1,720,965 research outputs found
'Gupta and Post-Gupta' Settlements in the Hinterland Zone of Varendri
No full text<p>The paper points out the discrepancies between epigraphic/textual and archaeological data in the northwestern part of Bangladesh in reference to taken-for-granted discourses on 'Gupta and Post-Gupta' realm. Data from archaeological surveying and excavation with regard to the landscape have been used and interpreted to raise questions about the established history writing on this particular period of Bengal. It is found that the ways in which a pan-Indian 'Gupta' period as a homogenous and spatiotemporally discrete unit is normalized can not be attested based upon the contextually informed interpretations of archaeological data. The epigraphic evidence, when they are informed by their contexts, points at a different image of 'Gupta' as a distinct period of centralized state and empire in this part of eastern Indian sub-continent.</p>
Interpreting Transformation of Material Culture with Reference to Stratigraphy: Report on the Excavation at Bowalar Mandap Mound, Birampur, Dinajpur, Bangladesh
No full text<p>In this paper, an initial attempt is made to understand the 'early medieval' ways of life and settlements of the people living in the hinterland zone between two contemporary urban centres – Pundranagar (Mahasthangarh) and Kotivarsa (Bangarh) – on the basis of archaeological excavation conducted within the stratigraphic framework offered by the harris Matrix method. The method enables us to incorporate and engage with the complex factors and processes at work, including the history of the landscape and rivers as the crucial factors in societal transformation along with the other politico-religious and economic factors and processes. Fundamentally, this paper is the report of the excavation on the finds of a Buddhist Stupa-shrine in Bowalar Mandap Mound at Dinajpur of Bangladesh, and attempts to use the retrieved data to engage with the understanding and interpreting the culture and settlement in the zone. It has been found that shifts in the rivers and alluvial landscapes played their part in conjunction with the socio-religious and economic factors in the transformation of this particular Buddhist votive Stupa-shrine which was later converted into a Brahmanical edifice. My argument is that the transformations, and their conditions and processes, might be proved to be significant in verifying and re-thinking the dominating 'early medieval' history of this part of Varendri in future studies. </p>
Settlements on the Changing Alluvial Landscape in Early Medieval Varendri: Survey and Excavations in Domile-Khairghuni in Dinajpur, Bangladesh
No full text<p>In this paper, I have attempted to examine the archaeological places of a particular area of the sub-region of Varendri within a framework of their landscape context. It has been done by elaborating upon the nature, function and pattern of the settlements through a combined methodology of programmatic total survey, stratigraphically informed excavations and geoarchaeological understanding of the continuously changing alluvial context. The outcome is encouraging. It has been possible to delineate a method to designate the settlements and their spatial boundary by considering the spatial patterning of archaeological places including the tanks. At the same time, it was found that the pattern of the settlement was partially controlled by the rivers and the settlements were abandoned for different reasons. The settlements that have been interpreted in this paper have been found – in opposition to the established narratives - to be abandoned possibly because of floods and avulsion of rivers. It has also been proposed that the dichotomy between the urban and rural for assigning nature of the settlements might be problematic as the religious establishments acted as the core of these settlement structures. Finally, it was found that the continuously shifting terrain of an alluvial landscape might have acted in a spatio-temporally varied ways for the development, continuation and abandonment of the settlements along with the other factors and processes during Early Medieval period.</p>
Embodiment, performance and shared transformation: A quest to understand the idea of 'Folklore' in Bangladesh
No full text<p>By questioning the modern category of 'folklore', this paper aims at unsettling the established and institutionalized understanding, studies, archiving and performances of 'folklore'. This paper argues that the heterogeneity and multiplicity in the meaning marking processes in various embodied performative traditions in the popular domains are homogenized, idealized and selectively remembered and archived within the rubric of the concept and category of the 'folk' in contrast to modern/urban/elitist categories. The folk is a selective invention of modernity and modern disciplines and the definition of the folk is related to the modernist, romantic and often, nationalistic projects. The flexibility, open endedness and multiplicity of various traditions are stripped of their fluidity and unboundedness, and a singularity is manufactured, archived and celebrated by subverting the entanglement of body, senses, performative aspects and flexibility of the traditions in the way of defining and producing the 'folk', it argues. </p>
NORTHWESTERN BANGLADESH: SITES AND SETTLEMENTS
No full text<p>This paper represents the data and preliminary analyses of the archaeological data from archaeological survey and excavations in the Dinajpur-Joypuhat Districts of the northwestern part of Bangladesh. The region was known in early Bengal as Varendri/Gauda and the archaeological data in relation to the geomorphological and geological contexts are categorized and interpreted to understand the settlement natures, structures and patterns on chronological scales. In contrast to the established text and epigraphy based early understanding and narratives on this region/sub-region, this summarized representation of archaeological data suggest that settlements in this region were intimately related to the artificial water bodies or tanks. At the same time, structural remains went through transformations functionally and planimetrically in terms of of both vertical and horizontal stratigraphic understanding. The spatial contexts of the settlements indicate varied spatial structures in terms of density, geometric patterns and intra-settlement segregation. Fluvial processes including channel dynamics and changes in hydrological regimes, as well as monsoon played a critical role. Religious nature of the settlements was complex and heterogenous, though most the architectural assemblages were foundationally religious in nature. Agrarian expansion and internal trade networks played critical role. Most importantly, the taken-for-granted urban/rural divide in the accepted narratives does not sustain based upon the complexity of spatial patterns and material cultural remains in their contexts. </p>
Essential Dilemma in the Liberal Understanding of Heritage: On recent looting and destruction of Museums in Iraq and its reactions
No full text<p>This paper which was initially written and sent to Martin Hall, the President of World Archaeological Congress (WAC) and other members of the executive committee of WAC on 18 June 2003 on the eve of its 5th congress at Washington DC with a forwarding letter by electronic mail. The letter was – "Respected WAC Members and colleagues, On the eve of 5th Congress, I am very much disappointed, frustrated and outraged for the role and reaction of WAC on the US-British aggression in Iraq and the consequent damage and looting of archaeological materials. As I have come to know from the past activities of WAC, this oganization has been making contribution to the polemics on 'political and controversial issues' by promoting debates among the archaeologists from different political, cultural and religious traditions. As an archaeologist from a virtually peripheral country of 'third world' I disagree with the statement of Prof. Martin Hall after the destruction. The uncertainty and depression that engulfed us due to the role of western countries, US in particular, over the past years will be, I think,deepened by this statement. Moreover, in my opinion, this statement is an act of insult to the millions of people protesting against the attack in Iraq. As an expression of solidarity with the people who are fighting against the oppression in the world, especially in Iraq and Palestine, and as a gesture of protest against the role of intellectuals and academics, archaeologists in particular, I have written the paper attached herewith. Though I am not a member of WAC, I hope that this paper would be read and understood by my colleagues of the '(first) world'. They would not subvert and marginalize it as their statesmen usually prefer to do. Please, note that, this paper could be used and dispersed for any type of activism that tries to throw the brutal US regime out. Comments on my paper are very much expected. With regards to all, Swadhin Sen." Prof. Hall replied with the usual manner on 20 June 2003 : "Dear Professor Sen, Thank you for your message, and for the copy of your paper, which is an important contribution to an important debate in these very difficult times in which we live. You can be assured that your views are taken seriously, and will be treated with the respect that they deserve. Sincerely, Martin Hall." It is noteworthy that no other member has made any reply or comments till now and no changes have been noticed in the statement of Prof. Hall. The initial paper was then modified and extended and was published in an online webzine entitled (Meghbarta, now not available) in Bangladesh. I contend that the arguments in this paper became more relevant during the later period, when destruction and looting of archaeological materials became rampant in various parts of the world and limits of the liberal understanding of heritage (or cultural resource) became evident. The arguments, I suppose, is also relevant for the increasing concerns and narratives on protecting the cultural heritage in the face of climate change.</p>
Landscape Contexts of the Early Mediaeval Settlements in Varendri/Gauda: An Outline on the Basis of Total Surveying and Excavations in Dinajpur-Joypurhat Districts, Bangladesh
No full text<p>Studies of settlements in reference to their systems, patterns and contexts are very common in archaeological scholarship. The settlements and their multifaceted understanding of the time frame known as 'early mediaeval' in South Asia have hardly been addressed because of many historical factors. The absence of settlement pattern studies on regional/subregional scale for this particular period is also connected to the traditions of archaeological research in South Asia in which 'early mediaeval' has been a neglected category and concept. In this paper, an attempt has been made to engage with the settlements of this particular period in reference to their landscape context. The northwestern part of present Bangladesh which was known as Varendri/Gauda during the period from sixth to thirteenth centuries ce is characterised by a dynamic alluvial landscape. The rivers and their history have played a crucial part in the spatio-temporal specificity and transformations of the settlements. The agrarian expansion and concomitant settlement formation during this particular period were entangled with the dynamics of this landscape context. The preliminary analyses also suggest that the changes and continuity of alluvial regimes could be one of the influential factors for understanding and questioning the disjuncture of early mediaeval from the mediaeval. Finally, various categories of settlements have been proposed and the taken-for-granted notions of rural and urban settlements have been found inadequate for addressing the heterogeneity of settlement data and their contexts.</p>
'Oh My River with Deep Water, I am Floating on your Water, Ever since my Birth': Non-western perspectives on reconfigurations of the embodiments of water and landscape with special reference to contemporary archaeological discourses
No full text<p>Water and landscape are entangled to each other in a way that challenges the modernist and colonialist discourses and perceptions. In stead of disjunct and separated objects or non-alive matters to be objectified, mapped, modified and used for the development of human beings, the pre-modern perceptions, practices and discourses on water and land offer us an opportunity to rethink the inseparability and relatedness of water-land in the everyday living on the Bengal delta. This paper takes into account the river, waterbodies and water as sentient being and the discursive and non-discursive, experiential and embodied aspects of their existence in everyday living in Bengal. Taking a cue from archaeological and historical studies, from ethnographic and textual data, and from the intangible celebration and commemoration of the water and land in the lives of the people in Bengal, this paper calls for a transformation of our interpretive and conceptual framework of rethinking the binaries and dichotomies for understanding the pasts and engaging with various manifestations of these dichotomies in our present living. </p>
Paharpur
No full text<p>This chapter represents the key aspects on Somapura Mahavihara of Bangladesh, a renowned Buddhist monastery from the early medieval (c. 7th -13th centuries CE) as a summarized form. The site of Somapura Mahavihara, one of the two world heritage sites in Bangladesh, is popularly known as Paharpur. In addition to the normative and descriptive narraratives on the excavated and preserved architectural remains of Paharpur, this paper emphasizes rethinking of the foundational conceptual assumptions on the basis of which Buddhism and Buddhist monasticism in South Asia, especially in the eastern part of the Indian sub-continent is articulated in dominant discourses. It focuses of the landscape context and archaeological understanding of the mahavihara and points out the importance of engaging with the transformation of 'site' and calls for understanding the mahavihara as related to the contemporary settlements and agrarian expansion in the region. Situated on a dynamic flood plain characterized by the history of the changes oi rivers and flood, the paper also suggests that the monastic community was not necessarily mediating Buddhist monks engages in learning and ritualistic practices in isolation from the contemporary social and economic processes. Evidence of flood and damages by both anthropogenic actors and landscape changes have been detected both vertically and horizontally. Presently visible architectural remains were constructed upon habitations and architectural remains of earlier periods and the transformation and stratigraphic sequence indicate that the monastic establishment was neither a new construction not was it completely abandoned after 13th-14th century CE. </p>
Temples of Bangladesh (c. sixteenth-twentieth century CE)
No full text<p>This book represents the ways in which some of the protected Late Medieval and Colonial Temples of Bangladesh can be understood and interpreted. These temples are preserved and protected by the Department of Archaeology, Ministry of Cultural Affairs, Government of the Peoples' Republic of Bangladesh. The books on the Bengal Temples are numerous, and some of the publications are pioneering. This publication is neither an exhaustive study of these temples, nor is it aimed at the established typological and formalistic approaches top temples from an conventional stylistic, architectural and art historical perspective. The book, however, hints at the ways in which these monuments and monumental remains can be addressed from multiple points of view and concepts. The book, after all, is an invitation to delve into the complexities and interrelations of various actors and conditions in the lives of this sacred monuments. {Authored by Md Shahin Alam, Md Khairul Bashar Swapan and Md Amiruzzaman) (Revised and edited by Swadhin Sen)</p>
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