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 6^th 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 8^th and 9^th 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.