Patharghata complex of paharpur

The site, or rather, a complex of sites, located in a large and undulating valley on both sides of the Tulsi-Ganga rivers, is in the panchbibi police station in the Bagura district and about 15 miles to the northeast of Paharpur. The remains apparently comprise some small mounds and a main settlement site. A number of solid stone blocks scattered along and in the vicinity of the river banks imply the existence of a stone-built bridge or a landing stage at this point. This has been dated to the pala period, although there is no positive proof in support of this dating. The reference point in the exploration report on Patharghata is a modern catholic mission, and a number of mounds have been reported in its vicinity. One of these mounds is 25 ft high and the whole area is strewn with ancient potsherds, bricks-bats, fragments of terracotta plaques and stone sculptural and architectural pieces. A small mound 50 ft across also near the Catholic mission, shows traces of a small temple with basement walls made of dressed and polished stone blocks. The carvings on the surviving architectural fragments suggest the pala period. A stone lintel piece with a frieze of garland-bearing dwarfs was found lying on the other side of the river. In the same area a mound called the Kasia Bari seems to be important both because of its size high and the number of Brahmanical black-stone images lying under a banyan tree on its top. The mound of Naupukuria is a little away from the mission to its west. It has been called an extensive settlement site. ‘Here extensive remains of stone and bricks walls, foundations, landing stages and probably a workshop for dressed and squared stone blocks are found ruthlessly exposed and mercilessly damaged and removed by brick-hunters, thus revealing some plans of large buildings one called Dhanabhandar potsherds, brickbats, terracotta and worked stone fragments are found all over the ruins. Recovery of some stone images from here mounds are also found in the neighbouring villages, and one of them, called the Uchai mound, perhaps shows the basement of a Buddhist stupa or shrine. This circular mound is almost fully occupied by a solid structure with thick cross-walls, the core being solidly filled with brick-bats.What is significant from the point of view of the present chapter is that in the collection of antiquities kept in the catholic mission house one could see pieces of gadrooned NBP pottery. What is of further interest is that the Dhaka museums shows in its sculpture gallery a female torso which is listed from Patharghata and rendered unmistakably in the kushan style. This seems to be an unpublished specimen. The NBP pieces and this female torso unmistakably establish an early historic antiquity for Patharghata some where below the mass of later structural ruins.

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Kantanagar of the Dinajpur

The kantanagar temple is situated about 22 kilometers north from the Dinajpur town at the western side by the Dhepa river. Terracotta plaques has a unique emblem bearing this Noborotno temple in subcontinent architect. There were no terracotta plaques found in bangle at that time. The temple is established on a one meter high stone-platform in square and width build. Every sides of the temple are square length 60'-3" and in square built length 51 feet. Around the temple has 8 feet width veranda. Every veranda has 2 gigantic pillars. There are 3 entrances on biggest pillar and wall on every side. This opening entrance has help of arch like leave in built. The main room of the temple is smaller and its darkness.kantagi’s Idol is situated in this room. There are several small room in the around .The western side of veranda from the north that The shirked stair going upward from the northern part of the western veranda is the way of riding the second story. There are four small rooms at the up stairs. The up stair of the temple that is made as the dol stage is smaller than the down stair. There is no room. At the center there is a fifteen feet high apex. Other than this apex there are also nine more apexes. So it was called the nabaratna temple. In 1897 in an earthquake the apexes were broken down.The archeology department can not repair those for lack of model. It is said that the central apex of the temple was 70 feet high. Mr. Fergusson admired this temple a lot. The most remarkable characteristic of this temple is its terra-cotta plaques. Ramayan, mahavarat and many historical stories are made in pictures with terra-cotta. With this there is also the Bengali social life picture. Every pictures of the terra-cotta was unique.The wall of the temple from top to bottom is furnished with various plaques.The plaques are of very high quality. Earthquakes and various natural disasters harm the temple a lot. But even the plaques are made of mud but are still ok. The famous land leader king Prannath rai started the construction work of this temple before his death and his step son great king Ramnath rai ended the work. The king prannath rai died in 1722.king ramnath rai dead in 1760.so it is accepted that the construction of this temple was completed in 1752. There was no existence of the kingship of dinajpur in 1452. in 17th century the kingdom was established and king prannath was the second king .

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Bhasu Vihar and Bihar

The name Bhasu Vihar was first used by cunningham and since then it has been current in the archaeological literature ,The mortee common name is ‘Vasu Vihar’.The site of the complex is about 3-4 miles to the northwest of mahasthangarh , There are two villages Bihar and Bhasu Vihar- both across the Nagar river which is a branch  of the karaoya which has formed a loop along the whole of the eastern and southern boundaries of these villages .Bhasu Vihar lies in the north while Bihar lies toi its south.Three mound s and a large number of tanks in these two villages . The mound in Bihar is listed as 300' by 200' by 6' . The two mounds in Bhasu Vihar are reported to have measure 60′ by 60′ by 7′ and 800′ by 750′ by 40. The smaller mound lies to the west of the Bhasu Vihar mound. About he place and the mound. The Nagar was once a much larger river with a river port alled Bihar Bangar nearby . The undated but presumably pala period earthwork which begins in the Pabna area and can be traed intermittently up to the Rangput district also passes through this region. This earthwork is known  Bhimwe Jangal, The larger of the two Bhasi Vihar mound is locally known as Narapatir Dhap. It is a complex of five mounds  , three  large and two small. The ancient occupational remains are said to have extended considerably beyond the limit of the mound proper . The site site is surrounded by a moat-like depression on all sides except for a part of the west but one cannot be sure of the issue. The one reported by cunningham has now been filled up but the tank to the south of the site still exists and is known as Khingrailer Dighi. On the basis of his wide experience of Buddhist sites in Bangladesh, There have a large water tanks are invariably found associated with ancient ruins in Bengal . specially of the Budhist culture , In fact, a large Budhist establishment without a tank of comparable size is almost unheard of in bangladesh .The second mound which lies less than half a male to the west northwest of Bhasu Vihar is known as sannyasir Dhap There is  tank known as sasanker Dighi to the south of the mound. This possibly contains the ruins of a small temple.a monastery named po-shi-po was situated 4 miles to the west of Mahasthangarh and this tallied with the position of Bihar in relation to Mahasthangarh .This brought that it was this name which was related to the chinese pilgrin’s po-shi-po :here the pilgrim found a grand monastery ,remarkable for the size and height of its towers.It was occupied by no less than seven hundred monks,who studied the Mahayana and men famous for their learning flocked here from the eastern districts,At a short distance from the monastery there was a stupa built by asoka , on the site where Buddha had explained his law to the Devas.Near this was a spot where the last four Buddhist had taken exercise and rested.

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The monastery at paharpur

The monastery measured 922' (north-south) by 919' (east-west) and was enclosed by a 16' thick wall which perhaps rose to a height of 12-15 feet. The thickness of this wall suggests an upper stored but no roof of that has been found. The main gateway was on the northern side and proceeded on the outside by a number of structures, one of which could have serve as a waiting hall or a hall for security guards. Two circular structures which stood on square bases and flanked the staircase leading to the entrance hall were perhaps votive stupas. The staircase was built by laying bricks-on-edge over flat bricks. The entrance hall was a pillared one, with its northern side being open. One notes a band of bricks-in-edge on the eastern and western walls at the height of 6' 6" .This was possibly intended merely as a decorative effect. One also notes several cells adjoining the eastern side of the entrance hall. It has been suggested that these cells were used as office rooms of the monastery. It has also been pointed out that the main passage to the cells was originally though one of these rooms showing cor-belled courses on the top of the openings in its eastern and northern walls. This passage was found filled up with debris during the excavations. The outer entrance hall have access to a pillared hall separated from it by a stone step and a stone these hold . There are grooves in the wall, indicating that the door leading to the outer wall was bolted on the side of the inner hall by a wooden log. The inner entrance hall opened on to the inner verandah and from there. There was a flight of steps to the courtyard directly in front of the main temple. The monastic cells which were 177 number and measure approximately 14' by13'.6" were arranged along the 8 to 9 ft. wide inner verandah. There were 45 cells in the northern wing and 44 cell in each wing. There was a central hall in the northern wing and on each of the other three sides there was a projection in the outer wall forming three cells with a passage around them. These central blocks, in fact, divided each of the fur wings into two sections. Apart from the main entrance there was a subsidiary entrance through the eastern segment of the northern side . A small passage across the middle of the eastern block possibly allowed for a private entrance. A flight of steps went down from the inner verandah to the courtyard in the middle of each side. The verandah was supported by pillars and fenced off from the courtyard by a railing except in the sections covered by the staircase. The basement wall of the verandah was decorated with ha single row of terracotta relief’s but this was done possibly during the last stage of construction .The monastic cells were no doubt meant for living but a good many of them had ornamental pedestal to carry images. These pedestals came up in the late phase of the monastery.

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The main temple at paharpur

The main temple at paharpur stood approximately in the center of its monastic quadrangle and rose to its extant height of 72' in two terraces between the top and the basement An extensive staircase provided access to the two terraces from the north. The ground plan was in the shape of across with angles of projection between the arms. In the two upper terraces there was a circumambulatory walk enclosed by a parapet wall around the monument. The central element in the composition of this temple was a hollow square shaft rising high above the terraces .Projections containing an ante-chamber and a mandapa were added to each of the four faces of the second upper terrace ,leaving out a portion of the whole length of the square at each of the four corners. This outline was cruciform with one projecting angle between the arms of the cross. The circumambulatory walk on this level was made to conform to the outline of this plan which became more marked with the addition of a rectangular projection to each of the four sides in the first upper terrace .The alignment of this terrace was repeated at the basement level and this meant that the angles of projection in the plans of the first terrace and the basement were three each between the arms of the cross, apart from the projection caused by the staircase landing in the middle of the northern arm. There was also an enclosure wall properly aligned with the basement plan with only a slight deviation near the staircase . around the monument. The main shrine of the edifice was located at the top, comprising a square chamber with a circumambulatory passage around it. First, the main sanctuary ought to have been on the same level of the ante-chambers and the mandapas , there is no evidence of entry to this from them. Sarawati thinks that the brick-paved floor was meant to make the foundation of the lofty walls more solid, He believes that so far as the arrangement of the temple goes , the sanctuary could have neither been situated at the top no inside the central square pile. It is quite reasonable to infer that the temple was capped by some sort of superstructure . The arrangement of the superstructure at the lower terraces would appropriately suggest a roof rising in receding tiers over the vaults spanning the different corridors. The square masonry pile in the center , on the analogy of the pagan temple, may be said to have supported a curvilinear Sikhara as the crowning element of this colossal edifice. At pagan the central pile is solidly designed and constructed ,But at Paharpur , probably to reduce the weight of the stupendous building and to guard against resultant sinking , it was left hollow ,though sufficient stability for the accumulating weight as the monument rose up has been ensured in the enormous girth of each to the four walls.

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Parasur Bari

About 200 yards to the north of mankalir Dhap the mound known locally as parasuramer bari .It was briefly excavated in 1907 but the excavations in 1961 brought to light a modern building which was constructed not earlier than the later part of the eighteenth century ,There was building phase bating from the fifteenth/sixteenth century below this and still below there was a building phase of probably eighth century ,as the terracotta plaques of typical pala school and other associated objects indicate.To the east of parasuramer bari is a well known as Jiyatkunda. A huge granitic rectangular stone block ,measuring 6 ft.10 ins. Long , 1 ft.8 ins. Broad and 1 ft. 6 ins. in thickness, lies across the eastern side, with 2 ft.1 ins.projecting inside , seemingly intended for the facility of drawing water, and quite evidently formed part of the original construction of the wall . The stone is carved with beautiful floral designs in relief and must once have formed part of a the original construction of the wall. The stone is carved with beautiful floral designs in relief and must once have formed part of a door sill of some Hindu temple of probably the later builders of the well because the well is of comparatively modern origin , dated in the late eighteenth early nineteenth century .A small Tank outside the Eastern fortification . This tank is due east of the Mankalir mound and outside the fort wall. This yielded a fragmentary stone inscription of ninth century which mentioned some members of a Nandi family, one of whom is said to have Gojul near Mahasthan.This mound which lies to the north of parasuramer bari and is not far from the northern rampart wall was excavated in 1928-9 . Apart from the remains of two pala period temples ,ascribed to the early and late period temples. Ascribed to the4 early and late periods of the excavated deposits , the excavations shows some subsidiary structures in the o pen court to the north. The earlier pala temple was supposedly constructed in the eighth century and measure 98 ins.from the east to the wet and about 42 ins.from the north to the south , Its southern half was obliterated by the construction of the late temple but the basement of the plinth could be traced on the north and east. The entire length of the basement wall was decorated by a band and two plain moldings. The northeastern and northwestern corners of the temple have recessed angles. The sanctum must have been located at the center .A drain carrying the libation water of the sanctum was constructed partly of bricks and partly of stones collected from an earlier building phase This drain is 36 ins.Long from the north to the south and almost bisects the temple. This discharged itself in to a sock jar with pottery rings placed below. Two rectangular stone pillars were placed lengthwise near the discharge end. The pillars, square in section with chamfered corners, are decorated with halt lotus medallions, the kirtimurha and floral scroll mounding in low relief, characteristic of the late Gupta period of sixth-seventh century.

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Paharpur

The site which is located in the old Rajshahi district near its border with the Bagura district can be approached in two ways: from the Jamalganj station of the parbatiput section of the Bangladesh Railways, from which it is about 3 miles to the west; or from Jaipurhat which is about 6 miles to the northwest of  Paharpur. The area is not covered by any major route of traffic and retains, perhaps because of this , a lot of the quiet charm of the countryside. From the ground- level of the monastic courtyard the tower of the main shrine is still 72' high and from the level of the countryside around its height should be a few feet more, The tower is the most prominent land mark for some miles around in a otherwise flat countryside, an to the villagers of the area it is simply pahar or the hill. Somewhere in the vicinity of the archaeological complex one can find Mr.Rasik sardar who was present at all the excavations at the site beginning from 1922-3 and who can tell tales of archaeologists of a bygone era. We would like to add ourselves that the excavations at Paharpur in twenties and the publication of the results as a memoir in 1938 must be viewed as a major triumph of the old Archaeological survey of India. A number of people had visited the site before, however , concluded that the ruins were those of a large Brahmanical temple because one of the terracotta sculptures represented the skeleton goddess Kai.This obviously introduce an element of confusion which could be settled only much later when an inscribed stone pillar fragment found near the southwestern boundary of the ruins was discovered to carry the name of dalbalagarbha as the donor of the pillar for the pleasure of the three Jewels or triratna and the good of all creatures. The great mound stands in the middle of a large enclosure, about 1500 feet square outside ,formed by a massive earthen embankment, about 150 feet broad on the east side, I forced my way on to the top of the southern embankment on an elephant; and in the same way I was able to examine several parts of the broad eastern embankment, which is everywhere covered with bricks and the remains of walls. On the low ground inside the closure the jungle was so high and so dense that it was quite impenetrable to a man. I forced my way through on an elephant the foot of the mound, and ascending a short distance on the southeast side to a small clear spot, I was able to examine the site at leisure. With the exception of a fem tanks ,there was nothing to be seen but thick jungle , On the slope we found several broken terracotta alto-relieves and pieces of carved brick, A party of coolies was then set to work to clear the jungle on all the slopes of the mound , and to make a rough path up to the top. In the present instance the Raka’s ahentrepeated what I had previously heard from the people of the surrounding villages, that a great treasure was buried in the mound. This is the general belief all over the country ,but it is in Bengal alone that the owner of the land will any excavations.

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Govinda Bhita Western Temple

The western temple complex lasted till the Muslim conquest. In the eastern temple complex there are four building periods. The upper most one belongs to the Muslin period and the next one which cannot be dated is fragmentary and insignificant. The period below this shoe a temple which is contemporary with the western temple that was built in the eighth-ninth century .The temple in the earliest period of the site is 56' square with a central altar and surrounded by a 3'-4' wide procession path. This also seems to have been raised on a high terrace because its basement wall with several offsets and ornamental moldings goes to a great depth. The Govinda Bhita mound lies straight on the river bank an this obviously necessitated some steps to prevent river erosion at this spot .There was a 150' long stone revetment wall against the northern slope of the mound on the river bank which also possessed a stone landing ghat on the eastern side. A number of complex walls including an outer massive wall with offsets and a semi circular retaining wall have been noted in this area in the context of the early pala period .It has been reported that during this period the eastern temple was divided into a number of small cells by partition walls which were 1'' 6' wide.

In the excavations conducted in 1928-9 the section of the rampart which was explored covered roughly the northeastern part of the eastern rampart. The north-south running rampart wall takes at this point a turn of about 100 to the west before regaining its regular north-south alignment. The high mound at the re-entrant angle here is locally known as Munir ghon. Incidentally, this place is close to a bathing place on the karatoya , known as sila Bevir ghat which was known also to the karatoya mahatmya as siladwipa and marks the spot of a holy dip for the Hindus. The pala period rampart wall here was 11' wide of which 2' on either face consisted of brick work, the rest being filled with rammed earth. There were two semi-circular bastions at the outwork of the angular re-entrant projectction. On the inner side a terrace was found associated with the whole thing ,possibly to provide access from the inner side to the bastion area .The whole complex might have serve as watch tower on the river bank. The archaeological work since then seems to have been concentrated on the northern rampart. It is important to remember that an inlet of the Karatoya separates the fortification wall on the northern side from the modern archaeological guest house and the Govinda Bhita complex beyond that. The northeastern part was likely to have suffered from the erosive effect of the river in high flood, and thus considerable care was lavished at this spot to make the fortification secure. Two massive parallel walls have been noted at this point, apart from a semi circular bastion. Inside the bastion area there were a number of guardrooms on either side of a 8' 2' wide passage. These have been dated to the pala period .There is a plethora of disjointed and fragmentary walls in and around this spot.

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Khota Pathar Mound

An enormous door sill of granite stone , measuring 9 ft. 4 ins. By 2 ft. 5 ins. Still lies on the top of this mound which is located about 200 yards to the northwest of the mazar .It has a floral design carved in its face and the top is recessed and provided with holes 6 ft. apart for the door shutters. It seems that this mound was excavated in 1907and a stone pavement was reached at a depth of 5 ft. The stone actually lay on the top of a 9 ft. long rubble wall and the stone pavement was the original stone pavement of the temple. The temple measured 24 ft .by 15 ft. and its foundation walls of stone could be clearly traced. The walls above this level were of brick in clay masonry .The door jambs, lintels and the ornamental ornamental portion above the door were possibly made of stone. The large piece of stone which we even today on the top of the mound the sill of the temple structure .several carved stone pieces were obtained during the excavations. One of them measured 2 ft.3 ins, by 8 ins, and showed a relief of three seated Buddha figures, each places in an arched niche , with a devotee seated with folded palms to the left . The central figure was in meditative posture and the figures on the two sides were in the earth-touching pose bhumisparsa mudra. It is obvious that a large Buddhist temple has stood at this site. This mound lies a little to the north of the Khoda Pathar mound . There were buildings of cornices of many varieties. Portions of undulated eaves, And of amalaka fruits of the pinnacles of a temple. I got also twelve square alto-relieves, and one small pilaster or baluster. Which formed the upright of two of these panels of a long frieze …Along with these I obtained two bronze figures of Ganesa and Garuda, and a fragment of blue stone pedestal with the end of an inscription in mediaeval Nagari characters reading nagrabara, which would seem to show that the great mound of Mankali-ja -Jundil was part of an ancient agrahara belonging to Brahmans.Associated the name of this mound with the Jaina apostle, Goshala ,who was called Manjhali-putra .He collected in 1912 the torso of a crude and unfinished jaina image from this mound. The mound was excavated in 1565-6 and revealed in the top level the remain of a pre-Mughal mosque .But nondescript building remains were encountered in an earlier phase which yielded some sunga plaques and a fairly large collection of the famous N.B.P pottery.

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Bairgir Bhita Complex

The temple belonging to the late pala period was built a little to the south of the earlier temple and partly overlay it. It measured 111ft. From the east to the west and 57ft . From the east to the west and 57ft. from the north to the south. The plan is difficult to understand because of its dilapidated condition but a number of well chiseled pillar bases and stone door jambs bearing do well marks indicate the presence of a porch in the mile of the northern wing . A sloping platform possibly associated with ablutions and divided into 23 compartments or panels ran along the entire eastern edge of the temple Five reservoirs of kundas were also found in the Bairaglir Bhita complex.The largest of them measured 10 by 5 ft. where as the diameter of a circular one was 5ft. 9 ins. These reservoirs must have been associated with some religious practices. The area to the north of Bairagir Bhita was used as a large open courtyard. The compound wall which was made of rough rubble masonry was 3 ft. wide and has been traced for 175 ft. along its northern preserved ones measure 4 ft. by .ft. 6 ins. The floor-level of these cells is 5 ft. below the level of the courtyard of the late pala period and has been dated to the eighth-ninth century . A small shrine which shows a square platform surrounded by a passage has been traced in the northwestern corner of the complex.The remains of a small temple dating from the ninth –tenth century were found about 200 yards to the northeast of Bairagilr Bhita in 1928-9.The temple showed in its upper level a rectangular structure with a plinth which was 5 ft. high from the level of the east by 5 stone flagged masonry steps. The stone pieces were quarried from the earlier phase of construction and one of them was a lintel made of black basalt showing in the characteristic style of the seventh eighth century a row in low relief of kirtimukha heads emitting garlands of pearls from their mouths. The walls of the temple also show that some decorated bricks and terracotta plaques of the pharpur type were built into them. These traits dared the temple in the ninth tenth century However, in its earlier phase which is undated the temple measured 24ft.32ft. with a central hall and a passage around, within a short periods the temple was rebuilt twice , leading to the additions of a verandah on the south a buttress wall with deep foundations on the north a new floor level which was higher by 1 ft. 6 ins. Than the original one and a flight of steps on the east with rooms on each flank .A brick paved altar has been found in the eastern wall . The nature of the shrine the deity to which the temple site .Five ring wells with a diameter of about 3 ft. each encircled the platform.

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