Mainamati

Antiquities dug up from mainanati ridge have established its value as a potential archaeological site. The copper plate inscription of Ranavankamalla Harikaladeva was discovered as early as 1803. In 1875 ruins of what was supposed to be a small ‘brick fort’ was discovered in the kotbari mound, along with some typical Mainamati terracotta plaques. It was in fact another monastery. Surprisingly Cunningham never visited the site. Francis Buchanan however visited it at the end of the 18^th century. NK Bhattasali made a tour of Mainamati in 1917 and reported his findings in his Iconography of Buddhist and Brahmancial sculptures in the Dacca Museum (1929).

However, during the second world war the archaeological survey of India under its super intendment TN Ramachandran, carried out an investigation and a limited rescue operation in order to save the remains from the vandalisan of military contractors on his recommendation, 20 sites were protected. Ramachandran’s illuminating report was published in BC law volume, pt II, in 1946. Meanwhile the partition of  India took place. The Pakistan Department of Archaeology very wisely took a cue from Ramachandran. In the thorough survey that following, about 55 ancient sites were listed that could still be traced scattered though the centre length of the lalmari ridge. Continues exactions followed from 1995 and still going on. These excavations have helped in revealing important and unknown facts of southeastern Bangladeshis political, economic, religious architecture in the eastern-most corner of the subcontinent before its extinction Barrie M Morrison, an American scholar, investigated the ruins in the early sixties of the 20^th century and published the results in 1974 in a though-provoking book called Lalmai-A cultural center of early Bengal.

So far only nine sites have been excavated and some excavations are on going. They are SALBAN VIHARIA, KUTILA MURA, CHARPATRA MURA, RANIR BANGLOW, ANANDA VIHARA, ITAKITOLA MURA, RUPBAN MURA, BHOJA VIHARA and MAINAMATI Mound. Although Ramachandran did not attach any special importance to the salban Raja’s palace mound (now called salban vihara) FA Khan, the then Director of Archaeology in Pakistan, wisely chose it for his first excavations. The results obtained later amply justified his choice. On the whole, Mainamati has been extremely prolific in the yield of cultural material but salban vihara, identified as Bhavadeva Mahavihara on the basis of a sealing, in particular has proved to be a treasure house of inscriptions, coins and terracotta plaques. Of the thirteen (14 if we include the Harikaladeva copperplate retrieved in 1803) copper plates recovered from Mainamati excavations no less than eight were from salban vihara, four from charpatra mura and one probably from Anada vihara, of the nearly 400 coins found at Mainamati about 350 were collected from salban vihara, which included a few gold coins of the GUPTAS, DEVAS and the KHADGAS. The number of bronze miniatures excavated from salban vinaras is also considerable. In contrast to paharpur where the largest number of stone sculptures and terracotta plaques in any one site in Bangladesh has been found, an as founding numberof inscriptions, coins and miniature bronzes have been hauled from Mainamati, unequalled for any one ancient site not only in Bangla, but perhaps in the entire subcontinent. what is more Important, however, is that not only in sheer number but also in significance they are unparaneled. The inscriptions belong to no less than five dynasties (Guptas, Khadgas, Devas, CHANDRAS, and later Devas) and in some cases introduce us to new dynasties and kingdoms not known before, like the devas. Altogether the discoveries from Mainamati inscriptions and coins, sculptures and architecture have changed the concept of the history of south-east Bangle between c 6^th and 13^th century AD. Not only its political history but also the area’s artistic, religious and economic history have been illuminated by the finds.

In the case of the salban vihara excavations for instance more than 300 coins gold, silver (bulk), and copper testify to the use a regular currency. This has revolutionized our long held idea about Bangle’s currency system, which was based for long on the absence of pala and sena coins. It now appears that at least the southeastern part of Bengal had a flourishing currency system that incidentally also indicates a flourishing economic life. Also, the fact of the discovery of the paltikera and ltarikela silver coins side by sde at salban vihara has helped clarify our understating of both the coinages.

These excavations have revealed several kinds of Buddhist religious architecture including the cruciform type that we have already discussed. Among this type at mainamati, the ananda vihara was a largest. If the vihara was named after the third Deva king, who it seems how had ruled some time in the middle of the 8^th century, then among the cruciform temples his was perhaps the earliest, and perhaps it was even earlier than the ones in paharpur.

The three other notable architectural varieties are represented by the kutila mura ruins, which have three traditional type stapes in a row, each having a chaitya hall in front. The kutila mura complex has been called a ratna-traya (Buddhist, Three jewels) type stupe This may be the earliest establishment on the hills, going back perhaps to khadga times, that is to say, mid-7^thcentury to mid-8^th century AD. There are reasons to believe that the last quarter of the 7^th century may be the probable date for the kutia mura stapes. Kutila mura is significant sice portions of the original super structures of the stupas are still standing. Rupban mura is also note worthy in this respect since a very small part of original superstructure in the shape of a corbelled roof in one of the image chambers is still intact, and is the only example of the type among the ancient remains of Bangladesh.

The other two notable architectural tpes are the charpatra mura and the Itakhola mura. Charpatra mura is the find spot of an inscription of Ladahachandra, the Chandra king. There is a possibility that charpatra murawas a Hindu vaishnava temple dedicated to Ladanamadnava;

No account of mainamati will be complete without reference to the three marvels recently discovered; two of metallurgical skill and one of stone sculpture. The stone sculpture is a standing Buddha image discovered in the Rupban mura excavations. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that this is the only sculpture approximating the classical Gupta Buddha image in Bangladesh, or for that matter, Bangle as a whole the other two marvels are a bronze colossal vajrasattva image discovered in the  ruins of Bhoja vihara in 1994 and huge bell found at pupban kanya mura. The 1.5^m high sitting vajrasattva is a wonder of bronze easting dating probably to 10^th-11^th century AD. Of the same kind, but mutilated (since only the head being preserved) is part of another bronze image, a large life size bronze head of Boddhisattva Avalokites vara which has traces of gold plating on the polished surface. This was collected from the Bairagi mura ound. The bronze bell’s estimated weight is about half a ton. This can also be dated to the 10^th-11^th century AD. 

    

  

Mahasthangarh

The remains of the walls of Mahasthangarh show the site as having been once a fortified city. Its suburbs extended for miles and their impressive remains can be traced even today. As its remains show it is also unique in being a city with a continuous history of more than 1500 years (c 3^rd 2^nd century BC to about 15^th century AD). However with the earlier discovery of probable evidence of urn burial and the recent discovery of probable chalcolithic levels (Bangladesh-French joint excavations) the occupation of the site may go back to many centuries prior to the foundation of the maurya period city. In the beginning of the 20^th century some excavations were carried out at Mahastan, Particularly in 1907. Then in 1928-29 KN Diksit of the Archaeological survey of India excavated here, closely followed by probhas Chandra sen, a lowyer form bogra. Sen probed a large number of mounds and published a report on behalf of the Varendra Research society in 1929 in which he published an excellent map of the site and it environs. Huen tsang’s description of pundranagara in the mid 7^th century AD gives us glimpse of a prosperous and rich city. About five hundred years later, the same suggestion is made in the 13^th century in the karatoyamahatmya, confirming the city’s continuous prosperity over the centuries. However Mahasthan excavations have always been on a rather limited scale and as such, except for some probable remains of Gupta and pala period temples and non-descript structural remains no considerable area of the city has cleared to make its plan in any given period intelligible. The latest attempt by the Bangladesh French Joint excavations team, also seems to have taken on the task of establishing the culture sequence of the site by vertical probing, instead of looking for any horizontal progress at least that is the impression one gets at the end of seven seasons diggings. Some buildings, all apparently religious, around the city have been extensively encavated-GOVINDA BHITA in 1928-29 and LAKSHMINDARERMEDH, Gokul in 1934-36 (NG Majumdr) As in other sites of Bangladesh, many terracotta plaques have been found in Mahasthangarh. However we should take of the recent discovery of a series of a vary unusual types of large terracotta plaques from place near the main city site. These plaques appear to have adorned the walls of a temple now completely gone. The specialty of these plaques is that they depict the story of the Ramayana. Each plaque depicts a particular sense and is labeled with a Sanskrit inscription using alphabets of the late seventh century. This is so far unique in Bangladesh. Very recently, a new cultural dimension has been added by the discovery of Roulette ware at Mahasthan.           

Haritaze of Pahar pur

 

The first excavation at paharpur were carried out in 1922-23 under the joint auspices
of the Varenda Research Society of Rajshahi and the CALCUTTA UNIVERSITY
under the direction of DR Bhandarkar of the university. After wards, these
excavations were taken over by the Archaeological survey of India. The excavation
continued till 1934 and beyond, except for a break in 1930-32. They were led by KN
Dikshit, but RD BANERJEE and Gc chandra were something’s in 1938 as Memoirs
no-55 of the Archeological survey of India and forms the most important and
complete report on any Bengal site till today. Excavation at paharpur led to
astounding results Architecturally, they revcaled a new type of a new type of
Buddhist temple architecture, labelled as the sarvatobhadra type, they had a
cruciform ground plan and a terraced superstructure and a new type of monastery
design ie four long rows of monastic cells enclosing a large quadrangle, the main
temple occupying the centre of the quadrangle several more examples of this kind of
cruciform temple were later discovered in Bangladesh at BHARAT BHAYNA,
Savar, and most notably at mainamati. Indeed, Bharat Bhayna, and at least one
example found in Mainamati, Predates paharpur. It is interesting to note that the
panarpur and the mainamati cruciform temples have marked affinities with some of
the Buddhist temples of southeast Asia, particularly some of the pagan (Now Bagan)
series in Myanmar. These Burmese temples were of later date than the paharpur and
mainamati ones. But Borobudur (late 8th
 cemtury AD
) may be contemporary. The
paharpur monastery complex was built by DHARMAPALA and was named, as
known from teh sealings of the monastery, as the Dharmapaladeva Mahavihara
situated at somapura.
Besides throwing light on architecture and Buddhist religion in early medieval
Bengal, the paharpur excavations were extremely significant from the Stand point of
the history for sculptural, 63 of which are fixed on the basement wall of the temple,
offer a unique opportunity to make a detailed study of them from the religious,
artistic, technical and socioeconomic point of view.
The numerous terracotta plaques, on the other hand, offer a means of study, among
other things, of everyday life in Bangladesh in those by gone days. The number of
miniatura bronzes from paharpur, which about in Bhasu viahr and Mainamati
however are not many. The discovery in 1982 of a c 9th
 century torso (43) of a
colossal bronze image of Buddha (which originally must have been over 8 in height)
mutilated by fire in ancient times, has, however, compensated for this. This is a
splendid example of the excellence achieved by ninth and tenth centuries AD in
bronze casting.