A Preliminary Report on the Identification of Mason’s Marks at the Lesser Known Architectural Monuments (13th– 14thCentury CE) of Panchmahal District, Gujarat, India

Abstract

The present paper deals with the preliminary identification of mason’s marks found in some of the historicalstructures of the Panchmahal district, Gujarat. Unlike other historical and archaeological research fields, mason’smarks represent a less known field in Indian academia. In very general terms, one can define a mason’s mark asany signs ranging from short inscriptions to any form of alpha-numeric values inscribed on architectural elements.In this paper, the authors discuss a series of such marks recorded at isolated historical buildings of the district,trying to explain why inquiry into mason’s marks can be deemed an integral part of architectural studies. A briefdescription of the study area and adapted methodologies is followed by the detailed accounts of the monumentsand the related finds in tabular format.

Keywords

• architecture
• historical
• masons marks
• monuments
• panchmahal