The moment we came to know that the friends, admirers and well wishers of Professor (Dr.) Bipin Kumar Jamuar have planned to publish a communication volume as a token of appreciation for his scholarly contribution to teaching and research in the field of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology and that we have to edit this volume, we felt extremely honoured. Commonly known to his colleague and friends as Jamuar he excelled not only as a teacher and scholar but also as a person on whom one can trust upon. It is his trustworthiness and methodical working style that on several occasions he was given administrative responsibilities. In fact he had an uncanny knack for getting people to join his team and carrying the assigned work forward with great responsibility.
The last academic post which he held was that of Professor and Head, University Department of A.I.H. & Archaeology, Patna University, Patna. Besides he also successfully held administrative post such as that of OSDT Secretary, Jharkhand Intermediate Council, Ranchi, Deputy Director, Directorate of Distance Education and Controller of Examination, Patna University. Always active in extracurricular activities he was a brilliant sportsman and has a unique record of taking ten wickets in one cricket match.
Professor Jamuar joined the University Department of Ancient Indian History and Archaeology of Patna University in 1977. Initially awed and overshadowed by prominent names like Prof. B.P. Sinha, Prof. Bhagwant Sahay (under whose supervision he later on did his Ph.D.). Prof. Basudev Upadhyay and others who were in the faculty of the department he gradually created his own space. Greatly influenced by professor B.P.Sinha and Bhagwant Sahay he concentrated on Field Archaeology, Art and Architecture as the area of his research. Ancient Indian History, as Professor Jamuar believed, deals basically with three things nemaly People, Time and Space On several occasions he pointed out that people first settle down in space then they move and make contact with new people. Thus according to him one who moves and those who are contacted becomes the recognisable parts of History. For him therefore history is "Movement and Interaction of people and ideas." Professor Jamuar was fascinated by the making and construction of temples, how they evolved, its art and architecture, its purpose and other such things. In other words he enjoyed working on temples. When he visited any remains of the temple his excitement was unbounded. His work at Ashokdham in Lakhisarai District is a perfect example to this.
We are happy that articles included in the present volume are reflective of the diversity of sources and probing of broad open space that facilitate comprehensions of the unfolding interest of Jamuar. The volume consists of thirty five articles. There are some overlap of subject but for convenience we have divided them into four sections namely Archaeology, Art and Architecture, History and Culture and Papers in Hindi.
Section I Archaeology.
The first section Archaeology begins with Vibha Tripathy's article entitled Material Milieu of the Age of Buddha: Archaeological Perspective. In Early Indian history the period 600 to 300 BCE is characterized as the Second Urbanization. This characterization has been examined by the author against the background of the material remains brought to light from exacavations at relevant sites in the Middle Gangetic valley. The author delineates the material culture on the basis of the known NBPW sites, settlement pattern and their catchment arcas, impact of the use of iron etc., etc Critically analysing the Radiocarbon dates ranging from 1800 to 1000 BCE of iron known from recent excavations, the author holds the view that although these dates cast fresh doubts, yet the decisive impact of iron use was mostly felt during the of age of Buddha (500 to 300 BCE) when significant Socio economic and religious changes took place.
Rupendra Kumar Chattopadhyay, Paresh Chandra Chatterjee and Swathi Ray's, The Abode of Jainas Adjoining the Eastern Pleateau: An Archeological Study brings out the Archaeological importance of Purulia District in West Bengal and adjoining area of Jharkhand. While traversing the river valley of the Damodar, the Kumari and the Kavsavati the authors have recorded both Jaina and Brahminical remains assignable to period ranging from 10th to the 12th century CE. This region witnessed an early spread of Jainism taking into account the find of significant number of icons as well as Jaina architectural remains. The authors have outlined the area as the abode of the Jainas. The author however are conscious of the fact that the documentation of some of the antiquities are not sufficient to explain the penetration and spread of Jaina ideology and its followers in the area of the study. The paper however successfully highlights few issues related to the expansion of Jainism in this area.
The paper titled Identification of Ancient Mithila by Akhilesh Kumar Singh explores cultural materials to reconstruct the history and archaeology of the District. It is based on the survey of all the villages in the District.
The work Terawan: An Archaeological site of Nalanda by Rajeev Ranjan throws light on the site of Nalanda which is associated with Buddhist religion. This site is neglected by both Archaeological as well as Tourism Department and Buddhist societies. After explaining the location meaning and historical importance of the District Terawan, he discusses in length about an image of Buddha in Bhumisparsha Mudra which the villagers refer as Bhairav Baba. Apart from this he stresses upon the importance of the site on the basis of various Buddhist sculptures collected from the ruins at Terawan.
The paper titled An archaeological exploration at Talwara district Fatehabad (Haryana) by Arun Kesarwani and Vinay Kumar focuses on the archaeological site of Talwara and shows that it was occupied from the Hakra ware period upto the historical period. However the paper mentions that the Harappan pottery has not been reported from the site except for some beads. During exploration beads were found from unstratified levels at Talwara and the author has discussed it in details.
The work of Art and Archaeology of the early historical forts of Bihar by Umesh Kumar Singh discuss different meanings of the term fort and about forty fortifications in early Bihar.
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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