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History of Bengal

Recent exciting news on Bengal archaeology was sent in by our contributor Rangan Datta

Archaeological Excavation at Deka - Bichkandi, Murshidabad

The West Bengal State Archaeology Department is presently carrying out an excavation in Deka - Bichkandi, in the Kandi sub-division of Murshidabad District, West Bengal. The first phase of the excavation started in mid-February 2009 and continued till mid-April 2009. The State Archaeology Department will return after the monsoon and continue with the dig. Here are some newspaper reports on the Deka - Bichkandi dig.

Ananda Bazar Patrika, 28 February, 2009

Ananda Bazar Patrika, 25 March, 2009

Additional Newspaper reports:

Pushing Bengal's history back
by Prasanta Paul (Deccan Herald, June 6, 2009)

5th century artefacts discovered in West Bengal
by Raktima Bose (The Hindu, June 6, 2009)

Mound of ruins Bengal's oldest Buddhist site
by Sebanti Sarkar (Telegraph, March 28, 2009)

Dreams to dust and then vault of history - Large mound of relics found in Musrhidabad
by Sebanti Sarkar (Telegraph, March 20, 2009)

Hunt for ancient stupa under teacher's plot
by Sebanti Sarkar (Telegraph, February 27, 2009)

Check out the new book Nothing is Blue by Dr. Biman Nath, published by HarperCollins .

BOOK SUMMARY

Author's description:

'Nothing is blue' is set in Nalanda in the 7th century, when Hiuen Tsang (Xuanzang) visited it. Harsha, the last of the ancient emperors, rules over the Indian subcontinent, but all is not well in his empire. There are palpable signs of unrest, and even the serene atmosphere at the Nalanda monastery is shaken by the political turmoil.

It is also a time shrouded in secrets and mysteries. Some Buddhist monks have begun to dabble in tantric rituals. Elsewhere, a crucial astronomical discovery has been hushed up. Khona, a woman scholar from Bengal, had confirmed a Greek discovery about the stars, and she was persecuted. A student monk from Nalanda stumbles upon these unpalatable secrets, and his life changes forever.

The secret of the stars is lost for centuries --- and our calendars have been hopelessly out of sync with the seasons since then. Now we celebrate the New Year in mid-April instead of 21st March, as used to happen then.

It is a story that Xuanzang cannot afford to write, because it is hopelessly mixed with heretical, tantric rituals--- but it will haunt him endlessly..

Also of note is the book "Chandraketugarh" by SreeParabat (my father), published by Dey's Publishing of Kolkata.
This fictional bengali language novel with Chandraketugarh in the backdrop was published in 2002.
To download a few pages of excerpt of this book, Click Here.

Excavation at Tilpi and Dhosa

The West Bengal State Archaeology Department is excavating at the twin sites of Tilpi and Dhosa near Joynagar by the side of the river Piyalee. Please note that I had earlier incorrectly said that the excavation was being done by the Archaeological Survey of India, sincere apologies. This was brought to my attention by Dr. Gautam Sengupta and Rangan Datta. Here are some links on this excavation work:

Dhosa and Tilpi by Saurab Basu

Dhosa and Tilpi by Rangan Datta

Treasure trove seals worth of site- Emerging, Holy Centre by Sebanti Sarkar

Twin sites of mystery - Archaeology seminar by Sebanti Sarkar

2200-yr-old life in Bengal by A Staff Reporter

Furnace find near stupa site by Sebanti Sarkar

Courtesy: W.B. State Archeo. Museum

Have you heard of:

Chandraketugarh or Khana-Mihirer Dhipi?
There is a fascinating place near Kolkata (West Bengal, India) where a bustling town from the days of Emperor Asoka is buried under the present day ricefields and village cottages. If you go there, you won't see much at first. But look down on the ground you're walking on, and you'll see something unusual. The ground appears strewn with a variety of potsherds. In fact, whenever the ground of Chandraketugarh is dug to build a house or to dig a pond, a variety of elegant and sophisticated artifacts is routinely unearthed.

All available information points to a mature civilization centered around a busy port, which started flourishing in this area more than 2000 years ago. Indeed, it is thought to belong to the kingdom of a "mighty ruler" of whom Alexander the Great was familiar. Plutarch wrote about a powerful tribe called "Gangaridae" living near a prosperous port "Gange" in the Gangetic delta. From geographical description the Chandraketugarh area can be linked to this port.

The inhabitants of Chandraketugarh achieved spectacular artistic refinement and created artifacts of exquisite beauty. Influence of foreign art raises intriguing questions. The numerous materials collected from this site point to a rich cultural and social life. Why did it vanish without a trace? We embark upon a journey to learn more, especially through the terracotta art of Chandraketugarh.

Chandraketugarh

Take a look at the photo below. We see a cyclist happily riding on a country road, through, which seems like two unassuming mounds of the kind we see everywhere in India. But these are no simple mounds! Buried under these mounds are the fortified ramparts of an ancient community -- the fort of King Chandraketu. The cyclist is unknowingly passing through what used to be one of its main entrances. The mound on the right is now called the "burz", and probably used to be a sentry tower. Archeologists have excavated numerous items dating back to the 3rd Century BC (the Pre-Mauryan Era in India) from the bottom of these ramparts and the surrounding area.

I took the above photo at a place called Berachampa (the site of Chandraketugarh) about 38 km northeast of Kolkata (India). The person seen in the photo probably lives close by, and almost certainly doesn't know anything about the history of the place.

Unfortunately, we don't know a whole lot either. There is no written record of this civilization. More mysterious is the fact that it vanished leaving no social memory in the surrounding area other than some local mythologies. Yet, there is no doubt that the civilization reached a very high level of sophistication (not possible in a short span of time) evidenced by the enormous amount of artifacts it is still routinely generating.

Sounds interesting? Follow me through these pages and I will present you the fascinating facts and several photo albums of my journey to this place, click here.

Khana-Mihirer Dhipi (The Mound of Khana-Mihir)

Only a few kilometers from where I took the above photo, there are the ruins of a massive temple structure. Locally called the Khana-Mihirer Dhipi or the mound of Khana-Mihir, it has survived for almost a millenium in the form of another deserted mound. An excavation in the 1950s uncovered the structure (see the photos below).

No one knows for sure how or when the names of Khana (pronounced khauna) and Barahamihir came to be associated with it. Barahamihir was one of the nine jewels in the court the famous Indian emperor Vikramaditya (also known as Chandragupta-II). Khana was his wife (daughter-in-law, according to another opinion). The ruins are now conjectured to belong to a Vishnu temple from the Gupta period. Who built the temple? Did it simply decay because of neglect or was it destroyed? We don't know. However, the temple complex was likely inside the fortification that we see at Chandraketugarh. For more details and a journey to this place, please click here.