Bhupendra Jung Keshari Chand

B. Arch. Student at
Department of Architecture and Urban Planning
Tribhuvan University Institute of Engineering
Central Campus, Pulchowk
Lalitpur, Nepal

Email: bisuddhi@gmail.com

Archaeotectural Morphology of Khujakot, a 13th Century Khasa Kingdom:

The Legend of Nagi Malla
It was around mid-13th century when Nagi Malla, one of the powerful Khasa Malla kings of Doti
Kingdom in Nepal, fled to a secret hill, Khujakot, in Dadeldhura. There is an interesting myth in
the folk culture that he had a fight with God Bhageshwor, the local guardian deity of Dadeldhura.
With defeat, Nagi Malla lost his kingdom and fled away to Khujakot hill along with some of his
parties. The Khasa kings from Western Nepal were believed to mostly having insuperable war
skills. Yet, there are numerous landscapes of archaeological sites and various socio-cultural as
well as ethnological edifices in present days, from the reign of Khasa kings. And Nagi Malla is
known to have contributed a lot in socio-cultural development of his kingdom. We see, even
after centuries, there are important structures and traces of the then civic society built during the
time period of Nagi Malla, which remains in dilapidated condition today. From the
archaeological perspective, there are several unexplored artifacts, art and cultural relics, treasure
hunts and many more which may be interesting in analyzing Harris matrix of Khujakot, carrying
excavations around, etc. However, way ahead of this there are more meaningful discussions that
may account in the repercussions of sociological, ethnological, religious or cultural, political and
architectural elements of our present society.

If we delve into the characteristic mechanism of our society, it has been functioning till now with
the very similar apparatus since the ancient period. The natures of challenges we have been
facing today were also the same in the past, and thats why we often find ourselves in identical
circumstances which are relevant to our past. May it be technology, or the manifestation of art
and literature; it can also be the lifestyle today, or the political structure, they are always in the
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verge of connecting our achievements in the timeline of human civilization. In this sort of
sophisticated context, if we seek for a strong reconciliation, there cant be anything more
illustrious than the study of archaeological and ancient history itself. It doesnt signify the history
alone, but any piece of archaeology, art/literature or architecture, science/technology,
philosophy, or politics that is historical, share an equal value to understand that mechanism. And
archaeology is such a high realm where one can find his/her answer to almost every defining
element of our civilization. But again, archaeology as a single subject is insufficient to justify its
significance. If we carry archaeology to the much wider arena of associated and interdisciplinary
subjects including science and literature, art and philosophy, sociology, economics and politics,
it becomes simple and easier to explore the underlying meaning of our societal mechanism.

Every theme has its own critical regional context, and so is with the story of Khujakot along with
the legend of Nagi Malla. We have learnt much about the Greek and Roman civilizations, in
contrary, there is a little known about the contemporary or succeeding developments including
the Indus Valley Civilization. Actually the story of Khujakot and the legend of Nagi Malla arent
less interesting than the Greeks or Romans. If we go on tracing the movement and establishment
of Khasa kingdom in Western Nepal, they have origins from the Babylonian civilization of
Persia of Iran who shifted from Kazakhstan, eventually moving east from Afghanistan, Pakistan
and India, and south from Tibet to Western Nepal finally. It took them a long course of centuries
whereby they evolved as mutually tolerant tribes. Today, the hills of Western Nepal consist of
Hindu-Buddhist culture and have archaeotecturally rich edifices as a souvenir from the Khasa
kings.

The reign of Nagi Malla was prosperous in the field of art and architecture. We can see the
famous Ajayameru Fort and the Palace ruins in Dadeldhura; Kotbhairav Palace and a Ninestorey temple in Doti, believed to have been built during the period of Nagi Malla. But, the reign
of Nagi Malla also saw a disastrous epidemic in his kingdom, which finally led his kingship to
fall. The fall of Nagi Mallas kingship has several socio-cultural implications in the society of
Western Nepal today. The mysterious escape of Nagi Malla to Khujakot hill isnt much sought in
history, but the landscape archaeology of Khujakot suggests a lot about the people of society
located there. Nagi Malla didnt escape to Khujakot hill just for hiding; his escape turned
establishing a society there, where people would live in harmony with justice. The preliminary
archaeological survey of Khujakot carried out some decades ago by Department of Archaeology
(DOA) under the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation of Nepal Government reported
that Khujakot was a Kingdom Palace of Nagi Malla after he fled away from Doti.

It is seen that almost within every subject of research, theres always a dominating story of riches
only; the researchers dont look into the other side of poors. Most often, social scientists try to
talk about the underprivileged groups of people in a society; even they are also linked to some
figures and images. Well, to put it clear, I would like to suggest that those having stories and
interesting contexts in a society are mostly the riches. We can also tell something from the study
of poors, but their stories are dominated by the riches; and thats exactly where the connection
to some legendary figures and images arrive. Basically, its difficult to reach towards conclusive
findings with mere study of stifled faction of a society. Let the help kept aside, sometimes there
are annoying obstacles from the people themselves in examining the possible findings from a
society. Here also, in the case of Khujakot, the story is being tried to tell based on the legend of

Nagi Malla; who, being a king, is again the superior character of a society. The incidents in this
essay are built again and again with the legend of Nagi Malla, but the whole story is of course
directed towards decorous note for the people.

Today, at some of the Hindu temples of Far-Western Nepal, there exists a religious culture of
Deuki Pratha, where a community ritually offers their daughters to the demigods. The offered
daughters are called Deuki; whose responsibility then becomes to serve at the temple,
remaining unmarried for the whole life. This practice is highly opposed by concerned NGOs
and INGOs related to human and women rights; and positively the culture of Deuki Pratha is
slowly disappearing from the society with notable changes in education and secular beliefs.
Actually, this practice evolved as a religious or cultural misconception from a noble act of Nagi
Malla. During the reign of Nagi Malla in Doti, his kingdom became a victim of fatal endemic
diseases, and the life of people befitted to worse conditions. Being a king, Nagi Malla had to
think of something. At that time, the society was strongly governed by religious or cultural
beliefs. And Nagi Malla went to pray for the local demigods seeking for help in establishing
prosperity in his kingdom. Nagi Malla promised to offer anything for the demigods would ask
from him. The demigods asked his daughter for their service, and Nagi Malla agreed to offer his
young princess to the demigods for the sake of establishing prosperity in his society. Later on,
this act became practiced in the form of religious delusion as Deuki Pratha. After this incident,
he is believed to have disputes with the demigods and then secretly fled away to Khujakot hill.

It was Nagi Malla who declared the Doti kingdom as an independent state. Formerly, the whole
region of Western Nepal was under the control of Khasa kings of Nagaraja Dynasty in Karnali.

The Nagaraja Dynasty used to be power center of Khasa kingdom, and other small associate
kingdoms were under the control of Karnali. As the Nagaraja Dynasty went through its
disintegration, Nagi Malla of Doti kingdom was the first king to declare his state as an
independent state. During the reign of Nagi Malla, the Doti kingdom emerged as a power center
displacing Karnali. The socio-cultural life of people in Doti was prosperous then. During the
period, Nagi Malla built his palace in Ajayameru in Dadeldhura, which remains as one of the
important heritage of Far-Western Nepal today. The architecture of Ajayameru Palace has a
characteristic feature of fort architecture or defense architecture. Some historians believe that
Ajayameru Palace was actually a fort built to defend the territory of Doti kingdom. The palace
was later attacked and destroyed by Moghul invasion. The kingdom Palace was then shifted to
Dipayal at Kotbhairav Palace. Today, the Ajayameru Palace site has some of the
archaeotecturally rich edifices such as the Chipur RajSabha and many socio-cultural entities
represented by the stone water conduits, religious shrines and temples. All of these historical
elements of Doti kingdom have been categorized as the regional heritage of Far-Western Nepal
by DOA. With the downfall of his reign, Nagi Malla left these heritages and secretly fled away
to Khujakot in Dadeldhura, where he built him and for his people a new kingdom.

Khujakot Palace rests in the highland of Khujakot hill, which used to be surrounded by the
village community of residing people. Today, the whole area is unexplored, remaining in the
bushes and dense forest. The Palace area now is a property of local people of Shirsha VDC in
Dadeldhura as a part of community forest. The area is abandoned by locals and the DOA
authority in dilapidated condition. In the east, the Khujakot hill is drawn in curve at base by the
Mahakali River, differentiating the Indo-Nepal border. The other sides of Khujakot hill are

virtually disconnected from neighboring areas with inaccessible means of any sort of route to
Khujakot Palace. This may be probably the way Nagi Malla must have designed his Palace to be
secret. But, on carrying landscape archaeology of Khujakot site, it was found that there used to
be prosperous villages around the main Palace towering the Khujakot Palace in terrace form. The
terrace form of settlements around the Palace is one of the characteristic of defensive architecture
of Khujakot Palace. The ruined landscape of Khujakot Palace with ground layouts and huge
boundary narrates the apex of Palace architecture. The ground layouts have sharp corners in
stone walls and foundations, even after the centuries of its built form. Some of the layouts also
give hints regarding the basement structure of the Palace. Likewise, the fortification of the Palace
is also uniquely designed with high walls, that also in regular as well as irregular pattern. The
main Khujakot Palace site is still plain with some bushes in the field, whereas the rear part of the
Palace is covered in a dense forest of Sal trees and rich vegetation. There are still some symbolist
orders in the Palace site such as Peepal (a tree with strong religious values in Hindu religion and
culture) trees and familiar vegetation in the foreground. The Palace also consists of hierarchical
spaces and socio-culturally designed spaces of private room, meeting room, assembly area,
verandahs, etc. This particular study brings us to the findings in sociology and anthropology that
the people of Khujakot were rich in culture and social traditions having conscious live in. People
also believe that the palace site has a hiding of rich wealth and treasure. It isnt accidental to
someone, if he/she steps on ancient silver currencies while surveying the Khujakot Palace site.

Beside the Palace architecture, the architecture of local people residing in Khujakot during 14th
century is also striking. Around the terrace landscape of Khujakot Palace, there are more distinct
structures, where those people used to live in. The typical houses in stone walls of that time are

now ruined to half walls only. The building structures around the Palace not only display their
form and construction, but they also exhibit the socio-cultural elements along with them, which
are still a characteristic feature of traditional architecture of neighboring Shirsha VDC in
Dadeldhura. For example, we can see recessed niches and covered verandahs in the ruined
buildings of Khujakot, and these elements are still in use in traditional architecture of FarWestern Nepal as a characteristic feature. Today, it is hard to locate any agricultural activities in
Khujakot since it has been centuries and is covered in dense forest, and even DOA hasnt carried
any excavation works. But, as the Mahakali River is at the base of Khujakot with several streams
in the jungle, it can be said that the people of Khujakot must have developed some technology
for agricultural activities in the hill. This can be referenced to an interesting part of Khujakot,
which is that theres a stepped way in stone to top of Khujakot Palace from base of the
Siddhanath Community Forest. The stepped way is almost an hour of ascending walk to uphill,
which is designed in such a manner that it seems like as if it was built in present day. People also
believe that the stepped way has been designed from the base of the Mahakali River in
Parshuram Kshetra of Parigaun, a valley village, up the Khujakot hill. It is also said that Nagi
Malla used to come down to the Mahakali River from Khujakot hill via a secret tunnel track for
sacred bathing. This story provides at least a hypothetical assumption that the people of Khujakot
might have learned technology.

The story behind the Khujakot Palace seems conjectural, but there are various mysterious
incidents regarding the wealth and treasure hiding of Khujakot. Such incidents have happened in
present days and the local people of Shirsha VDC are the living witness of it. To justify it, there
is a stimulating happening occurred with a local resident of Parigaun village. It was around

1990s when a local priest of Parigaun had in his dreams that there was hiding of invaluable
treasure in the Khujakot Palace and at the Basin of Mahakali River. The priest, in his dreams, got
the hints to exact hideout place of the treasure. The next day, he went out for treasure hunt,
without notifying his whereabouts to his family. With the instincts he got from his mysterious
dreams, he first went to Khujakot Palace taking a walk of 4-5 hours, and started to search for the
treasure. To his astonishment, he was in awe when his dugout gave his hands to touch the rich
treasure from ancient Palace. He collected a plenty of gold, silver and copper currency along
with ancient writings. The despicable priest packed all he could and headed towards the next
hideout, the Basin of Mahakali River. This next hideout was located beneath the Peepal tree, a
sacred shrine of local deity near the Mahakali River. He curiously dug the shrine, and once
again, he was wondered when he saw a glooming folder of gold and silver coins. He was
overwhelmed to have such a more than handful of precious wealth and treasure, which he had
held to be his only. He then returned to his way back home filled with joy.

When he got his home, there was a crowd of people mourning and crying outside his house. He
was shocked, and hid his pack of treasure, and then asked that what the hell was going on. He
came to know that his wife and children, who were all well and fit the earlier night, were
struggling to death. The priest went out cold with the instinct that the treasure had some black
forecast. In unadorned stiffness, as he was about to enter his house, the whole building shook. He
was now in surprise. By now, it was all clear to him that he had badly done something unwanted
with the black treasure hunt at the Khujakot Palace. He went straightaway to consult the other
distinguished priests of different shrines of local deities. He explained them everything about his
dreams and each detail that has happened to him after the treasure hunt. The priests figured out

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that it was surely a bad omen, and would cause harm to the entire village if something isnt
sorted out to fix it. Thereafter, all the villagers gathered and worshipped the local deities, and the
treasure was placed back intact with holy rites and offerings. And then, the beloved family of the
despicable priest was all fine. After the incident, no one had ever tried to search for any treasure
at the Khujakot Palace. People are even frightened to visit the site at all.

The story of priest might also seem theoretical again, but there is also a historical fact regarding
the Moghul invasion over the Ajayaneru Palace. It was around 16th century, during the reign of
the great Akbar in India, when Ajayameru Palace was attacked and destroyed by the Moghuls. It
is said that the Army Chief of Akbar in Lucknow, Hussain Khan, led the army and invaded
Ajayameru. Historians also say that Hussain Khan was actually tempted by the possibility of
capturing wealth and treasury of Khasa kingdom. During the period of attack, Doti kingdom was
in spoils, regardless of that, the Moghuls were unable to conquer and loot the treasury. It is
believed that the wealth and treasury of Ajayameru was secretly replaced to Khujakot, with the
early information of Moghuls arriving to Ajayameru. In the history of Nepal, Moghuls also
invaded the Kathmandu Valley during 14th century, where they looted a lot and destroyed several
religious structures of the Valley in disaster at the time of Malla regime. This incident also
proves that the Khasa kings and people were powerful enough not to be completely defeated by
the mighty Moghuls, even in the state of downfall. Some explorative landscape archaeology and
excavation works at Khujakot Palace would certainly help in investigating the sociology,
anthropology and cultural science of Khasa kingdom and people.

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In societal behavior, the rises of civility have implications on achievements; and in a similar
way, the downfalls also have certain inferences on failures along narrated timeline. In case of
Khujakot hill, which is invariantly associated with Nagi Malla, it has also both consequences.
Khujakot is actually related to the downfall of Nagi Malla, but it does tell us about the up and
downs in the civic life of concerned people. Again, it is the people who believe that Nagi Malla,
after spending a life in Khujakot, joined the very Hindu philosophy of detached life. He
abandoned his kingdom and started wandering around the unknown hills of Far-Western Nepal.
It is said that Nagi Malla couldnt awake himself from the tragedy of Ajayameru and Kotbhairav,
and finally gave up his kingship, that too in a mysterious way. Nagi Malla used to roam around
the villages as a Saint in strange look so that no one could recognize him. Here, the Khujakot had
lost his king, and the King himself, Nagi Malla, was lost in Achham, a district neighboring to
Doti. Achham is also closely related to the later life of Nagi Malla, where he left his son, a
successor to Doti kingdom, but unknown to people.

There is again an interesting story behind the birth of Prince Ripu Malla, son of Nagi Malla.
Nagi Malla was near to his last days in earth, and he happened to live in a Brahmin house with a
widow and her only daughter. One day, Nagi Malla was in ill health and couldnt even feed
himself. He asked the unmarried Brahmin daughter to feed him rice pudding. The widow was
astonished that a Saint was asking for rice pudding to eat, that too to be fed by her unmarried
daughter. The widow denied. As Nagi Malla insisted, the widow let her daughter feed him with a
single finger. There is a famous proverb said then by the widow that, This Saint couldnt know
how to eat rice pudding and there was one king, Nagi Malla, who wouldnt know how to govern
his kingdom. She couldnt know then that the same Saint before her was Nagi Malla himself.

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After the few months of this incident, the widow noticed that the mensuration cycle of her
daughter has stopped. The widow then asked Nagi Malla to tell the truth that her daughter was
pregnant after the rice pudding incident. Now, Nagi Malla, in his last days, could do nothing but
speak the ultimate truth that he is the king Nagi Malla himself. He also told that if a daughter is
born, marry her to any Khasa king in Karnali; and if a son is born, my parties will come here
searching for the Prince. As he spoke the truth, Nagi Malla left this material world making his
journey to heaven probably. His last rituals were performed at the Parshuram Kshetra alongside
the Mahakali River near Khujakot as he had desired to.

Parshuram Kshetra today also has a bathing disc of Nagi Malla, which has now been covered by
Mahakali River. During mid-January of every year on the occasion of eclipse, a grand religious
feast is organized at Parshuram Kshetra, whereby people came long from India for religious
purpose. On the auspicious occasion, everyone is curious to observe the special bathing disc of
Nagi Malla. People can only imagine of taking a holy bath in the disc as it is submerged in
Mahakali River, which is seen only during the winter as the level of Mahakali River moves to
center from sideways. During the feast, religious processions of local deity gods from various
districts are brought to bathe them in Mahakali River. People also engage in rhyming folk songs,
which are mostly the narration and depiction of life of Nagi Malla and his kingdom. These sociocultural activities of locals also signify the actuality of Khasa kingdom, Khujakot and the legend
of Nagi Malla.

After the death of Nagi Malla, a son was born to the Brahmin daughter, now the Mother Queen
of Doti Kingdom. As told by Nagi Malla, the kingdom officials were at the door of Brahmin

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house in service. And Ripu Malla again had controversial implications in the history of Nepal.
There is a record by UNESCO World Heritage Site that Ripu Malla from Khasa kingdom in
1312 AD was the last visitor to Ashokan Pillar in Lumbini. Some believe that he was the son of
Nagi Malla, and some argue that he was Ripu Malla, but another king from Karnali. Actually,
Ripu Malla inscribed his name in the Ashokan Pillar during his return from Kathmandu Valley
after attacking there. There is a historical evidence of Khasa kings attacking Kathmandu Valley
repeatedly for six times. They attacked the Valley, but didnt harm the people nor did they
destroy the religious sites in the Valley. Despite, they performed rituals at Bungamati,
Pashupatinath and Swayambhunath sites and returned back. May the Ripu Malla who attacked
Kathmandu Valley be the son of Nagi Malla or be the Khasa king from Karnali, it shows that the
Khasa kings and people respected the religion and culture of people of other societies.

Khasa literature also has an impact in the development of national language of Nepal. The Nepali
language of Nepalese today is actually a modified form of Khasa language. Even after the
unification of Nepal by King Prithivi Narayan Shah from Gorkha, the founder king of Nepal, the
official language of Nepal kingdom was Khasa language. It was later modified and the Nepali
language today is a derivative of Khasa literature. This influence has linkages to the Khasa
kingdom, obviously to the legend of Nagi Malla, and to the people of Western Nepal. There still
exists controversy in the grammar and originality of Nepali language. In this case, understanding
the anthropology of Khasa people could help linguistic experts to explore the problems in Nepali
language today. And, in this context, the archaeological findings from Khujakot could support
the effort, as Khujakot, unanimously, is one of the important part of Khasa kingdom.

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While talking about the archaeological values of Khujakot, which can be significant in
identifying the sociological, anthropological, cultural and political history of Nepal, there are not
only possibilities alone. Much has been discussed about the legend of Nagi Malla, but there
remain some major challenges to the authenticity of Khujakot. One of the direct challenges is the
people themselves. Even in the days of 21st century, the people living in rural Nepal are
surviving through basic needs. They are busy with their individual businesses, but are totally
unaware of collective responsibilities. These responsibilities are also only acknowledged by
historians, social scientists, archaeologists and other associated experts. This is where the crisis
of public awareness comes in between the local people and the experts. The value of
archaeological or historical Khujakot remains among people in intangible form of folk culture
and occasional religious activities only. The experts, who are supposed to identify the tangible
form of art/literature, architecture and technology of such edifices, are busy in preparing
abstracts only. The experts, who also carry the collective responsibility of transforming
intangible values among people into justifiable documentation, again face their back to the
regional context, and are busy in research of centralized projects only. Khujakot has already been
listed as the regional heritage of Far-Western Nepal by DOA, and DOA has nothing but a single
piece of blurred photo in their reports for documentation. The local people of Parigaun say that
decades ago a team of archaeologists came there to prepare an inventory, and returned back to
Head Office with a silver coin from Khujakot in their pocket.

Much of the ancient writings and documents of Khasa kingdom were destroyed or forfeited
outside during the course of repeated attacks from Moghuls, during defeat with army of King
Prithivi Narayan Shah for unification of Nepal, and lastly during the 19th century Indo-Nepal war

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with British Army of East India Company. Moghuls attacked Khasa kingdom lured by the rich
wealth and treasury of Raikas, and as they couldnt get it, they destroyed the major architectural
structures along with other important piece of art and writings. During the unification campaign
of King Prithivi Narayan Shah, some of the secret documents and writings were lost within the
war. And, during the Indo-Nepal war, most of the documentations and other secret writings
related to religious and socio-cultural practices were seized by the British.

Some experts and historians believe that those documents are still in the hand of Indian and
British researchers. This isnt an attempt to accuse anybody, but it has been proved that the
archaeological and architectural timeline of Nepalese history has been tried to manipulate for
several times to have been developed within the Indian Empire. This devious assumption has
also been defied by other Italian and some native experts with references from the excavations at
Lumbini and Kathmandu Valley that the archaeological and architectural timeline of Nepalese
history has a contemporary but an independent development. If only we could carry some
archaeology at the Khasa kingdoms including Khujakot, Ajayameru, Achham and Karnali, we
could get some supporting and significant results in the field of study of sociology, anthropology,
culture and political history of Nepal. And such findings would certainly provide some
references to our present, which would become the archaeology for the people.

In the Jogbuda VDC of Dadeldhura, a valley adjacent to Shirsha VDC where Khujakot lies, there
is a habitation of Raute Community, who has been characterized by the Government of Nepal as
endangered community. The Raute Community also has close relation to the ancient settlements
of Khasa kingdom in Doti. One cant find any other group of Raute Community in other parts of

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Far-Western Nepal, but they do live in some parts of Mid-Western Nepal, which used to be
under the control of Khasa kingdom in Karnali. As the juxtaposed settlements of Raute
Community near Khujakot have socio-cultural relation to the Khasa kingdom, the endangered
community of Rautes could have some sociological and anthropological answers to the ethnic
identity of people and society of Far-Western Nepal. It is seen that Rautes are afraid of coming in
front of modern society. Their lifestyle is also kind of aboriginal, yet they have their own sociocultural values and traditions. They even disregard to have a modern lifestyle. The Rautes seem
nomadic, but they are skilled with authentic technology of farming, making of agricultural
products and other essentials which are fine and have industrial characteristic. The Government
of Nepal has also employed them in preserving the forest and biodiversity of local regions. If we
could identify the relation between the Raute Community and Khujakot from possible
archaeotectural studies, it would help us in understanding more about the people of Khasa
kingdom.

Since the origin of human civilization, several philosophers and scientists have contributed a lot
to humankind in their respective fields. May it be the democratic philosophy of Socrates, or
artistic gesture of Plato, message of Lord Buddha, the social dialogue from Rousseau,
metaphysical thinking of Kant and Nietzsche, psychological interpretation by Freud, the
characteristic of universe described by Einstein, and also the living scholars today; they did
research in their field, but delivered whatever they discovered to the general people in a sublime
language. Thats why our society is indebted to those luminaries. Today also, with the
advancement in methods and approaches, scholars from different fields are working in their
subject. However, their works are or have been limited to the papers only; the general public is

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finding it difficult to make a conversation with them. This phenomenon has, to some extent, been
created by the 21st century concept of institutionalization and other behaviors among the
scholars. Sometimes, the works of experts also seem unprofessional. This gap has to be
diminished between concerned intellectuals and the general people.

After all, the timeline of our civilization always has a special value for us people in
understanding our past and likely shaping our future. In this context, we cant deny that the study
of ancient world is elemental in tracing human achievements and tragedy in our civilization. And
archaeology is such a field which provides us with all the possible characteristics of our
civilization referring to sociology, anthropology, art and literature, architecture, science and
technology, religion and culture, economics, politics and many more. But today, a single subject
alone is insufficient in understanding our civilization, as the findings from one subject may have
different or more elaborative meaning in the vocabulary of other subject. In this case, there is
need of interdisciplinary subjects. With archaeology, almost all subjects are related; again among
all, architecture is possibly more associated with archaeological studies. Therefore, we can
extract much explanatory findings from archaeotectural morphology of any given context. As
architecture is also composed of art and literature, science and technology, socio-cultural
contexts and other civic elements, archaeotectural context of any edifices can be significant in
identifying its value.

If we give a closer look at our social movement, the global zeitgeist has shifted from industrial to
geographical economy to technological advancement thereafter. Now is the need of a cultural
revolution. Even the communists, who used to discard the socio-cultural structure of our society,

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are repeatedly thinking upon it. And culture isnt a specialized area for a single subject since it
carries different mutual values among the people from different parts of the globe. This is where
we need the direct participation of in discovering those mutual values. Today, in almost all fields
including management studies, there are interdisciplinary subjects designed with participatory
planning approach. This concept of participatory planning approach actually evolved from the
problems of conservation management at different UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the world.
There used to disputes among the scholars and general people in the validity of rational thinking
of the experts and the socio-cultural attachment or ownership of general people regarding the
World Heritage Sites. Then, participatory planning approach came, which encapsulates the best
possible solution to a problem or any matter, that too in the participation of local people. This
approach gives the general people to interact, understand, involve and then work on development
of their own heritage, which actually and intensely make them feel to be an integrated part of
their own civilization. Lastly, this sort of mutual practice, if also applied to the case of Khujakot
through its archaeotectural study, can help the people of Khasa kingdom in understanding the
civic values of their own communal development; and this truly not only becomes archaeology
for the people, but also becomes archaeology by the people as well.

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