HAZARIBAG: A PARADISE LOST

"If there is a paradise on earth, it is here, it is here..." 

This is how English author Francis Bradley-Birt in his iconic book, "Chotanagpore, a little-known province of the Empire" introduces my hometown Hazaribagh to the world.

 Today if this gentleman was to revisit Hazaribagh, he would would be biting his nails and would be repentant that he had once considered her a paradise on earth.

Hazaribagh today is one heap of an overcrowded, filthy, undisciplined and uncivic mess. At whose streets you cannot walk without being bumped by the fearful autos, motor-cycles, cars, vans. You cannot walk as the pavements are occupied by the motorcycles and vegetable sellers. 

Horns will tear your ear drums and pollution level though not measured must be pretty high. Traffic jams are common at every street of the town. 

Trees that once were planted on either side of every street elevating them into avenues as mentioned in the book are no where to be seen. Mayhem and pandemonium rules supreme here...  

Decent families are scared to go shopping, to films due to overcrowding, jams and the bedlam in the streets and the town administration cares two hoots for this.

The stinking and clogged drains are managed by the unprofessional and untrained municipal workers...drain management is a highly trained and professional affair which the responsible people fail to comprehend.

The trees which once adorned the town are gone. Lack of proper town planning and management has resulted in the reckless growth of the town and companies like NTPC had added to her woes.    

NTPC is buying lands in Keredari, Barkagaon, Tandwa and scores of other villages which has resulted in the migration of the villagers  into Hazaribagh. Their over-pouring into the town has put pressure on her resources. Population is multiplying enormously and all of a sudden due to their migration into the town.  

NTPC has added to the killing of the beauty of the town and has begun harming both the town's and the district's environment. Prices of real estate and other essential commodities in the town has doubled by its presence. 

The ancient megaliths which I have discovered and am researching upon were never a threat prior to companies like NTPC's arrival. 

More companies like Reliance and ONGC are coming to add to the anguish of the town and the region. The heritage, art and the environment of the region are all at threat after these company's arrival. In the name of development these villagers will soon become "coolies" and labourers in their own farming or fallow lands of which they were once owners.

These companies from outside who have no attachment and understanding of Hazaribagh do not realise that they are simply not wanted here as they are clearly ruining our land, but why should they care of us.

The lake is so badly managed that the bada jheel which once was the habitat of a large number of migratory birds ceases to be one. Their habitation has been obliterated in the name of senseless cleaning of the jheel.

The eminent prehistoric megaliths of Punkri Burwadih famous for viewing the Equinox sunrise will soon be a thing of the past. And yes, very soon the by-pass would pass by the the iconic Kanhari Hill...well after that... 

Hazaribagh today was indeed a paradise which now is lost. But how did Hazaribagh once held as a heaven today ceases to be one? 

Well every one from the ministers to the MLAs, MPs to the common man has contributed to the doom of this once beautiful town.

Some sane, logical and a Hazaribagh-loving assemblage/person/persons should look all into this and act. Please keep the politicians out. 

Much has ended but what remains needs to be saved...please act, soon. Now.

When the evening sun falls on the woods and the water...

Silence they say is golden. Silence they say is the phase when great things shape themselves. But for me apart from the silence I also love the great outside. Therefore I take out time to be with myself and to be one with nature where for me it is homecoming as thousands of years ago weren't such hinterlands our original abode?

I am dumbfound at the prevailing silence. It is spiritual, meditative.

But it is not altogether silent here. There indeed are sounds here of which I am oblivious of...the song of the birds, the rustle of the leaves, the soft splash of the water, the soft wind that plays though my hair...

The trees, the grass, the water, the chirruping of the birds and the sudden silence. Simply speaking, it is beautiful here. I am in ecstasy...

The hum that emerges from me is spontaneous I am at awe ...woa ! I can sing.

THE ENIGMATIC SHAKALDWEEPIS OF INDIA

Among the most erudite and scholarly of all the ancients were the "SHAKDWEEPIAS’ or the “SHAKALDWEEPI BRAHMANS" also known as the “MAGS”, “MAG BRAHMANS or simply “MAGHIS”.
No set of people could have matched their knowledge of medicine, metallurgy, astronomy, astrology, languages, geodetics, you name it; at a time when most of the world was reeling under the obscurity of illiteracy.
Where from they had acquired such eruditeness is a mystery.

According to the legends and the Bhavisya Purana they were brought in from “Shak Dweep”. “Dweep” suggests an island but here it could also mean a province, perhaps somewhere around present day Iran.

Legend has it that Shamb, the son (or grandson) was cursed by his father (or grandfather), Krishna to be infected by leprosy. Eventually when the ailment augmented all over him he was advised by Krishna to travel to Chandrabhaga River in the west of the country where he would encounter a sage who would propose him the remedy.
Shamb travelled alone on foot and met the holy man in the vicinity of a ruined sun temple originally created by a set of sun worshippers known as Magis brought earlier by the local king from a very remote place identified as Shak Desh. After building the sun temple here the Magis had returned to their homeland frustrated from a squabble with the king. The sage also told him that they were also medicinal healers having profound knowledge of diseases and medicines. Therefore the sage advised Shamb to travel to Shak desh and bring back with him the sun worshippers who had created the temple.

Shamb complied and trekked to Shak desh. He is eventually believed to have had succeeded in convincing eighteen of these Magis to return to India.
Once here the much learned Shakaldweepis eventually set up two more temples renovating the former ruined one. The renovated one was created for the observation and worshipping of the setting sun. They built another temple for the study of the sun in its mid- position in Mathura and to study the sun in its rising situation in the east where they constructed another sun temple in Konark. Shamb in the meantime had accompanied these scholars to all these places and eventually was completely cured of his ailment.

The Shakdweepi or the Shakaldweepi Brahmans or the Mags themselves believe that their original homeland is outside India in a region called Shak in Ancient Sumeria or in present-day Iran. Strangely I did spot a region in Iran that is yet known as Shak! The co-ordinates of the region is 31 deg 04' 39" N and 56 deg 27' 54" E. Shak is located in the region of Kerman in the south-east of Iran whose administrative centre is the city of Kerman. Visit: http://iran.places-in-the-world.com/115636-place-shak.htmlTo travel to India the Shaks must have taken the various passes as Bolan, Gomal and Khyber etc. Baluchistan is the home to a tribe called Magsi who too are believed to have origin in the Kerman province of Iran. Indeed there are chances that these Magsis could be linked to the ancient Magis/Shakaldweepis.

Although these set of people hold themselves as Brahmins today, the traditional cataloging of Brahmins do not include their names. The Northern group to whom these Shakdweepis/Maghis should belong is titled as Gauda under which are Utkala, Gauda, Sarasvata, Kanyakubja and Maithila Brahmins. The Maghis do not find a mention here. Chances are that they originally were a tribe of scholarly people. The Magsis of Balochistan who also claim their origin in Iran were in most probability the Mags of India also regard themselves as tribes.In due course of time, as the name suggests Maghis/Shakaldweepis settled in the region of Magadha (in South Bihar in eastern India)…the term Magadh could be the upshot of the confluence of two terms Mag and Diha, diha being a village. Magadh could be the colloquial term of the original Magdiha or the diha or the village of the Mags.
 These Shakdweepi were and still are sun worshippers hence they constructed the sun temples all over the country. One should however bear in mind that being sun worshippers wouldn’t necessarily mean ritualistic oblation of the sun but also its observation and study. The megaliths of Punkri Burwadih, Rola, Nilurallu, Asota etc too are sun temples but with a difference. Profound research has revealed that these megaliths in were created in ancient times not only to serve as burials but also as observatories to study the transits of the sun and may be also of the moon and of certain constellations with the assistance of precisely positioned stones.

It could be that the Maghis with their knowledge of astronomy were involved with the megalithic proto-austroloid tribes in setting up of these sun temples; the megaliths. Megaliths being known very little to us this assumption may seem preposterous to many.

Biblical legends however associate the Magis with the birth of Jesus Christ, as these knowledgeable people from the East (Sumeria is to the East of Bethlehem) had prophesised the birth of Christ. However deeper study is required to conclude whether both the Magis of the Indian tradition and the one of the Biblical legend were really the same lot or not.

Can the nomadic Indo-Scythians of Central Asia also known as Sakas who are known to create the burial mounds called Kurgans in Europe can in any manner be equated with the Shaks requires another research. Many scholars however also differentiate between the Shakaldweepis and the Mags asserting the both to be separate set of people.

Three of my poems published in RUPKATHA

To read three of my poems:

1. THE MESSENGER
2. REVELATIONS ON A STORMY DAY
3. THE HERDSMAN'S FLUTE

Click on the link below:

http://rupkatha.com/poems-subhashis-das/

My paper on the "THE HARGARHIS OF JHARKHAND: A BRIEF STUDY ON THE MEGALITHS OF JHARKHAND" published in Chitrolekha

Click on the following link to visit: 

https://www.academia.edu/16462717/The_Hargarhis_of_Jharkhand_A_Brief_Study_of_the_Megaliths_of_Jharkhand

My paper on the DISCOVERY OF THE CUPULE BEARING MEGALITHIC SITES IN HAZARIBAGH REGION, JHARKHAND featured in PURAKALA

rasi              

 
Click on the link below:

https://www.academia.edu/19121276/DISCOVERY_OF_CUPULE_BEARING_MEGALITHIC_SITES_IN_HAZARIBAGH_REGION_JHARKHAND

The Punkri Burwadih megaliths is all verdant green in the monsoon

THE MESSENGER

(A poem dedicated to the timeless Punkri Burwadih megaliths)

Fly bird fly, through the timeless skies
transcending distances,
flipping back the illegible pages of history
fly bird fly.

Beyond the peripheries of the East India Company,
surpassing the magnanimous Mughal palaces,
the ruins of the Slave Dynasty,
the graceful Chola temples
fly bird fly. Pass over
the time of the establishment of the sacred Dhamas
of the revered Shankracharya,
beyond the theorems and the doctrines of
Varahamihira and Aryabhatta.
Fly over the deserted forts of the Munda kings and
through the courts of Vikramaditya, Ashoka and Ajatshatru.
Bird o bird
Touch respectfully the lotus feet of the
Sakya Muni and Vardhamana
and seek their blessings for me.

Fly bird fly
Crossing Magadha, Vaishali and Sasanbeda
onto the much beyond Harappa and Mehergarh.
Be a part of the great Santhal migration.
Little bird
fly past carefully protecting yourself
from the rising flames
of the iron smelting Asuras
and then plunge into the great unknown, when
the world was for the Great Mother and She for the world.
Arrive face to face with their
astronomy, mathematics and spiritualism.

When they raise their tall monuments,
Sit atop a nearby tree in Punkri Burwadih
and witness the timeless megalith in its making.

Fly back to me little bird, the enormous distances
fluttering your untiring tiny wings.
Bring me
your acquired wisdom of life.
I await, dear bird
your arrival.

An enigmatic boulder in the Mahudi Hills of Hazaribag

Krishna and I were heading towards the rock cut caves of the Mahudi Hills near the Barkagaon village (http://subashisdas.blogspot.in/2014/10/the-stunning-rock-cut-temple-known-as.html ). 

Trekking was quite enjoyable. We may have had walked quite a few miles up the road on the hill when we stumbled on to an enormous boulder to the right of the road and I saw steps carved on the large rock that led up to the top.

Fig 1. The gigantic boulder on the right of the road to the Dwarpal rock cut temple in the Mahudi Hill.

Krishna, my local guide related to me that the king and the queen had once held a yagna on top of this stone and for this the stairs were therefore sculpted on the stones. 

Fig 2.The steps are visible to the right of the rock below the tree

Fig 3. The steps

Fig 4.The steps

Fig 5 . The steps

We climbed the stairs to reach to the top to find quite a wavy and an inclined top; a very wrong place for the King and the Queen to conduct a yagna.

I spotted few cupule like holes on the surface, which to me were not cupules but natural holes. Krishna however asserted these were holes to put in bamboo poles on which were fixed the king's shamiana for the yagna.

Fig 6. At the top of the boulder there are these natural holes.

Fig 7. Krishna points to a few natural holes at the top of the rock which he and the villagers believe were drilled by the king's men to set up a shamiana for the king and the queen to perform a yagna.

Inspecting the holes I did not find them to be man made but natural. Besides, the holes were only on one side so the theory of fixing posts for a shamiana did not hold.

To my understanding as the area was interspersed with rock cut temples and a chaitya, the top of the boulder must have been used by the Jaina, Ajivika, Buddhist or Shaivite ascetics for their meditation purposes...the holes to my opinion were natural and did not concern the stone in any way.

The steps were perhaps used by monks to ascend the sacred top for them to do their meditation The boulder may be was used for some other purpose we know nothing of. 

GOD'S OWN HILL (Rock Cut temples of Hazaribagh, Jharkhand )

Subhashis Das

The stunning rock cut temple known as the 'Dwarpala'

Rock cut caves are a rarity in the state of Jharkhand. These caves have been reported from the Mahudi Hills of Barkagaon range of Hazaribagh district.

D.R.Patil mentioned these caves in his legendary “The Antiquarian Remains in Bihar” in 1963. D.K.Chakravorti, who too mentions these caves in his “Archaeology of Eastern India”, states that “Patil did not explore the site himself” as he had cited the government report of the Mahudi rock temples in his book.

It is also unclear whether Prof. Chakravorti had visited the rock cut caves himself..Of the four ancient rock cut temples one is in on one hill and the rest is on another.hill.

 Mahudi is situated some 28/30 kms SW of Hazaribagh beyond the Barkagaon village. So I chose to avail the bus to Barkagaon one cold winter morning where I reached within 45 minutes from Hazaribagh. Krishna arrived in his motorcycle in a few moments and we zoomed our way to the Mahudi Hill which is visible not only from Barkagaon but even from the Punkri Burwadih megaliths.

One of the caves called the “Dwarpal” by the villagers is next to a road built by the Forest dept. The cave has been cut out of a massive rock has “overhanging perches in front….ornamented with two sunflowers”  There is also an elephant on the left side of the entrance which the villagers have painted in black. On the ceiling of the Dwarpal cave is a “carved sunflower”. There is a small rectangular room sculpted out of the rock forming the inner sanctum of the temple which once housed a Shiva Linga on a Parvati yoni.

The second rock cut cave called the “Daru Kothri” by the villagers can be reached walking down a small hilly terrain. The cave gives a creepy feeling as it is nestled between dense foliage. The cave has no ornamentation and the interior sanctum where the Shiva Linga was once placed on the yoni now missing, is small.

The Buddhist Chaitya also known as  Daru Kothri

The third is a Buddhist Chaitya. The exterior of these marvelously carved rock cut temple from a single piece of rock “is shaped round with a ridge resembling an inverted boat, the ridge being the keel.” One needs to crawl to enter the cave-temple.Inside there is nothing resembling a prayer hall.

These are extraordinary pieces of stone masonry once accomplished by the ancient denizens of Jharkhand.

These are the perhaps the only Rock Cut temples of Jharkhand.

Therse ancient heritages languish in the jungles with the villagers spoling them by scriblling names on them (see the Dwarpalar exterior). Both the The Archaeological Survey of India, Ranchi and the Jharkhand State Archaeological Dept have been informed by me regrading of these rock cut temples, but they couldnt care less.

Enjoy the pics:

The road towards the rock cut temples in the Mahudi pahari

:

See the lotus on the ceiling of this amazing structure. note how the villagers have  spoiled the facade of the ancient temple

The Parvati yoni is what that remains today while the Shiva Linga has gone missing

Jabal Munda leads to the rest of the rock cut temples

Look at this mysterious rock cut temple. This is the Daru Kothri to the villagers

The remarkable rock cut temple has some wonderful sculptures. This is also known as the Chagri Godri

The exterior of the Chagri Godri Rock Cut temple

The interior of the Chagri Godri

====================================

Another Rock Cut Temple in the neighbouring Hill of the Mahudi Range near Barkhagaon at Hazaribagh in Jharkhand

The very ancient Rock Cut Temple.

After my visit to the above described rock cut caves in the Mahudi Hill I was left to visit the remaining ancient rock cut temple in the neighbouring adjacent hill in the same range couple of kms away. Therefore I decided to trek to this unseen rock cut cave which lay hidden somewhere in the wide range of the Mahudi Hill.

We head for the Mahudi Hill

...and there is the majestic Mahudi Hill which is home to many very ancient rock cut temples

In the process Krishna and I crossed the wide Haharo River and arrived at a spot a few kms away from the hill where four more villagers awaited for us to take us to the ancient cave temple high up in the hill.

The Dumaron River having her souirce in the blue Mahudi Hill which stands gracefully in the landscape

We trek towards the Mahudi Hill in search of the Rock Cut temple

We parked the motorcycles in the open countryside under the shade of a tree and trudged on towards the hill. We crossed a stream named Dumaron jumping over large boulders. Both Dumaron and Haharo feeds the sacred Damodar river downstream. I was informed the water of the brook flew 12 months of the year and the villagers irrigated their farming fields with its waters.

The trek is filled with such spectacular sights

Going up we suddenly confront with this unusual sacred stone. This stone is worshipped during the Karma festival.

Climbing up the Mahudi Hill the woods gets denser

Soon we were ascending the hill. The view got better to spectacular and a sense of feeling gradually crept into me that I was in God’s own country rather in His own hill. I was as if in a trance lost in the spectacular loveliness which the view around us provided.

We walked by the brook which had its source somewhere in the hill. The more we climbed up this sacred hill the more a kaleidoscopic view began unfolding before my eyes. I was exhausted but the beauty of the vicinity provided me much respite. I stopped frequently to enjoy the view as we spotted nests of large vultures in the distance, high up in the hill.

On our trek up the hill we cross such spectacular sights. This is where the Dumaron river while coming from more up gets accumulated 

The hill is interspersed with such small water fountains which empties into the Dumaron

.

We pause to enjoy this spectacular view

 We hopped over many tiny streams which perhaps were tributaries to the Dumaron brook. The woods got thicker and the path more rugged and the scenery more remarkable. I wondered how could the ascetics in the ancient times discover this place for their meditation far away from the humdrum of human civilization.

Eventually we beheld the much ancient Rock Cut Temple; high up in the hill amid the dense forest.

A few present day red coloured Mother Goddess flags. Earthen lamps were placed inside the sculpted opening at the left bottom wall to enable easy entrance or exit at night. The plaque in Kayathi  can be seen above the entrance..

The entrance to the cave temple

And then finally we reached the magnificent ancient rock cut temple which stood majestically in front of us with its entrance at the foot of an enormous rock structure. At the front the ground was made plain for perhaps devotes and the ascetics to sit and conduct their daily chores in the past.

Above the doorway on the façade of the cave a plaque has been inserted where in the regional Kayathi script it is written that the cave was built by a local king. The entrance I found to be similar to the Dwarpal temple cave of the neighbouring hill. Just below the stone lintel are two lotuses in the corner similar to the one of Dwarpal. We entered to find a hall carved out of solid rock whose walls stood about 65” tall and having breadth and length tentatively of 102” and with the door that faced towards 290 degrees NW of W. To the left the hall connects to an adjacent room which is relatively smaller in size and its doorway with a bearing of 200 deg S SW. We had to literally crawl in to the neighbouring room to find a yoni without a Shiv linga much similar to the other rock temples in the adjoining hill.

The way to another room from the hall

The linga-less yoni in the second room

The beautifully carved drain from the yoni to the small room for water and milk to flow on its way out.

A narrow serpentine drain was meticulously carved from the yoni to a tiny additional antechamber for water to flow out from the yoni, enter the small room and finally flow out. A full bloomed lotus has been painstakingly yet artistically sculpted at the centre of the ceiling. The villagers have whitewashed the inner walls of the temple with lime and have painted the lotuses with red and green.

A bloomed lotus has been sculpted  on the ceiling. The ugly colour work is done by present day villagers.

What I found difficult to comprehend was that all these temples had yonis with a circular slot for a linga to fit in them but none of these yonis had any linga placed in them. Wonder why? I am unsure whether this and the other temples of the neighbouring hill belonged to the followers of the Hindu, Jaina or the Buddhist faiths. But I could understand that Tantra rituals were practiced here be it by the Hindus, Jaina or the Buddhists ascetics.

Once outside the cave I realised the date fixed in the plaque is unreliable as I feel this temple is much old and can date back to the Mauryan period.

This stunning crater like formation must have been the source of water for the ancient monks residing here. This also  is the origin of the Dumaron River.

Come monsoon a waterfall here augments the beauty of this little heaven on earth.

I decided to take a look around and was bewildered to see the gorgeous beauty of the holy place. Below there was a crater like formation containing water which as the villagers inform me never dried even during hot summer months. This water I deduced must have served the ancient ascetics. In the monsoon water cascaded from the top and descended about a hundred feet into the pool below and which was the origin of the Dumaron River.

What are these, man made or natural creations?

Inside the crater; the source of the Dumaron river

What a pristine place this was. I could feel the silent presence of God all around me. Felt like being silent and fall into deep meditation but with so many people around I knew this was not be. I also knew that i will have to come back here again someday into this God’s own hill.