Untitled Document

MINOR RESEARCH PROJECT

Title

Archaeological Sites Along with Distributaries of The Ganges in Begusarai District

Executive Summary

The Final Report

Submitted

The Joint Secretary and Head

Eastern Regional Office

University Grant Commission

L.B.-8, sector-3

Salt Lake

Kolkata - 700098

During XI_th Plan Period

2011-13

Principal Investigator

Dr. Shailesh Kumar Sinha

Head, Associate Professor

Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture& Archaeology G.D.College, Begusarai – 851101

Bihar

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

DR. SHAILESH KR. SINHA

CO- INVESTIGATOR

DR. AMIYA KRISHNA

Executive Summary

Begusarai district is one of the thirty-eight districts of Bihar and Begusarai town is the administrative headquarters of this district. The district lies on the northern bank of the Ganges river. It is located at latitudes 25⁰15’N & 25⁰45’N and longitudes 85⁰45’E & 86⁰36’E .

Here, in this project, we have tried to locate the distributaries of the Ganges which had marked its imprints in this region somewhere in the past. Though, these distributaries have lost their existence due to several reasons, their contribution to the regional culture is intact in the form of archaeological remains buried under numerous mounds along with them.

The Ganges has always attracted many tributaries and given shape to a number of distributaries. It’s catchments area also has changed the shape and direction from time to time. The old bed of Baya, Deoki etc. have many ancient sites on its course and these distributaries managed to find their way up to the famous ‘chaur’ area of the region nourishing many sites in the past. The remains of a water channel right from Bachhawara and Teghra to Kola Chaur via Asurari, Chanan, Jhajhpur and Chandpura can be seen. The Bainti, Balan and Burhi Gandak have given birth to sites like Naulagarh, Birpur, Baraipura etc.

The Kola Chaur nourishes the sites of Masuriya dih, Damdama, Sughran, Kushmahot, Chamrahadih etc. Many rich archaeological sites like Kumharso, Herson, Garhi, Garhpura etc can be seen in the Chanha region. The famous Kabar lake is surrounded by Jaimangalgarh, Garhkholi , Ekamba and many other sites of this area.

Even the recent catchment area of river Ganges has many historical sites like Shograha Dih, Bihat, Matihani, Maniappa, Majhalapur, Balia etc.

The Kola Chaur is a vast area of almost 10 kms. East-West and 9 kms North-South expansion. The topology is remarkable. The slope is towards East. The old bed of Devaki (deoki) river is alive here with a channel (almost dried normally) from the north of Maharathpur, Fatehpur, Laruara, Sikandarpur and Sankh. The river bed is apparent and contains water for not less than half a year near Sankh, Taraiya, Tulsipur and Kaith-Baraith. This river bed can be seen along with the Sankh-Jinedpur road. At Damdama, Sangokothi and Cheriyadih,the water confluence of the region is still alive and can be seen in the rainy seasons. Cheriyadih becomes the junction of this water confluence from where a stream runs towards south and the other towards north. The main river bed of Budhi Gandak at Chanpura lies only two or three kms. north to this live old channel. The topology suggests that the old channel might be supported by the oversaid river in the past. There are a number of archaeological sites all around this chaur area. To its west lies Sankh, Rajaura- Sikandarpur etc.; to its north Kaith, Baraith; to its east Kusmahaut, Bodidih, Majhanpur, Chamrahadih, Sugharan etc. ; to its south Kankaul, Suza ; Masuriyadih, Manikpur, Sangokothi, Damdama and Cheriyadih lie in the central part of this chaur.

We have talked about Devki earlier. This distributaries would have emerged with some northward change in the direction of the main course of the Ganges somewhere near Barh in Patna district on the southern flank. Though it has lost its existence as a live stream its marks can be seen in the form of dead river-bed. Not less than six dead channels of this lost distributaries are visible in the rainy season.

The imprints of the first dead channel can be seen at Teghara , Barauni and western part of Kola chaur. This could be the oldest and the largest current collecting the rainy-day water run-off and pouring it to the Budhi Gandak. This particular stream seems to be emerging somewhere in the Chamtha diyara and rushing through Vajitpur Bajar flows in the diyara of Bachhwara joining the mainstream of river Baya. It seems that Baya has positioned itself in the bed of Deoki here. The imprints of this stream are still alive near Badurwagachhi on Muralitol-Chamtha road (on embankment).

Another stream of Deoki would have been in action emerging somewhere east to Rani-Godhana under Bachhwara block. The railway track, the embankment and the National Highway have restrained this stream to the lower land of Gangetic catchment only. But it becomes live in rainy days from the drainage across the railway track west to Teghra station to the east of Teyay. This rainy stream further becomes visible south to Pakthaul chowk through Gaura and Bagraha chaur and reaches up to Chanan chaur east to Birpur. Here, it gets bifurcated. One of the two streams crosses the Khai Pool on Begusarai-Birpur road and via Saraunja reaches the Jhanjh pool on Begusarai-Majhaul road. The other flows through Chanan and Sahuri and reaches west to Karichak-Babhingama. From Jhanjh Pool, a channel through Dagmara pool, Tulsipur, Kaith-Baraith and Damdama becomes live upto Kola chaur.

It seems that one of the subchannels of Devki used to flow through Barauni-Nipaniya,Rajwara,Malti-Pipra ,Asurari and via north of Tilrath reached Lodipur chaur. From Tilrath onward it becomes live in rainy season. The stream, from the south-east corner of Lodipur chaur joins the above mentioned stream flowing through Dagmara.

Another dead stream, as the topology suggests, would have been through Keshave- Makardahi, Ulao, Sanghaul,Baghi, Kankaul and Rajaura and would be entering the vast Kola chaur near Masuriya deeh. This channel is visible in the southern vicinity of Sanghaul.

If we take into account the present form of the landmass of the concerned geographical division of Begusarai district (geographical area falling between the Ganges and the Budhi Gandak) on map. The Barauni-Katihar railway track seems to play an important role. Along with the N.H.-31, it divides the above-mentioned region in two parts. Whatever we have discussed earlier is concerned with the northern part beyond the railway track. The southern part also, has some imprints of dead channels. Dry bed of a distributaries channel, locally known as ‘Margang’ (dead distributaries channel of the Ganges), is visible between Dumri and Paspura villages ,south to Begusarai .It reaches the Kola chaur across the rail track to meet the channel named Koyal or Koel marching through the southern region of Ratanpur-Bishanpur and Dhabauli. At present it has taken the form of a rainy water drainage. It is still visible impressively near Majhlapur.

Another remains of a dead channel can be seen east to Matihani. It would be passing through the south of Rampur-Godargama, Bahdarpur and Amoliyasarai of Bhairwar to Majhanpur. Here, it seems joining another stream locally known as ‘Haha’ to meet Koyal finally.

The remains of the final distributaries channel can be seen around Sanha grampanchayat under Balia subdivision. Here, right from Sanha village the bed of an extinct channel can be seen in rainy season. It further crossing the road and railway track through the flood-gate reaches Khanua Nala between Sahebpur Kamal and Chauki village. It becomes live in rainy days between the rail track and the embankment of the Budhi Gandak.

All the above-mentioned distributaries have nourished some human habitation in the past. Imprints of that service to mankind are still found in the form of archaeological remains.

It would be relevant to mention the methodology adopted during the project. This research is based on survey and exploration. Extensive survey was conducted throughout the district in the Gangetic catchment area. Study of the landscape, particularly in the rainy season helped a lot in exploring the channels. It presented before us some clues of the past geography of the concerned region. The topographical sheets of the concerned geographical area of the region helped us locating the missing links of the dead channels from the Ganges. We came across to know many local traditions and stories which had important inputs about the regional history and geography.

We started our survey to locate the distributaries of the Ganges and its different channels from the central part of the district. We prepared a route chart covering different parts of our concerned geographical area. We had to manage our survey work on the basis of time spared from our scheduled official responsibility. So, we started working on different routes at the same time as per availability of time. We managed haltage at some places either to conduct our early morning journey on foot the very next day or to know the local traditions connecting a water mass to the Ganges.

Once the survey was completed, the outline of the tributaries in the concerned locality could be traced out .The survey brought before us a number of ancient sites. Now, we conducted our exploration to locate the archaeological sites.

Many of the dry beds, which usually carry out the surplus rain water in the rainy season, use to hold some amount of water for half of the year. There are a number of archaeological sites on both sides of the dry beds. The topology of many of these sites is remarkable and they provide clue to explore out the missing links of these lost rivers. The topology, the presence of Banger ( old alluvial deposit) soil in the wide strip and moreover the flow of rainy water in the converging drainage basin helped us reach the conclusion that they could be the old channels nourished by the Ganges in the past.

Now, once the routes of the channels were drawn on the map, another series of exploration was conducted along with them to explore the sites of ancient inhibition. Marching along with the lost bed of Baya, we found few archaeological sites. It seems that many of the sites, at present nourished by the Balan, might have been along with the Baya earlier and later on in course of time when it was pushed southward by the Budhi Gandak, its basin to some extent was trapped by the present flow of the Balan. However, we have not mentioned those sites as they are at present on the bank of tributaries and not the distributaries of the Ganges.

The central part of the district between the Ganges and the Budhi Gandak has the concentration of many distributaries channels. It has got deep imprints of their flow and the concentration of several archaeological sites in this region proves the existence of the nourishing water mass.

More than three dozen of archaeological sites were explored in the above mentioned regions. The remains of the distributaries have been nourishing these sites even today. Distance and direction wise location of these sites can be seen in the following chart :-

Sl.No.	Name of the site along with distributaries of the Ganges	Block	Direction from the district headquarters	Distance from the district headquarters
1.	Amoliasarai , Bhairwar	Begusarai Sadar	E	12 km
2.	Asurari	Barauni	W	12 km
3.	Bachhwara dih	Bachhwara	W	32 km
4.	Bagraha dih	Barauni	W	14 km
5.	Bari Balia	Balia	E	16 km
6.	Bihat	Barauni	WSW	17 km
7.	Bodidih	Balia	ENE	15 km
8.	Chanan dih	Birpur	NW	12 km
9.	Cheria dih	Begusarai Sadar	NE	16 km
10.	Damdama	Begusarai Sadar	NE	16 km
11.	Farida dih	Begusarai Sadar	NE	11 km
12.	Hamo dih	Begusarai Sadar	WNW	12 km
13.	Jogiya dih	Begusarai Sadar	N	09 km
14.	Kaith	Begusarai Sadar	NE	12 km
15.	Kankaul	Begusarai Sadar	N	02 km
16.	Kushmahaut	Begusarai Sadar	ENE	12 Km
17.	Lodi pur	Begusarai Sadar	ESE	11 Km
18.	Majhanpur	Begusarai Sadar	E	13 km
19.	Majhlapur,SokhaBabasthan	Begusarai Sadar	ESE	08 km
20.	Majhos dih	Bachhwara	NW	30 km
21.	Maniappa	Matihani	SE	07 km
22.	Manikpur	Begusarai Sadar	NE	15 km
23.	Marattha dih	S.Kamal	E	35 km
24.	Masuriya dih	Begusarai Sadar	NE	10 km
25.	Matihani	Matihani	S	07 km
26.	Narsinghpur Sograha	Barauni	W	18 km
27.	Rajwara	Barauni	W	16 km
28.	Rampur	Matihani	S	10 km
29.	Rudauli	Bachhwara	NW	32 km
30.	Sahuri	Birpur	NW	10 km
31.	Sanghaul dih	Begusarai Sadar	W	05 km
32.	Sangokothi	Begusarai Sadar	NE	17 km
33.	Sankh	Begusarai Sadar	NE	08 km
34.	Savai dih	Bachhwara	WSW	40 km
35.	Shahpur	Begusarai Sadar	ESE	10 Km
36.	Sikandarpur-Rajaura	Begusarai Sadar	N	05 km
37.	Siraiya dih	S.Kamal	E	33 km
38.	Suza dih	Begusarai Sadar	E	04 km
39.	Taraiya	Begusarai Sadar	NE	09 km
40.	Ulao dih	Begusarai Sadar	W	06 km

The present research work has been conducted in a geographical area almost 80 Km long (East- West) and 20 Km wide (North- South). Extensive survey and exploration was conducted to find out the expanse of the archaeological sites along with the distributaries at present live or dead. It brings before us some clues related to the cultural sequence and its nature in the concerned geographical area.

First of all, it is crystal clear that habitation is older in the central part of the district with respect to the western as well as the eastern part. The habitation over majority of the mounds in the eastern part seems to come into existence in or after medieval period. In the central part , there are a number of N.B.P.W. sites showing the antique nature of the region. Few of them like, Masuriyadih, Damdama etc represent even earlier period . But this trend is not similar for the whole central part . The National Highway 31 , which divides this central part physiographically , also seems putting a division line on the basis of richness of the sites based on pottery finding . None of the sites of the southernmost part in the closer vicinity of the Ganges, represents the antiquity as Masuriyadih or Damdama does. Majority of the sites in this part of the district seems to come into existence in the late medieval or Mughal period and are even later than the sites along with the Balan which has at present occupied the bed of the Baya. Archaeological sites situated in the eastern part of the concerned area , are much older than these sites but again they don’t seem to represent the oldness and richness of Masuriyadih.

The research study also indicates that the concentration of the older sites is away from the Ganges. This supports the notion of making habitats away from big rivers and preferring the tributaries and distributaries for this purpose. Smaller rivers would have proved less atrocious and provided the benefit of connectivity at the same time. So, sites like Savai dih, Bihat, Rampur Matihani , Maniappa and Sokha Baba Asthan are in the close vicinity of the Ganges. The following graph shows the number of archaeological sites located at various distances from the present bed of the Ganges :-

The above chart clearly shows that 34 out of 40 sites are 5km or more away from the main course of the Ganges. It is remarkable to know that 23 sites are located10-20 km away from this largest river of India. If we consider the merit of the explored sites, some interesting facts come before us. 31 sites out of 40 explored yield potsherds representing Early- medieval period or earlier periods. 22 of them are 10km or more away from the Ganges. Out of 9 sites representing Late-medieval or Muslim period,8 are closer to the Ganges. The following graph shows the merit of the explored sites in context with the distance from the Ganges :-

The archaeological site of Masuriyadih seems to be in the tradition of Pandgarh, a site in Samastipur district excavated by Kashi Prasad Jaisawal Research Institute, Patna .The remarkable finding of BRW in association with the NBP ware at Masuriyadih suggests that the original inhabitants may be the Chalcolithic BRW people because BRW potsherds are also in sufficient quantity here .There is a strong possibility of this site being a Neolithic one in this region as the BRW potsherds are found in the open section almost 1.5m above the ground level . Apart from that, we can find almost a dozen of archaeological sites within a radius of five kilometers from here. Five of them like Jogiya dih, Damdama ,Majhanpur ,Majhlapur and Chanan are NBPW sites whereas sites like Cheriyadih ,Kaith ,Manikpur,Sangokothi, Kusmahaut etc are not less important with their rich landscape.

The stone sculptures found in this region are indication of the Pala dominance here. They represent the religious co-existence of the Hinduism and the Buddhism of the time here also. The tradition doesn’t stop in the late medieval period. The migration from all around brought with it a synthesizing attitude to cope up with the differences within the Hinduism. It not only brought the Vaishnavism and the Shaivism closer, but also provided space for the Shakt cult to prosper in this region. The sculptures of Harihar from Ulao, the Mukhalinga at Chakiya ,Chamunda at Pachmba and Baraipura etc are evidence of that synthesizing sense.