Selective Archeological Sources (Primary):

Pandu Rajar Dhibi, Tamralipti, Chandraketugarh

Course Teacher: Samila Nowshin

Department of History and Philosophy
North South University
 Pandu Rajar Dhibi
• The early human settlement have been discovered in this site. It is situated at
Panduk (Burdwan District) on the Ajay, was the first chalcolithic site
discovered in West Bengal, India. It is situated about 40 kilometres to the
northwest of Birbhanpur, which was excavated by BB Lal in 1954-57. It is the
first evidence of human settlement in the Bengal region.
• Experts are of opinion that this urban settlement is nearly as old as the Indus
civilisation. It is also known as Ajoy Valley civilization. This civilisation is the
earliest civilizational trace that we have discovered so far.
• The excavation of Pandu Rajar Dhibi has revealed the existence of a Copper
age civilisation in eastern India which has once a close relation with
chalcolithic civilisation of central India and Rajasthan. This settlement
might have begun in the latter half of the 2nd millennium BCE and continued
to flourish to the beginning of 1st millennium BCE.
• Subsequently, the number of chalcolithic sites rose to 76. They are now
spread over the districts of Birbhum, Burdwan, Bankura and Midnapur, and
interspersed by rivers like Mayurakshi (north), Kopai, Ajay, Kunur,
Brahmani, Damodar, Dvarakesvar, Silavati, and Rupnarayan (south).
• From a perusal of the distribution pattern of chalcolithic sites in West
Bengal, it appears that there was an extensive rice-producing riparian culture
in the area lying to the west of the Bhagirathi. Though the chalcolithic
people were essentially agriculturists, they did not cease to hunt or to fish.
They lived in modest circular to square huts with mud-plastered walls. There
were hearths and garbage-places in the huts. They ate rice, as well as meat,
fish, fruits etc. Of the chalcolithic sites that have been found, Pandu Rajar
Dhibi is by far the most interesting. Some scholars tried to establish that the
main mound of Pandu Rajar Dhibi is associated with King Pandu of
Mahabharata fame.
• In several excavations have clearly shown that there were, in all, six periods of
occupation at the site. Like most Chalcolithic sites in West Bengal, there were
two main periods:
(a) Chalcolithic and (b) Iron Age
• The Chalcolithic period may be divided into two phases - one pre-metallic
and the other pure Chalcolithic. The span of the Chalcolithic period in West
Bengal is c 1600 BCE-750 BCE. Of the six periods noticed at the site, the first
two were Chalcolithic (the first one was pre-metallic in as much as no metal
was found in it); the third was transitional (overlapping of Chalcolithic age &
Iron age equipment); the fourth represented the Iron age; the fifth belonged to
early historic and the sixth to Pala or early medieval times.
• Period I: This period is known as pre-metallic period. At the lower level of
this period, handmade grey and pale red ware pottery-fragments with husk-
impressions in the core and a fractional human burial were encountered,
while at the upper level the ceramics consisted of plain black-and-red, grey, and
matt-red wares. A few microlithic flakes have been found, but no copper object
has been recovered from this level.

• Period II: It represents a full-blooded Chalcolithic culture, having diagnostic

ceramics of red, black-painted red, white-painted red, black-and-red (plain and
painted in white or cream inside), cream-slipped and grey wares. The colour of
the red slip varied from pale or matt to deep red, chocolate, and orange. The
shapes and types in red ware consisted of bowls, channel-spouted bowls with
long and narrow cut-spouts and splayed ends, dishes-on-stand, bowls-on-stand
(often painted in black or white pigment), flower pots (some having the shape
of a 'tulip' and some of an 'inverted helmet'), tumblers, dishes, vases, lotas
(small water pots) and storage jars; bowls, channel-spouted bowls and dishes
(often painted on the inside in white or cream). Storage jars in grey ware were
also found.
• The painting motif in red ware consisted of dots and dashes, bands
(parallel, vertical and horizontal), solid triangles, chevrons, ladders,
sigma, cheque-patterns etc. Graffiti marks were also noticed on some
red ware pots. In addition to pottery, the assemblage consisted of
antiquities like microliths, copper objects like beads, rings, bangles,
fish-hooks, kohl-sticks and a leaf-shaped tanged arrowhead; bone
tools like points, arrowheads, awls and harpoons; beads in stone and
terracotta; terracotta figures of Mother Goddess (one) and gymnast
(one), lapis lazuli and a broken stone pestle. Impressions of silk-
cotton fabric were found on clay lumps. An iron dish was also found
from the upper level.
• Period III: The material culture of Period III retained some of the ceramics
of the earlier period and introduced a new ware, black-slipped (some bearing
painting motifs of black-and red ware). Dishes-on-stand and bowls-on-stand,
as well as bowls, lotas and dishes were also made in this ware. A tiny broken
gold coin with fish symbol on the obverse was also found. Iron was
apparently introduced in this period, and implements like swords, arrowheads
and sickles were made from it. Bone tools, copper objects, beads in stone and
terracotta, terracotta figurines and few Neolithic implements were also found
in this period. Period III thus represented a transitional phase.
• Period IV: In this period antiquities like black-slipped ware (some painted
and some incised with motifs like peacock holding a snake, a row of fish,
fishing net), red and grey wares, bone and iron tools, beads in stone and
terracotta, a steatite seal, a terracotta Mother Goddess, a pair of hollow
terracotta heads having a foreign affinity and a few Neolithic implements
were found.
• Period V: In Period V, the NBP ware was introduced. In addition to the
NBP, vases, cups, bowls, sauce-pans, pots and jars in red polished ware
and some pots in black polished ware; terracotta figures, iron and bone
tools, and stone and terracotta beads were encountered in this period. One
gold coin of King Kaniska I, discovered in a surface collection, may be
assigned to this period.
• The site was deserted soon after, and remained thus, for a few centuries.
The site was probably rehabilitated in the early medieval period. Several
stone sculptures in the Pala idiom, some pottery fragments in grey and
red wares in addition to terracotta cups, and a ring-well belonged to
period VI, or the last period of Pandu Rajar Dhibi habitation. The site
was abandoned afterwards. It seems that the floors of houses were
different in different periods and varied from beaten moorum to lime
plastered surkhi, or ordinary mud-floor, plastered with cow dung.
• As to the artists of the Chalcolithic culture of Bengal, we are in the dark.
They might have been proto-Australoids or Veddoids. From an
examination of skeletal remains (14-male, female & children) it appears
that they were long-headed and medium to tall in height, resembling the
Santals or the Sabaras.
• There was parhaps a brisk maritime trade in Chalcolithic Bengal, but
unfortunately sufficient evidence is not available. Certainly, the Ajay and
her tributaries meeting the Bhagirathi were navigable at that time. The
excavation at Pandu Rajar Dhibi has provided evidence for the gradual
growth of a Chalcolithic culture and its displacement by iron-using
people. There is evidence of a great conflagration in period III, which
may be considered as the transitional period. The transition perhaps led
to the exit of the Chalcolithic culture and entrance of the Iron Age.
 Key Findings of Ajay Valley
The excavations revealed that :
• The settlers of those days were capable of building well-planned towns
with pavements and streets.
• They lived in citadels and houses built of unfired clay bricks, reinforced
the wall with reeds and they knew how to plaster the walls.
• They knew the use of copper.
• Agriculture and trade was the mainstay of their economy. Rice
cultivation was known to them.
• They kept domestic animals and livestock and also turned out fined
potteries. They buried their dead in an east-west orientation and their
religion mainly entered round the worship of the mother goddess.
• It has been suggested that the Pandu Rajar Dhibi represents the
ruins of a trading township. They were predominantly a sea-faring
people and had most intimate trade relations with ancient Crete and
other countries of the Mediterranean world.
• The Principal commodities of commerce that they carried in their
boats were spices, cotton fabrics, ivory, gold and silver, copper and
perhaps sugar.
• A seal and a clay label both inscribed with signs of Cretan A
symbols and potteries revealing certain Egyptian and Cretan traits
have also been recovered from surrounding towns
Iron slags
 Tamralipti
• As an ancient settlement, this archaeological site has been mentioned in
early Indian literature, Ceylonese texts, and in accounts of Greek
geographers and Chinese pilgrims. These texts indicate that Tamralipti was
located on the eastern coast near the confluence of the Bay of Bengal and
River Ganga. The texts also indicate that Tamralipti was related to trade
routes and was frequented by traders, travellers and pilgrims.
• Going by the texts, the chronology of this settlement will be roughly
between the fourth-third century BCE to the eighth century CE. The
Dudhpani rock inscription of Udaymana of the eighth century CE contains
the last record of Tamralipti as a port of ancient South Asia. In the map of
the Greek geographer Ptolemy, Tamralipti appears as Tamalities. Chinese
pilgrim Xuanzang calls the town Tan-mo-lih-ti (te).
• These textual references have led scholars to identify Tamralipti as one of
the most important centres of trade and commerce of early historic India. It
has also led to the belief that Tamralipti had emerged as a thriving urban
settlement in this period and had multidirectional links with different
geographical regions of South Asia.
• Though there is controversy regarding the identification of this port,
scholars have generally agreed that present day Tamluk town, district
Medinipur (known as Midhunapura in the ancient period), West Bengal, is
the site of the ancient city. The present town is located on the banks of the
Rupnarayan close to where it flows into the Bay of Bengal.
• Among the antiquities recovered through excavation were terracotta objects,
pottery and coins. Some of these antiquities belong to third century BCE.
However, no structures could be unearthed in the excavation; only rammed
floor levels and ring wells were encountered.
• Several excavation revealed that in this archaeological site there are four successive
occupational periods has been found. Period I yielded an assemblage of neolithic
celts, ill-fired pottery, a large number of microlithic tools, bone awls and a small
number of copper objects. Period II, dated to third-second century BCE, yielded a
few fragments of NBPW, a good number of beads of semi-precious stones, and a large
number of punch marked and cast copper coins. One may link this period to the so-
called Maurya-Shunga times. Evidence of a brick built tank and a few terracotta ring
wells were also exposed. Period III, belonging to the Shunga-Kusana phase seems to
have been the richest' one and have yielded ceramics, and a very large collection of
terracotta figurines, some with a definite hellenistic affiliation. The assemblage
indicates a sophisticated urban life where citizens indulged in art. Period IV
stratigraphically represents the so-called Gupta period. The yield of antiquities from
this occupational level has not been impressive, certainly they do not match the
evidence furnished by Chinese pilgrims.
• The early historic period of Tamluk is marked by the occurrence of
pottery such as roulleted ware, grey ware, red ware, black polished
ware and northern black polished ware. In addition to pottery, the site
has also revealed terracotta objects of exceptional beauty. Terracotta
figurines of yaksis, animals, and plaques depicting life of ordinary
men and women are found in the collections of Tamluk Museum. The
famous figurine of Yaksi at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford was
recovered from Tamluk.
 Chandraketugarh
• Chandraketugarh an archaeological site. Located on the Vidyadhari, once an
important tributary of the Bhagirathi, Chandraketugarh (Chandraketugad) is
situated 35 kilometres northeast of Calcutta in the district of 24 Parganas of
West Bengal. Excavations at the site for several years have revealed materials,
which prove the antiquity of the site and its archaeological importance. The
excavated material is in the collection of the Asutosh Museum and the State
Archaeological Museum, Calcutta, and in addition there are a number of private
collections in and around the town.
• The settlement dimension of the site spreads over a wider area comprising the
present day villages of Devalaya, Hadipur, Berachampa, Shanpukur, Jhikra and
Itakhola. However, it must be said that the chronological correlation of the
different structural phases has not been done satisfactorily.
A huge rampart wall made of mud encircled the core area of the place,
rectangular in shape, and spreading over roughly one square mile. The digging
at Chandraketugarh, Khanamihirer Dhibi, Itakhola and Nungola - all within the
rampart walls have laid bare five occupational periods.
• While Period I represents a thin layer of pre-NBPW level, Period II,
belonging to a period from c 400 BCE to 100 BCE is characterized by the use
of a red ware in the shape of a long necked jar, big rimless round cups and
bowls, NBP wares in black, gold and purple shades, sherds of plain grey
colour, fragmented pieces of ivory and copper antimony rods, punch marked
copper coins, uninscribed cast copper coins, and a fairly good number of
terracottas, including a large number of Beads, seals and sealings. Period III,
contemporary with the Kusanas and apparently the most prosperous, has
yielded fine pieces of diagnostic rouletted pottery of Roman affiliation, broken
pieces of amphorae sherds in black or mat-red, fine red pottery with stamped
design, grey pottery, and finely moulded terracotta figurines.
• This period is assignable to about the first three centuries of the Common era.
Period IV, ascribable to Gupta and late Gupta times, is marked by its yield of
typical seal and sealings, terracottas and stamped and moulded pottery. The most
important find of this period is the more than fourteen feet high remains of a
massive sarvata-bhadra-type of brick temple with reentrant angles. No cult object
was found to connect the shrine with any particular deity. However the lower part
of a sand stone plaque representing the figure of Surya has been found in the
Gupta deposit. The archaeological evidence of period V, belonging possibly to the
Pala phase, is very limited.
• On the evidence of art objects it is clear that the principal artistic medium of the
site from the Maurya through the Gupta periods was the terracottas made from
moulds. In all meaningful aspects this art in its stylistic affiliation seems to run a
parallel course with those art objects of Gangetic India of c 350 BCE through to c
500 CE. They reveal the astonishing thematic variety which is characteristic of
this school.
• These range from religious and ritualistic objects like primitive earth
goddess, yaksa, yaksinis, nagas, male or female figures, at times standing
on wheeled animals, and winged deities, to types and forms which are
frankly secular. It is among the terracotta assemblages of the first three
centuries of the Common era that one comes across imprints of Graeco-
Roman contacts in dress and/or in physiognomic features. Chandraketugarh
has provided for us a deluge of terracottas depicting amorous couples
shown in dalliance or in maithuna postures. The male and female figurines
with intricate ornamentation are suggestive of imitation of the gold smith's
craft.
• The site still remains to be definitely identified. But there is reason to
believe that this was possibly the ancient 'Gange', a place mentioned both
by Periplus and Ptolemy.