Taladih
village in Gorakhpur district and Kotwa village in Deoria district have
evidences of Kushan period
There are
compelling reasons of believing that the southern area and eastern area of
Gorakhpur district has a great historic past. Uttar Pradesh archaeological
survey of India director Tulsi Ram in his letter, declared a small hill (tila)
in Taladih village under Bansgaon town in Gorakhpur district and Bawan Morcha
Kot in Kotwa village in Deoria district as protected sites and on 6th
May sent the letter to administration of both the districts and INTACH
Gorakhpur chapter office. The state ASI team lead by Narshingh Tyagi found
several evidences of Kushan period from the sites; the team surveyed the sites
on 8th and 9th April after receiving e-mail from the
INTACH Gorakhpur office.
The co-convener
of INTACH Gorakhpur Chapter, PK Lahiri and convener MP Kandoi got the
information about the sites in December last week and January first week, Lahiri
said, “ In December last week one Sailendra Singh of Bansgaon showed me his
research work and told me about Taladih village around 38 Km away from
Gorakhpur city in southern direction and incidentally in January first week an
old man from Kotwa village came to me and told me about 7 wells in Kotwa
village, around 53 Km away from
Gorakhpur city in east direction. After
visit of the places we realised the possibility of great historic value of the
areas so we informed Archaeological Survey of India and head of office of
INTACH.”
Taladih-
“When we
reached Taladih we found that a 10-12 fit tila (small hill) in around 10-12
Bigha land (I bigha is of 40 decimal land and I decimal = 435 sq ft) with a
small Shiv temple on the top and I became amazed to see various evidences
including remains of lakh bangles and various coins of Kushan age, which we
found after little effort , below the land . The pujari (priest) of the temple
on top if the tila, showed me a Buddha statue which he found from temple
campus. The temple is built on the hill a few decades back” MP Kandoi said.
During
excavation of the site ASI team found several evidences, Lahiri said, “After
excavation of 3-4 hours the state ASI team found copper coins, Buddha statue,
mridbhand and bricks with rice bran and jaggery joint and in the letter the
director of state ASI team, Tulsi Ram has written that the bricks and other
evidences are very old and it is of Kushan age. They also said that the tila
which is 7ft high must have been 19ft-21 ft high.”
On asking the
villagers of Taladih about the place they said that they have heard from their
ancestors that once there were many rooms under the tila and people especially
saints use to meditate there but many of the villagers are not happy with the
recent development as around 50-60 people claim their ownership within 12 Bigha
land including the tila and they are doing farming there.”
Vashisht Rai,
65, a resident of Taladih village says, “I have 1.5 Bigha land in the area and
I’m not ready to give up my ancestral land.”
On the same
lines another owner, Gauri Sankar Rai, advocate says, “There are many families
who own land in the area and now with the growth of families around 55-60
people have ownership in the land. I own 2 Bigha of land and I n case anyone will try to oust us from the
land, we’ll certainly go to court to safeguard our rights.”
On asking the
commissioner, P Guru Prasad, about the situation, he said, “The administration
has received a letter from state ASI team for protection of Taladih. It is a
new case in front of us, we are working
on it and very soon the direction of the State ASI team will be implemented.”
Shivendra Singh
who submitted his PHD thesis in DDU Gorakhur University, informed us about Lord
Buddha connection to the place, “The place is near to Ami River and the
territory of Shakya dynasty ends here. Guatam Buddha belonged to Shakya dynasty
and after researching the geographical location and Buddha literature, I found
that there is a great possibility that Lord Buddha would have renounced the
word here near the tila and moved to Magadh University and afterwards he went
to Gaya. I’m sure with excavation the world will come to know more about Buddha
and history related facts.”
Bawan Morcha-
Bawan Morcha is
a piece of land with seven wells of Pucca bricks in Kotwa village in Bansgaon
town in Deoria district. The place is situated around 4 km away from Kushinagar
– Gorakhur national high way and around 53 Km away from Gorakhpur city. The
entire area is in exactly 52 Bigha of land and a primary school is also
situated on the land. The entire land belongs to Gram Sabha. A big well of 19
ft diameter is adjacent to the primary school and rest of the 6 wells of 6 ft
diameter was also found there. All the wells are not in working condition and
state ASI team found stairs and a tunnel inside the biggest well and the tunnel
gets end near Choti Gandak River. The team also found the 32X 21.5X 5 sized bricks
at the lower stairs of Kushan period and the 22X 19X 5 sized brick at upper
stairs of medieval period. There are four corners ( burj) which are under the
pile of mud as tractors pass frequently
from the area. The team took out bricks from there after slightly digging the
four corners.
The
commissioner P Guru Prasad has given directions for protecting Bawan Kotwa area
after getting letter from ASI,” The land belongs to gram sabha and direction
has been given to DM Deoria for protection of the area so that ASI could work
further on the land.”
“The bricks we
found there are big in size and state ASI team has also marked the bricks of
lower stairs from Kushan era and bricks on upper stairs of medieval period. It
seems that the area has evidences of many thousand years back. The evidences
shows that the well was in use till medieval period as in medieval repair of
the stairs took place. And the tunnel in the biggest well was to bring river
water in the well.” MP Kandoi said.
On asking an
old man, Ram Kanwal, 90, of the village about the wells, he said,” I remember
in 1978 some people came and went inside
the biggest well, they thrown out mud from the well and after they found, a human
skeleton , a sword and some other war equipments but after 1978 no one came. We
know, this place belongs to Bhagwan Budhdha as he renounced worldly body here
only. Ancient history is buried here.”
PK Lahiri scholar
of history and co convener of INTACH Gorakhpur Chapter described the history of
the place with the help of tales, religious books, books and research thesis, “We
found in religious books that Kushinara (now Kushinagar) belonged to Kush the
son of Lord Ram and when Ram left the world, Kush went to Ayodhaya and after
that Chandraketu son of Lakshman who was in-charge of Pavapuri took the dual
charge of Kushinara too. Later the people of entire area adopted Buddhism and
when Bhawan Buddha left his worldly body in Shalvan ( a forest in Kushinara)
near Kotwa village, the people from Kushinara, Pavapuri and also people of
Shakya community from Kapilvastu claimed body but the remains were distributed
among all of them. Gautam Buddha was of Shakya community. People from
Kapilvastu got ashes of the body and with that they made Angar Stoopa in
Updhouliya area, Rambhar Stoopa was built in Pavapuri and a stoopa was also
built in Kushinara. However I’m sure the tales will turn into facts once the place
will be excavated.”
PK lahiri gave
the reference of a book of Archeological survey of India based of four reports
during 1862-63-64 -65 written by Alexander Cunnigham, printed at Simla
Governmnet press in 1871, “ When I got the book it was in bad shape and INTACH
conserved it and made it readable.” Lahiri said.
