GUWAHATI, April 11 — Proper explorations along the different routes which had connected the North eastern region with Myanmar, China, Tibet and other South-Asian countries and the mainland India, may lead to discovery of large number of ancient settlements. The river valleys of the Brahmaputra and the Barak and their tributaries are important hence for archaeological exploration.
These are the observations made by Syed Jamal Hasan, Superintending Archaeologist, Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Guwahati Circle and Sri Bimal Sinha, Assistant Archaeologist, ASI, Guwahati Circle, in a paper titled, Early Cultures of the Lower Brahmaputra Valley. The paper was published in Vol III of the Triratna of the ASI.
“The Brahmaputra Valley had already yielded many archaeological remains in the nature of rock-cut caves, votive stupas, stone architecture, inscriptions, temple remains etc mainly along its flood plain and the river valleys of its tributaries.
“Therefore, the need of the hour is to put efforts for exploration of the habitational sites which ultimately may save the way for correlating the cultural sequence in a greater perspective to link up with that of the national history,” they said and maintained that the rich archaeological remains from the early Christian era in the valley, suggested that it was thickly populated prior to the Christian era.
However, they observed that there were difficulties too while conducting exploration in the NE region. Because, they said, several climatic and other factors are at work. The most common factor that affected the archaeological sites are heavy rainfall activity, which causes frequent floods, change in river courses and washing away of the archaeological materials, said Hasan and Sinha.
Elaborating, they said, natural factors are more responsible for damaging large number of archaeological sites. The sites are either deeply buried or exposed to heavy rainfall for a quite long period. Citing the example of Sri Suryapahar, to drive home their point, Hasan and Sinha said that at this Goalpara District site, exploration along the course of a small stream initially led to the discovery of a few pieces of brick at a depth of six metres.
After scrapping the area with the help of a knife, they said, an alignment of burnt brick courses came out. Small scale excavations, thereafter, at the site, yielded a stone-cordoned long water channel of more than sixty metres in length. Another such evidence came to light at the same site in proximity to the Brahmanical rock-cut figures of Vishnu, Siva, Hari-Hara and the rock-cut caves. It was a chance discovery during the course of conservation works. Red soil and silt deposits of more than ten-metre thick covered the brick structures, they said.
A site of equal importance was the Ambari site in Guwahati. This site also was discovered by chance. Excavation at the site later on, yielded number of structures and icons ranging from the seventh century onwards, they said. The possible reason for not getting the abundant habitational sites along the valley is that the rivers might have deposited a thick cover of sediment or might have damaged such sites by changing their courses.
Nevertheless, they said, serious efforts of exploration activities or even application of modern technological methods, like imagery, might enable discovery of the ancient cultural sites in the region.