Terracotta plaques and figurines are known from the later part of the 19th century from a number of archaeological sites of West Bengal. Sites like Pandu Rajar Dhibi, Chandraketugarh, Tamluk, Harinarayanpur, or Panna evoke memories of a vibrant artistic tradition that goes back to the 2nd millennium B.C. and remained active till the 6th century A.D.
The State Archaeoligical Museum, West Bengal is one of the most important repositoires of early Bengal terracottas. Though largely unknown to the connoisseurs of Indian art, the collection is accessible to the small community of museum professionals.
This volume brings together for the first time all the available information with sensitive black and white illustration of these early Bengal terracottas.
This is an important addition to the existing literature on early Indian art.
Gautam Sengupta is Director of Archaeology and Museum, West Bengal and Member-Secretary, Centre for Archaeological Studies and Training, Eastern India. He has written extensively on art history and historical archaeology of eastern and north eastern India.
Sima Roy Chowdhury was a Fellow at the Centre for Archaeological Studies and Training, Eastern India. Her area of specialization is the early narrative art of India.
Sharmi Chakraborty is a Fellow at the Centre for Archaeological Studies and Training, Eastern India. She is currently working on the archaeology of early historic Bengal.
The State Archaeological Museum, West Bengal, is one of the most important repositories of early terracotta of West Bengal. Somewhat unfamiliar to lay visitors to Kolkata museum, this institution has, over the years, built up a substantial collection of artefacts, among which early terracottas are certainly the most significant.
In 1962 (15th July), the State Archaeological Gallery of West Bengal was inaugurated at 33, Chittaranjan Avenue in a rented house in the central business district of Kolkata. This became an integral part of the newly established Directorate of Archaeology of the Government of West Bengal. It is mainly due to the indefatigable zeal of Late P.C. Dasgupta, the first Director of Archaeology and his two equally enthusiastic colleagues Late D.K. Chakraborty and Dr. S.C. Mukherjee, that the collection grew up. P. C. Dasgupta's absolute familiarity with the varied landscape of West Bengal and his firm conviction that Bengal's past exteneded beyond the well-known limit of the Mauryan period made him explore the length and breadth of the province - the alluvial lower Gangetic areas, the interface between the old and the new alluvium, the Himalayan highlands and the eastern fringe of the Chotanagpur plateau. This relentless search for the remote past of Bengal was boo-booed by the armchair academia, not, without a grain of envy. But Dasgupta's grand vision did not fail him. Excavation at Pandu Rajar Dhibi in the valley of the river Ajay in the Bardhaman district in 1962-1965 revealed distinctive ceramics dating back to the second millennium B.C. Apart from the ceramics, Pandu Rajar Dhibi also yielded hand-modelled terracotta figurines assigned to the same chronological horizon. The beginning of terracotta tradition could now securely be dated well beyond the Mauryan period.
Most of the early terracottas in the State Archaeological Museum collection, are however from Chandraketugarh - a site with which Dasgupta was associated initially as the Assistant Curator (1956-1960) of the Asutosh Museum of Indian Art, University of Calcutta. Although, he did not excavate Chandraketugarh, the emotional tie continued and terracotta figurines from the site were collected through exploration or obtained as gifts and at times even purchased from local people. Surprisingly, Tamluk terracottas are very inadequately represented in the collection. This probably because by the1960's local enthusiasm centring around Tamluk antiquities had made it difficult for others to build up a collection outside Tamluk. The museum's terracotta collection was further enriched by a substantial gift from Kalidas Datta of Jaynagar-Majilpur, South 24 Parganas district. His donations include among other things, early terracottas from sites like Harinarayanpur and Deulpota. A very significant collection, comprising a set of large terracottas from Panna datable to c.sixth-seventh century A.D. was purchased from Sushil Chandra Kharan, a resident of the locality.
In 1970, a rich crop of early historical artefacts were exposed in course of the execution of an irrigation project at Farakka on the right bank of the Ganga where it joined a feeder canal, locally known as Gumani. The assemblage includes among other items, animal and human figurines in terracotta with primitive features. Similarly, archaeological excavations at Tilpi and Dhosa in South 24 Parganas in 2006-2007 under the direction of Amal Roy and field survey and explorations in the preceding years by the Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, Government of West Bengal have not only contributed to a better understanding of the archaeology of the sites, but also enriched the collection of the museum.
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