Excavations at Bharatpur reveal the presence of a monastic complex. Photo: Special Arrangement
Recent excavations at Bharatpur in Paschim Bardhaman district of West Bengal have revealed the presence of a Buddhist monastery. The Kolkata Circle of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) started excavating the site in the second week of January and a structural complex of a monastery is now partially exposed.
The site was initially excavated about fifty years ago between 1972 and 1975 when archaeologists from the ASI and Burdwan University found a Buddhist stupa at the site.
“The site has been lying unexcavated for nearly fifty years. We were looking at the cultural sequence of the stupa from where black and red ware belonging to the Chalcolithic age was also recovered. A Buddhist stupa cannot exist in isolation, and recent excavations have revealed the presence of an extended monastic complex,” said Shubha Majumdar, superintending archaeologist, ASI Kolkata circle.
Mr Majumdar, who is supervising the excavation, said that archaeologists working at Bharatpur would be able to get more information about the monastery complex and the date of its construction after the excavation. “So far, we have uncovered a few structures that appear to be the outer wall of the monastery, consisting of nine layers of brick and a small circular structure, probably a stupa,” he said.
Unique Stupa
According to experts, what makes the site unique in terms of Buddhist sites in the state is the presence of a large stupa with a monastic complex and black and red ware from the Chalcolithic or Copper Age. At other sites in West Bengal, such as Karnasubarna in Murshidabad, Mogalmari in Paschim Medinipur and Jagjivanpur in Malda, archaeologists have found only small votive stupas.
A Buddhist stupa is a monumental monument that usually houses sacred relics associated with the Buddha or other saints or priests, while votive stupas have similar significance but are smaller structures originating in eight cylindrical structures.
When archaeologists excavated the site in the 1970s, they found black and red pottery belonging to the Chalcolithic age, which predates any Buddhist structures. “The excavation is likely to shed more light on understanding the early occupation of the site and its continuity until the establishment of a Buddhist monastery,” Mr Majumdar said.
early village settlements
Rupendra Kumar Chattopadhyay, a former professor in the Department of Archeology at the University of Calcutta, said the site was important for two main reasons: one, because it is an early village settlement on the banks of the Damodar River that may date back to around 2000 BCE; and two, the Buddhist monastery complex. “So the site has two significances: one is secular, which is an early village settlement, and the other, religious, which is a Buddhist site,” he said.
Professor Chattopadhyay said the site may have been the center of an early rural agricultural site, from where sites radiated to other areas along the other bank of the Damodar and other rivers such as the Ajoy and Darkeshwar.
Referring to other pre-historic sites in the region, Mr. Majumdar said that there are early rural agricultural sites at Dihar and Pakhanna on the other bank of the Damodar in Bankura district of the state. He said the excavation is an attempt to trace the cultural continuity of the site which could have been inhabited for thousands of years.
idols have been found
When the site along with the stupa was excavated in the 1970s, five graceful seated statues of the Buddha in the bhumisparsha mudra—all five fingers of the right hand extended to touch the ground—were found. These miniature statues, each about 30 cm high, were most commonly used for worship in the monastery.
Both Professor Chattopadhyay and Dr. Majumdar state that almost all Buddhist sites have been found in the Rar Bengal region, which is the southwestern part of the state. The ongoing excavations at Bharatpur in the same area have the potential to reveal interesting aspects about the spread of Buddhism in the region.