey of India) discovered Deorkothar in 1982 along with Ajit Singh, sarpanch of village Barhat. It was declared a monument of national importance in 1988 by the Govt of India and is being preserved and conserved by Archaeological Survey of India, Bhopal. Realising the importance of the site, and its likely international bearing on Buddhism, the Archaeological Survey of India decided to carry out extensive, but controlled, excavations at the site. 

Kaytha :

Kaytha or Kayatha is a village and an archaeological site in the Ujjain district of Madhya Pradesh, India. It is located in the Tarana tehsil. Several Chalcolithic sites have been discovered in the Malwa region of central India. The site at Kayatha, situated on the right bank of the Choti Kali Sindh river (a tributary of Chambal river), is the type site of this culture, known as "Kayatha culture". Excavations conducted by V. S. Wakankar (1965–66), and by M. K. Dhavalikar and Z. D. Ansari (1968) revealed layers from five different periods: Kayatha culture, Ahar culture, Malwa culture, Early historical culture, Sunga-Kushan-Gupta culture

The Kayatha culture represents the earliest known agriculture settlement in the present-day Malwa region. It also featured advanced copper metallurgy and stone blade industry. Using calibrated radiocarbon, Dhavalikar dated this culture to a period spanning from 2400 BCE to 2000 BCE. However, calibrated dates by Gregory Possehl place it between 2200 BCE and 2000 BCE.

Navdatoli :

Navdatoli refers to both a modern day village and a chalcolithic era settlement located on the Narmada River in Madhya Pradesh in central India. The ancient village was inhabited through four stages each defined by distinctly different types of pottery. The site was excavated between 1957 and 1959 over two seasons. Both the village and the site are located roughly a mile south of the modern day town of Maheshwar.

Pahargarh caves :

The Pahargarh caves are a cave complex containing prehistoric paintings in Madhya Pradesh, India, near the village of Pahargarh. The most prominent of the caves is known locally as Likhichhaj. The paintings were discovered in 1979 by D. P. S. Dwarikesh, a professor of linguistics at the University of Michigan, and Shri Ram Sharma, a civil engineer from Pahargarh. Dwarikesh and Sharma conducted preliminary surveys of the caves, documenting over 600 paintings, and speculated that there were thousands more. However, they were not able to obtain permission to excavate and the caves have not been investigated since. Made with red and white ochre-based paints, the depictions include human and animal figures as well as abstract shapes.

Udayagiri Caves :

The Udayagiri Caves are twenty rock-cut caves near Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh from the early years of the 5th century CE. They contain some of the oldest surviving Hindu temples and iconography in India. They are the only site that can be verifiably associated with a Gupta period monarch from its inscriptions. One of India's most important archaeological sites, the Udayagiri hills and its caves are protected monuments managed by the Archaeological Survey of India.

Udayagiri caves contain iconography of Vaishnavism (Vishnu), Shaktism (Durga and Matrikas) and Shaivism (Shiva).They are notable for the ancient monumental relief sculpture of Vishnu in his incarnation as the man-boar Varaha, rescuing the earth symbolically represented by Bhudevi clinging to the boar's tusk as described in Hindu mythology. The site has important inscriptions of the Gupta dynasty belonging to the reigns of Chandragupta II (c. 375-415) and Kumaragupta I.