পরিশিষ্ট ।। গ – দেগঙ্গা ও বালাণ্ডা

[গ্রন্থকারের জীবনাবসানের পরবর্ত্তীকালে দেগঙ্গার অতি সন্নিকটে চন্দ্রকেতুগড়ে প্রত্নতাত্ত্বিক অনুসন্ধান ও খননকার্য্যের ফলে বাঙলার ও বাঙালীর ইতিহাসের যে অমূল্য সম্পদ সংগৃহীত হইয়াছে, তাহা বৰ্ত্তমান গ্রন্থকে নূতন করিয়া ইতিহাসগত মৰ্য্যাদা দান করিয়াছে। নানাভাবে বিচার করিয়া দেগঙ্গা, দ্বিগঙ্গা বা দীর্ঘ-গঙ্গা সম্পর্কে গ্রন্থকার যে অনুমান করিয়াছিলেন, তাহাই আজ ঐতিহাসিক সত্য বলিয়া প্রমাণিত হইতে চলিয়াছে। মদীয় শিক্ষক প্রসিদ্ধ প্রত্নতাত্ত্বিক অধ্যাপক দেবপ্রসাদ ঘোষ মহাশয়ের দায়িত্বে ও তত্ত্বাবধানে এই অনুসন্ধান ও খনন কার্য্য সংগঠিত হয়। এই পুস্তকের সংস্করণের কথা তাঁহাকে জানাইলে, তিনি সাগ্রহে নিম্নোক্ত প্রবন্ধ লিখিয়া দিয়া এই সংস্করণের মূল্য বৃদ্ধি করিয়াছেন।[১]-শি মি]

In the light of the recent exploration and excavation at Chandraketugarh (Berachampa) and its neighborhood comprising the ruins of a vast walled city, two square miles in area, in close proximity to Deganga, carried out by Asutosh Museum of the University of Calcutta. The conclusion of the renowned historian, Prof. Satish Chandra Mitra. some fifty years ago, that the city of Gange, the royal residence of the Gangaridai mentioned by Ptolemy and the author of the Periplus, likely to have been located at Deganga, may be said to be almost prophetic.

The explorations in these areas undertaken by the Asutosh Museum have result- ed in the discovery of significant relics which may safely be assigned to a period between the Mauryya and Gupta ages. Of the relics mention may be made of objects in the shape of one hundred silver punch -marked coins-the earliest coins in circula- tion in India,—and more than a dozen copper-varieties bearing extremely rare sym- bols of a ship motif, several terra-cotta seals, inscribed with early Brahmi characters of 2nd century B.C. to 1st century A. D. and some intriguing pictographic marks; N. B. P. (Northern Block Polished Pottery) fragments, portions of rouletted wares and wine vases of probable Roman origin, terra-cotta figures betraying Hellenestic influ- ence in the folded tunic (show in the last plate of this volume), stamped and inscribed sherds of the Kushan period. some Mauryya and innumerable Sunga and Kushan terra-cotta figurines of surpassing lovliness (yaksini with Panchachuda in the last plate of this volume), not to speak of a rare Gupta gold coin, discoverd for the first time in Bengal. Mention may also be made of a unique terra-cotta Suryya chariot of the 2nd century B. C. recalling similar contemporary relief on the rock-cut cave of Bhaja in Western India.

The carliest Buddha image, so far discovered in Bengal, has been recently col- lected from Khana-Mihirer Dhipi at Bearachampa, in the environs of Deganga. Representing a small fragment in red sand-stone, the torso of Buddha (in the last plate of this volume) is reminiscent in almost every detail of the earlies, seated Buddha in stone created by the artist of Mathura at about the 1st century A. D., and therefore must belong to the same period.

The archaelogical excavation, which corroborated the earlier data from surface. exploration, was rewarded by the find of evidences of several stages of human habi- tation of different periods beginning with the Mauryya-Sunga age down to the post- Gupta period. Even the existence of a pre-Mauryya level is warranted by the finds of peculiar reddish pottery. The drain of big pottery pipes found in one of the earliest occupation levels, may safely be ascribed to the Mauryya period. The latest excavation has brought to light votive stupas and an extensive brick-built wall which sug- gest that the site was a Buddhist monastery (one of those mentioned by Yuan Chwang) established some fifteen hundred years ago. The vertical excavation reached down a level of more than 32 feet and yet the virgin soil could not be reached.

The above finds at Chandraketugarh, situated by the side of the dried-up river Bidyadhari, once a large branch of Bhagirathi, point to the existence of a flourishing international port rivalling the ancient port of Tamralipta. The importance of Bidyadhari Channel as a maritime route flanked by cities, temples and monastries, is supported by further exploration downstream at Khas-Balanda, Dhara and Bhangor. Haroa, six miles from Berachampa, is marked with ruins of a Gupta stone temple converted into a mosque at a much later period. Can Khas-Balanda be now indenti- fied with the Buddhist Vihara Balanda mentioned in a Nepalese MS? The magnifi- cent standing image of Bodhisattva Manjusri (31⁄2) in black basalt of about 10th- 11th century A. D. has been rescued from the crushing embrace of the trunk of a big banyan tree at Bhangor only a few miles from Balanda. There is a likelihood of this Manjusri (shown in the last but one plate of this volume) being the presiding deity of Balanda Mahavihara, dedicated to his Sakti Pragnaparamita.

Apart from the aeshetic and cultural significance of all the avove finds, numer- ous inscribed seals and strange pictographs when fully deciphered may give a clue to the intriguing and freshly discovered traces of the hoary civilistion of Bengal flourishing on the banks of Bidyadhari river in close proximity to Calcutta itself.

(Sd) D. P. Ghosh
3.9.63

Reading list:

Ghose, D. P.-Archaeological Discoveries in Lower Gangetic Valley, in ‘Science and Culture’, December, 1957.

Indian Archaeology-A Review, Nos, 1956-62.

Ganguli, K. K.-Early Bengal Terra-Cottas.

Roy Choudhury, C. R.-Early Indigenous Conis of India.