During publication of this first Bulletin of the Directorate of Archaeology of West Bengal further explorations and excavations have revealed the existence of several proto-historic habitational sites in the valley of the rivers Ajay and Kunoor, amongst whom the mounds of Pandu Rajar Dhibi often simply known as Rajar Dhibi in Burdwan district, have proved to be almost as mysterious as any Tell mound of Western Asia. With the contemplation of future publication of a report about these and other early sites of West Bengal, it has been modestly endeavoured in this Bulletin to attract the attention of lovers of art and archaeology by putting together in concise various reports of archaeological discovery in the State in pages to ensue.
We are fortunate to find our Bulletin being graced by the blessings of our honourable Minister Shri K. N. Das Gupta whose encouragements in the sphere of archaeology are ever so invaluable.
Since the creation of the Archaeological Directorate of West Bengal, systematic attempts have been made to explore various ancient sites of this State with a steadfast purpose to know of her pre-history and to correlate Bengal's cultural phases of the past. Obviously, we had to cover by our regular tours almost all the districts of this State and had to carry on investigations in forlorn river-valleys and rocky terrains effecting discovery of no less than twenty-four pre-historic Microlithic sites besides recovery of about one hundred and fifty sculptures of stone mostly appertaining to Pala times and other smaller sculptures of terracotta, stucco and Bronze. The terracotta figurines and seals as also pottery often go back to Sunga-Kushan and earlier times. The present collections of the Directorate which comprise of so many objects of art and antiquity also including coins, inscriptions, historic documents. paintings, wood-carvings, textiles and folk-art have indeed become sufficiently rich to start a fine gallery or museum for this State.
It is pleasant to acknowledge that the small successes which we had been fortunate to cortunate to and patronage of the District Officers and their staff without whose kind assistance our explorations might have failed totally.
Among the generous donors who made over important archaeological and historic objects to this Directorate names of Shri Aswini Kumar Banerji, formerly Block Developtoric Officer, Binpur II, Midnapur district, and Shri Gouri Sankar Roy of Murshidabad, the descendant of Maharaja Nandakumar are specially to be mentioned. The largest collection handed over as gift came from Prachya Bharati of Balurghat in West Dinajpur, and this includes a unique Suryya bearing an inscription on the pedestal referring to the name of Emperor Devapala and has victorious reign. It is also a privilege to acknowledge indebtedness for this publication to the Public Works Department to which we belong and the Home (Publicity) Department.
Apart from the zealous endeavours of our Superintendents, Shri D. K. Chakravarty and Shri S. C. Mukherji, some of the collections were brought to the Headquarters by the members of our staff and private antiquarians.
Hindu (935)
Agriculture (118)
Ancient (1086)
Archaeology (753)
Architecture (563)
Art & Culture (910)
Biography (702)
Buddhist (544)
Cookery (167)
Emperor & Queen (565)
Islam (242)
Jainism (307)
Literary (896)
Mahatma Gandhi (372)
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