Author: Abhisek Roy Chowdhury
Publication: The Statesman
Date: July 15, 2008
URL: http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=23&theme=&usrsess=1&id=213702
There is a common belief among historians
that the history of Bengal started from the period of Palas and Senas. But
the recent excavations in South 24-Parganas have stirred up a new debate.
The objects unearthed recently are dated prior to the Palas and Senas period.
Mr Debisankar Mirdha founder of the Sunderbans
Archeological Research Centre took an initiative to discover the ancient history
of Bengal in 1987.
He collected archeological objects from many
parts of South 24-Parganas district and built a museum at his own expenses.
Mr Mirdha preserved nearly 1200 objects in the museum. Among the objects there
were clay idols, earthen pots, bronze idols, tools, bronze weapons and Brahmi
and Kharestri lipi (scripts).
Mr Mirdha claimed of the existence of a civilization
in South Bengal, which cropped up in areas adjacent to the Sunderbans at the
time of the Harappan civilization. It is unfortunate that there was no trace
of the civilization flourishing in that region. Some archeological articles
proved the presence of mankind in this area during the Maurya Sungha, Kusana
and Gupta periods.
Since Mr Mirdha has no academic background
the historians dismissed his claim as immaterial. He said if the lipies are
deciphered an untold history would be discovered.
He sent some articles were to a laboratory
for radio -carbon or carbon 14 testing. The results of the test proved that
the articles were dated back to 7000 BC. Some of the objects collected by
him bear the images of elephant.
According to Mr Mirdha, tigers were alien
to the people living in the vicinity of the Sunderbans since no images of
tigers have been unearthed. He has contributed articles about his findings
in some magazines.
Mr Mirdha told The Statesman that the ancient
relics of South 24-Parganas are lying scattered at Hariharpur, Abdalpur and
Taterbazar. He wrote about the matter to the ASI. But the organization did
not take interest in the matter.
The children fondly called Mr Mirdha, Hanribabu
(earthen pot babu) as he is steadfast in his endeavour to collect objects
of archeological value.
