Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-29T06:36:43.619Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Monuments in a flood zone: “builders” and “recipients” in ancient Varendri, (Eastern India and Bangladesh)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Sheena Panja*
Affiliation:
Department of Ancient History and Archaeology, Visva Bharati, Santiniketan 731235, India (Email: sheena@vsnl.com)

Abstract

The modern study of ancient landscapes is showing how the landscape and the monuments within it may have been perceived by those alive at the time. The author here broadens the discussion, distinguishing the perceptions of those who built the monuments from those who viewed them. In this example from the area comprising eastern India and Bangladesh where settlements were regularly washed away, the monuments acted as icons of permanence, and continue to impress today. However, they may not have been so appreciated by the riverside dwellers …

Type
Research
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bradley, R. 2000. Archaeology of Natural Places. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Buchanan-Hamilton, F. 1833. A Geographical, Statistical and Historical Description of the District, or Zila of Dinajpur in the Province, or Soubah of Bengal. Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press.Google Scholar
Chattopadhyaya, B.D. 1990. Aspects of Rural Settlements and Rural Society in Early Medieval India. Calcutta: K.P. Bagchi.Google Scholar
Gell, A. 1999. The Art of Anthropology. London: Athlone Press.Google Scholar
Goswami, K.G. 1948. Excavations at Bangarh (1938–41). Ashutosh Museum Memoir No.1. Calcutta: University of Calcutta.Google Scholar
Hassan, F.A. 1997. The Dynamics Of A Riverine Civilisation: A Geoarchaeological Perspective on The Nile Valley, Egypt. World Archaeology 29 (1): 5174.Google Scholar
Hodder, I. 1999. The Archaeological Process. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Holtorf, C. 2001. Monumental Past: The Life-histories of Megalithic Monuments in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Germany). Electronic monograph: http://citd.scar.utoronto.ca/CITDPress/Holtorf/ Google Scholar
Ingalls Daniel, H.H. 1965. An Anthology of Sanskrit Court Poetry Vidyakara’s Subhasitaratnakosa. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Majumdar, Atindrà. 1961. Charyapadas. Calcutta: Naya Prakash. (in Bengali).Google Scholar
Majumdar, R.C., Basak, R.G. & Banerji, N.G. (ed.) 1939. Ramacharitam. Rajshahi.Google Scholar
Martin, M. ed. 1836–38. The History, Antiquities, Topography and Statistics of Eastern India, Comprising the Districts of Behar, Shahabad, Bhagulpoor, Goruckpoor, Dinajepoor, Puraniya, Rungpoor and Assam. Vol. 2 London: William H. Allen & Co. Google Scholar
Panja, SHEENA. 2002. Understanding early medieval sites of North Bengal in Gautam sengupta and Sheena Panja ed. Archaeology of Eastern India: New Perspectives. Centre for Archaeological Studies and Training, Kolkata. pp. 255276. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal.Google Scholar
Ray, Àmal. in press. A Newly Discovered Buddhist Site at Jagjivanpur, West Bengal in Gautam, Sengupta and Sheena, Panja ed. Archaeology of Eastern India: New Perspectives. Centre for Archaeological Studies and Training, Kolkata. pp. 551611.Google Scholar
Salles, Jean-Francois, Marie FRANCOIS, BOUSSAC & Jean-YVRES, BREUIL. in press. Mahasthangarh (Bangladesh) and the Ganges Valley in the Mauryan period in Gautam sengupta and sheena Panja ed. Archaeology of Eastern India: New Perspectives. Centre for Archaeological studies and Training, Kolkata. pp. 627650.Google Scholar
Thomas, J. 2001. Archaeologies of Place and Landscape in ian Hodder ed. Archaeological Theory Today. Oxford: Polity.Google Scholar
Tilley, C. 1994. Phenomenology of Landscape. Oxford,: Berg Publishers.Google Scholar
Tilley, C. 1996. The Power of Rocks: Topography and Monument Construction on Bodmin Moor, World Archaeology 28(2): 161176 Google Scholar