Paharpur

Paharpur, the Buddhist Monastery  

Paharpur Buddhist Monastery is another tourist attraction of North Bengal. Paharpur is a small village 5 km. west of Jamalganj in the greater Rajshahi district. You can go to Paharpur from Jaipur district. Its only 10 km from Jaipur.King Dharma Pal established Paharpur Buddhist Monastery in 7th century, which is the most important and the largest known monastery south of the Himalayas, has been excavated. The main Mandir is in the center of this Monastery.

This 7th century archaeological find covers approximately an area of 27 acres of land.The entire establishment, occupying a quadrangular court, measuring more than 900 ft. externally on each side, has high enclosure- walls about 16 ft. in thickness and from 12 ft. to 15 ft. height. With elaborate gateway complex on the north, there are 45 cells on the north and 44 in each of the other three sides with a total number of 177 rooms. The architecture of the pyramidal cruciform temple is profoundly influenced by those of South-East Asia, especially Myanmar and Java. A small site-Museum built in 1956-57 houses the representative collection of objects recovered from the area, where you can see the statues of Buddha and Vishnu. The excavated findings have also been preserved at the Varendra Research Museum at Rajshahi. The antiquities of the museum include terracotta plaques, images of different gods and goddesses, potteries, coins, inscriptions, ornamental bricks and other minor clay objects. 

A small site-Museum built in 1956-57 houses the representative collection of objects recovered from the area, where you can see the statues of Buddha and Vishnu. The excavated findings have also been preserved at the Varendra Research Museum at Rajshahi. The antiquities of the museum include terracotta plaques, images of different gods and goddesses, potteries, coins, inscriptions, ornamental bricks and other minor clay objects.

The site was first noticed by Buchanon Hamilton in course of his survey in Eastern India between 1807 and 1812. It was next visited by Westmacott. Sir Alexander Cunningham visited the place in 1879. Cunningham intended to carry out an extensive excavation in the mound. But he was prevented by zamindar of Balihar, the owner of the land. So he had to be satisfied with limited excavation in a small part of the monastic area and top of the central mound. In the latter area he 'discovered the ruins of a square tower of 22 feet side with a projection in the middle of each side'. The site was declared to be protected by the Archaeological Survey of India in 1919 under the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act of 1904.

Regular and systematic excavation was jointly started here in 1923 by Archaeological Survey of India, varendra research society of Rajshahi and Calcutta University. In the beginning the joint mission carried out the work with the financial help of Kumar sarat kumar ray of Dighapatia Zamindar family and under the guidance of DR Bhandarkar, Professor of Ancient History and former Superintendent of Archaeological Survey of India, Western Circle. The work was confined to a few rooms at the south-west corner of the monastery and the adjoining courtyard. The work was resumed in 1925-26 by RD Banerjee, who excavated in the northern part of the central mound. From the next season (1926-27) onward excavation was carried out under the supervision of KN Dikshit with the exception of seasons of the 1930-32. In these two seasons GC Chandra conducted the excavation. In the last two seasons (1932-34) the work was carried out at satyapir bhita, a mound at a distance of 364m east of the central temple. During Pakistan period lower levels of a few monastic cells on the eastern wing were excavated by Rafique Mughal, but the results were never published. 

Architectural remains 

Pre-liberation expeditions have revealed the architectural remains of a vast Buddhist monastery, the somapura mahavihara, measuring 274.15m N-S and 273.70m E-W. This gigantic establishment with surrounding 177 monastic cells, gateways, votive stupas, minor chapels, tank and a multitude of other structures for the convenience of the inmates, is dominated by a central shrine, conspicuous by its lofty height and architectural peculiarities. It is distinguished by its cruciform shape with angles of projection between the arms, its three raised terraces and complicated scheme of decoration of walls with carved brick cornices, friezes of terracotta plaques and stone reliefs.

The monastery The entire establishment, occupying a quadrangular court, has high enclosure walls, about 5m in thickness and from 3.6m to 4.5m in height. Though the walls are not preserved to a very great height, but from their thickness and massiveness it can be assumed that the structure was storeyed commensurate with the lofty central shrine.

Central temple 

The central part of the vast open courtyard of the monastery is occupied by a lofty shrine, the remains of which is still 21m high and covers 27sqm area. It was built on a cruciform plan which rises in three gradually diminishing terraces. The shape of the terminal structure is still unknown to us. A centrally placed hollow square right at the top of the terraces provides the moot point for the conception of the whole plan of the spectacular form and feature of this stupendous monument. In order to relieve monotony and to utilise the colossal structure to serve its basic purpose, provision was made in the second as well as in the first terrace for a projection, consisting of an ante-chamber and a mandapa on each face, leaving out a portion of the whole length of the square at each of the four corners. The ambulatory passage with the parapet wall was made to run parallel to the outline of this plan. This arrangement resulted in a cruciform shape with projecting angles between the arms of the cross. An enclosure wall strictly conforming to the basement plan, with only a slight deviation near the main staircase, runs round the monument. There is ample evidence that this complete plan, from the basement to the top, along with different component elements, belonged to a single period of construction, but the later repairs, additions and alterations did not fundamentally affect the general arrangement and plan.

Structures outside the monastery area

An open platform measuring 32m ´ 8m is situated at a distance of about 27m from the outer wall of the southern wing. It runs parallel to the monastery. It stands about 3.5m above the adjoining ground level and is accessible from a raised pathway across room 102.

This gangway is 5m in width. In between the gangway and the wall of the monastery there is a vaulted passage running parallel to the wall probably for the free passage of people outside the enclosure from one side to another. Its vaulted construction is of utmost importance. 

To our knowledge, it is one of the earliest and very rare examples of this type of construction, proving that vaults were known in ancient India before the advent of the Muslims. The entire southern face of the platform is marked with a series of water-chutes, each 30 cm in width and 1.30m in length occuring at interval of 1.2m. The channels are provided with fine jointed brickwork. It was used probably for the purpose of both ablution and toilet.

Bathing ghat

There is a bathing ghat at a distance of 48m from the outer wall of the monastery towards the southeastern corner of the monastery .

It is not parallel to the south wall of the monastery but is slightly inclined towards the north. On either side of it there is a parallel wall paved with brick-on-edge and concrete. The head of the ghat is laid with huge stone blocks along with brickwork, 3.6m in length. It descends in a gradual slope to 12.5m, where occurs a band of lime stone slabs. The bed of the ghat is also covered with sand which shows the existence of a stream close by. A tradition in relation to the ghat is still current among the local people that Sandhyavati, the daughter of a king named Mahidalan, used to bathe at the ghat every day and she is supposed to be the mother of Satyapir through immaculate conception.

Gandheshvari temple

To the southwest of the ghat at a distance of about 12.2 m there is an isolated structure locally known as the Temple of Gandheshvari. The lotus medallion and bricks with floral pattern used in the front wall as also the mortar used between the joints of bricks sufficiently indicate that this building was erected during the Muslim period. It is a rectangular hall measuring 6.7 ´ 3.5m with an octagonal brick pillar base in the centre. There is a projection in the middle of the western wall which contains a small room, about l.5m square. It was used as a shrine and the four small niches on the sidewalls contained other objects of worship. In front of the door there is a circular platform 7.3m in diameter with a brick-on-edge floor.

Post-Liberation excavations

Apart from confirming Diskhit's findings in the cells, the post liberation period excavations brought to light two new and unexpected facts. Firstly. the remains of another phase of the monastery, probably the monastery of an earlier period, was discovered below Dikshit's original(?) monastery. It appears that in the earlier phase the monastery was of the same size and the alignment of the enclosure wall and front wall was also the same. They used the original monastery for quite some time and subsequently removed the earlier floors and destroyed the earlier partition walls and built new ones and thus they changed the arrangement of cells. In course of this reconstruction either at places they entirely destroyed the earlier partition walls and built completely new ones or they removed the earlier ones at their upper levels and kept the basal parts undisturbed over which they built the new ones. The earlier cells measured 4.87 ´ 3.96m internally. It clearly indicates that cells of the original monastery were larger than those of the upper monastery or Dikshit's first phase monastery. Thus in later periods the number of cells was increased. 

Movable objects

Among the movable objects discovered from the site the most important ones are stone sculptures, terracotta plaques, copper plate, inscriptions on stone columns, coins, stucco images and metal images, ceramics etc. 

Stone sculptures 

As many as 63 stone sculptures were found fixed in the basement of the temple. All the images represent Brahmanical faith excepting the only Buddhist image of Padmapani. It appears rather strange that such a large number of Brahmanical deities were installed in this grand Buddhist establishment. The occurance of Brahmanical sculptures in a Buddhist temple indicates that they were gathered from the earlier monuments at the site or in the neighbourhood and fixed up in the main temple. 

Inscriptions 

The discovery of an inscribed copper-plate and some stone inscriptions has helped us to determine the chronology of the different periods. The copper-plate found in the northeast corner of the monastery is dated in 159 Gupta Era (479 AD). It records the purchase and grant by a Brahman couple of a piece of land for the maintenance of the worship of Arhats and a resting place at the Vihara, presided over by the Jaina teacher Guhanandin. This Vihara, which was situated at Vatagohali in the 5th century AD, must have been an establishment of local celebrity.

It is worth mentioning here that the same name Vatagohali is found on a mutilated copper-plate found at Baigram dated 128 GE (448 AD). The mention of the name Vatagohali in a record from Barigram, which is about 30 km to the north of Paharpur, indicates that the two places Vaigrama and Vatagohali may not be for away from each other. The Guhanandi Vihara at Vatagohali must have shared the fate of other Jaina establishments in Pundravardhana, when anarchy reigned supreme in Bengal in the 7th century AD. At last peace was established and the Pala empire was securely founded in Bengal in the 8th century AD and a magnificent temple along with a gigantic monastery was established by Dharmapala at Somapura. Dikshit believes that the monks in the new Buddhist Vihara might have been given the royal permission to appropriate the land belonging to the Jaina Vihara and kept the original charter in their possession. According to him 'this suppostion can alone, explain the find of the plate among the ruins of the Buddhist Vihara'.

A number of stone pillar inscriptions were discovered from the site which contain the records of the donation of pillars referring to either Buddha or the three jewels. The dates assigned to them belong to 10th and 12th century AD. All the donors have names ending in garbha, viz, Ajayagarbha, Shrigarbha and Dashabalagarbha, excepting one which shows a fragmentary record of some person whose name ended in nandin. It is possible that these indicate continuity or succession of monks at Paharpur Vihara.

Stucco 

A few stucco heads have been recovered from Paharpur, but this art was not as developed as in the Gandhara period. The common feature of all the Buddha heads found at Paharpur is the protruding eyelids and in some of them the hair is shown in ringlets.

Metal images

Only a few metal images have been found. The ornamental image of Hara-Gouri, a standing naked Jaina and the bronze figures of Kubera and Ganesha are the only important images that have been discovered at Paharpur from pre-Bangladesh period excavations. But the post-liberation excavation (1981-82 precisely) discovered the torso of a large and highly important bronze Buddha image. Due to damage by fire only the upper half down to the thighs has been preserved. However, it is still possible to make out that the figure once represented the Buddha in a standing posture. The surviving part of the image measures roughly 1.27m, so that total height of the original must have been about 2.40m. In view of its style and the layer in which the bronze was discovered the sculpture can be attributed to about the 9th or 10th century. The only other known bronze Buddha figure from about the same period and of roughly equal size is the famous image from Sultanganj in Bihar, now in the Art Gallery of Birmingham Museum.

Coins

As many as five circular copper coins have been discovered from a room close to the main gateway complex of the monastery. Of them three are of a unique type showing a rather clumsily depicted bull on the obverse and three fishes on the reverse. A silver coin belonging to Harun-ur-Rashid, the Khalifa of Baghdad, bears the date 127 AH (788 AD). Another series of six coins issued by sher shah (I540-45 AD), two of Islam Shah (I 545-53 AD), three of Bahadur Shah (16th century AD), two of daud karrani, one of akbar (1556-1605 AD) and one of Sultan Hussain Shah Sharki of Jaunpur. All these coins are fabricated on silver excepting the last one, which is of copper. But we are not yet sure how these coins made their way into this vihara.

Pottery 

The pottery discovered from the excavation at Paharpur was numerous and varied. Most of them belong to the middle or the late period roughly from the end of the tenth to the twelfth century AD. One class of ware, which may be attributed to the early Pala period (about 9th century AD). These are decorated with cross lines in the lower surface only or on the sides as well. Only a few large storage jars (one inside the other) were found in situ in some monastery cells. These large jars were set in the corner of the room by cutting the floor of the third period (Diskshit's second period) monastery. But no food grains or any other object was found in the jars. These were full of soil. A number of complete saucers could be recovered from the pre-monastic level. This pottery may be attributed to the pre-Pala period (c 6th to 7th century AD). Generally the pottery is well burnt to a red or buff green on which red slip was applied either in bands or on the entire surface except at the bottom. Almost all the vessels had a broad base and a protuberant centre while the large storage jars had a pointed or tapering bottom. Besides a number of vessels shaped like modern handis and spouted vases or lotas, there are also vessels with a narrow neck and mouth with a cylindrical body. A number of lids of pottery, dishes, saucers and lamps which include a large variety of circular shell vessels with or without a lip at the rim near the wick have been found. Other common antiquities are the terracotta crude female figures, the model of animals, parts of finials, dabbers of truncate cone shape, flat discs, sealings and beads of cylinderical shape. A number of ornamental bricks have been found in the pattern of the stepped pyramid, lotus petal, the chessboard, rectangular medallion with half lotuses etc.