Sculptures found along Assam-Mizoram border draws ASI attention for preservation

Silchar, Dec 8: In what could be called a startling quest, a team of academicians and artists found sculptures and statues as old as 1500 years etched in the ruined walls of a hilly terrain in the deep woods along the Assam-Mizoram border in the Hailakandi district of Barak Valley.

Dr. Ganesh Nandi, assistant professor at the Department of Visual Arts, Assam University Silchar, along with Dr. Binoy Paul, a scholar of Dr. Nandi, set forth in the dense forest terrain and reached the Kolalian village in the southern part of Hailakandi district and spotted the sculptures.

In the words of Dr. Nandi, people belonging to the Reang tribe live in this village and they were seen worshipping Hindu deities.

“We were amazed to see such rich traces of history, which possibly could be as old as 7th or 8th centuries, here in these forest areas. The stone carvings have strong resemblance with the ones in Unakoti and Pilak in Tripura,” Dr. Nandi said.

Dr. Nandi, who is also a sculptor of repute, was quick to add that the art forms of the sculptures have a strong similarity with the structures found during the Gupta and Paul periods (between 750 and 1200 CE).

During their visit, the explorers learned from the locals that the residents worshipped Hindu deities and considering them as Gods and Goddesses, they have been offering puja and performing rituals on these carvings for generations. While many other sculptures have been destroyed, people in the vicinity have been making humble efforts to preserve the one remaining.

The Assam Tribune reached out to the officials of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to learn about the steps to be taken for the preservation of the sculptures. Alok Tripathi, Additional General (ASI), told that a team of ASI officials from the Guwahati circle would soon visit the place and examine the evidence found by the explorers. “Dr. Nandi had spoken to me about their findings at the place along the Assam-Mizoram interstate border and sent the relevant pictures. Accordingly, I have asked the officials from our Guwahati circle to visit the place and examine the findings soon,” Tripathi said.

When contacted, Prof. Jayanta Bhushan Bhattacharjee, a veteran historian and the first vice chancellor of Assam University, shared his thoughts and underlined the need for preservation by the ASI.

"We know about the sculptures of Pilak and Unakoti in Tripura, which are much publicised and popularised, but the rich history, as in this case excavated by the team from Silchar, echoes that Barak Valley is largely unknown and unexplored barring the Bhuvan Hills and Siddeshwar temple here. The sculptures found by Dr. Nandi and Dr. Paul look stylistically similar to Pilak and Unakoti and it tells that they are part of a continuous circle around the 7th and 8th centuries. Historically, the region was once part of Samatata, an ancient territorial unit in south-east Bengal that covered a large part of this region and formed part of one civilization. This calls for more study as there might be much more interesting and similar facts and facets to unearth. The Archaeological Survey of India must come and take steps to identify, protect and preserve the carvings and all other historical artefacts available in this region. This would also invite historians to study the antiquities and dates of the civilization."Prof. Bhattacharjee maintained