GUWAHATI, July 6 - City-based general surgeon Dr Satyakam Phukan has made a documentary on the ancient wall that runs through the Narakasur Hills of the city, indicating the presence of a well-designed system to protect the city from intruders in the days of yore.
The film, The Great Wall of Guwahati, can be viewed by interested people on �rimitaYT� YouTube channel.
Dr Phukan and his team comprising medical representative Arindam Bargohain, bank official Pradip Dewan, businessman Alexander Chakma, musician Binoy Kumar Das, private firm employee Haren Das and their guide and local resident Chanda Boro, went to the Narakasur Hills on February 19, 2017, which was a Sunday, to capture the videos of the archaeological remains of the hills. Significantly, these hills are named after Narakasur, a pre-historic king of the city, which was then known as Pragjyotishpur.
The aim of the team, Dr Phukan said was to capture the videos of the archaeological ruins of the hills and to propagate them through documentaries, for generating public awareness about these archaeological ruins.
Dr Phukan initially came to know about the presence of such ruins on the hills from the late Prabhat Malla Baruah, a popular resident of the Uzanbazar Naojan locality till the other day and brother of noted poet the late Ajit Baruah.
It needs mention here that a group of enthusiasts, all of whom were higher secondary students then, met the then Director of the State Archaeology here sometime in 1989-�90 and handed over to him some pieces of the bricks used in the archaeological ruins there, but to no avail, said Amitabh Gogoi (who is now known as Rupak Gogoi), son of noted artist and filmmaker Pulak Gogoi, who was one of the members of that group. Amitabh himself is an actor and filmmaker.
The other members of that group of HS students included Vikramjit Kakati, Pulak Roy and Atanu Medhi. Gogoi told this newspaper that ruins of a wall were quite visible at that time and a number of people were seen using some of the bricks of that wall in their houses built on the Narakasur Hills.
Vikramjit Kakati, now an academician, told this newspaper that his maternal uncle the late Dr Mohini Kumar Saikia, who was a well-known archaeologist, had informed him that there was a rampart to protect Guwahati in the bygone days, which ran from Chandmari to Garchuk via the Narakasur Hills. The present-day Rajgarh was a part of that rampart and it was breached at Bhangagarh point, but its southern part remained hidden in the Narakasur Hills and other hilly areas of the city.
Considering all such aspects, Dr Phukan led the team to document the existence of the archaeological ruins of the Narakasur Hills and to present the findings to the people for societal action. The documentary, planned, filmed and edited by Dr Phukan, gives viewers an idea of the city of Guwahati and its historicity with the mention of monuments like the Mekhela Ujua Path which leads to the Shakti shrine Kamakhya and the findings at the Ambari archaeological site. He asserted that the bricks used in the Narakasur Hills wall are similar to those of the Ambari archaeological site.
The focus of the documentary is on the archaeological remains of the Narakasur Hills, which may throw new lights on the history of Guwahati.
