This small, about 10cm in size, clay disk (probably dating 600-700 AD) found at Kumrahar (कुमराहार), Patna in 1914. Kumrahar is the area where remains of the ancient city of Pataliputra were excavated. This historic, partly damaged, disk was found at a depth of only 1 ft. 6 inches (45.7cm). It depicts a five-storyed rectilinear… Read More
Category Bihar
Barabar : Earliest Rockcut Architecture in India
‘‘Mystery is the message—just the effort to interpret is hope, just the trial and error.’’—Christopher Woodman Barabar Caves are believed to be the oldest surviving rock-cut caves in India. Historians are sanguine that Barabar caves represent the beginnings of the tradition of rock-cut architecture in India. These caves mostly date from the Maurya Empire… Read More
The Mausoleum of Sher Shah Suri
‘‘Monuments are the grappling-irons that bind one generation to another.’’—Joseph Joubert, French moralist and essayist Sasaram (सासाराम)—a bustling city 160km south-west of state capital Patna—is famous for production of stone chips, and for quarrying industry. The town is situated on the Grand Trunk Road (National Highway 2). It is the headquarter of Rohtas district. The… Read More
Kawa-Dol : The Abandoned Heritage
‘‘A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.’’—Marcus Garvey Imagine a fifteen centuries old place of historical and religious importance with potential to be a popular tourist attraction willfully neglected. I am sure quite a few such destinations exist in different corners of the country,… Read More
Buddha’s Holy Relics at Patna Museum
“The Heart-mantra of Dependent Origination (rten-‘brel snying-po [རྟེན་འབྲེལ་སྙིང་པོ]), which liberates the enduring continuum of phenomena and induces the appearance of multiplying relics (‘phel-gdung [འཕེལ་གདུང་] and rainbow lights’’, is: [OṂ] YE DHARMĀ HETUPRABHAVĀ HETUN TEṢĀṂ TATHĀGATO HY AVADAT TEṢĀṂ CA YO NIRODHO EVAṂ VĀDI MAHĀŚRAMAṆAḤ [YE SVĀHĀ] (‘Whatever events arise from a cause, the Tathagāta [Buddha,… Read More