SPRING HAS ARRIVED IN JHARKHAND

 Subhashis Das

Plate 1. The woods in Jharkhand deck up in  myriad of colours in spring time.

Plate 2.Saal trees bloom in spring time beckoning the fertility of Mother Earth.

Now with the coming of the spring season, bouquets of cream-coloured saal flowers have bloomed on the tall saal trees in its full glory gesturing the fertility of the Mother Earth (Plate 2). The mahua too has flowered and so have the mango trees. The woods have decked up with the fiery orange colour “Flame of the Forests”; palashes and simuls (Plate 3, 4 & 5).

Plate 3. The Palash flowers bloom in spring

Plate 4. The Palash

Plate 5. The Simul also blooms in spring in Jharkhand

The budding manjars of the fruits in mango trees have let out a fascinating sweet scent in the air, the intoxicating aroma of the ripe mahua flowers fill up the air and the women have gone to the woods to collect the fallen mahua flowers under the mahua trees (Plate 6).

Plate 7. Village women gather to collect fallen mahua flowers.

The exotic aroma of these flowers is ubiquitous in the air while the small shinning yellow-green leaves that peep out of the dark branches of the various deciduous trees complement with the newly budded orange and the off-white flowers create a magical colourful ambiance in the forest in the spring (Plate 1).

While you take a walk in the thick woods in the full moon night during this hot spring season with the curious yet the magical fragrance all around you, and the wild you may coerced to sing Tagore’s , “Aaj jyotsna raatey sobai gechey bone...”(in the full moon to-night every one has gone to the forest)

 

Mahadeo Temple. Ichak. Hazaribagh. Jharkhand.

My sketch of Mahadeo Temple of Ichak. Hazaribagh. Jharkhand.

 

Heritage Trees of Hazaribagh. Jharkhand

 Subhashis Das

Please take a dekho of the photographs of a few such trees of Hazaribagh (although there are certainly more) that can easily be ordained with the heritage status. Gradually more such trees would be added in this post.

                              Plate 1. The Bishungarh Banyan

   Hazaribagh has several trees that are old and enormous in size. Spread to a large area of land, many such giant banyans and peepals were felled in the process of the construction of the 4-lane highway. But thankfully several such giants remain. The peepals and the banyans inside the city and the hinterlands of Hazaribagh can be seen spread to a large area.

   The above described banyan (Plate 1) is located on left flank of NH100 outside Bishungarh towards Bagodar. The enormity of the tree and the falling roots (as seen in the lower photograph of Plate 1 surely suggest in ancientness. 

Plate 2. The iconic Maulshree tree in the campus of the Mazaar/Peer Baba shrine.

   The thick bushy tree in the campus of the Mazaar/Peer Baba shrine in the Court Road has many myths surrounding it. 

    One legend is that centuries ago a fakir or a sufi saint arrived here beside the then Old Benares Road (the area must have been quite wooded in those days). Here he began practicing his faith and singing to his heart's glory, as all sufis do. He was known as Daata Baba or the sage who "gives".

   To clean his teeth in the mornings he would use twigs of branches or datun/datwan  (there seems to be a relationship between his designation of "data baba" and the datun/datwuns). The myth goes that the baba threw the chewed datwans at one particular place. And it was here after his demise did this tree grow (Plate 1).

    As no one had seen such a tree earlier they held that it had grown magically from the fakir's datwan dump after his death; it was therefore a  magical tree. Many believed that this "datwan" tree is very rare but one such tree has been spotted on the G.T.Road in Bihar. 

   However this is quite a well known tree called the Molshree or the Bakul Tree (Mimusopos elegni) (Plate 1). It is a dense evergreen tree and can be seen planted mostly beside highways and roads as its thick bushy leaves provides a good shade to wary travellers. The tree blooms into small fragrant white flowers. Molshree is sacred to the Hindus and is associated with vastu and being a medicinal plant it has much use even in ayurveda.  

Plate 3. Saal trees (shorea robusta) are indeed heritage trees

Plate 4.The enormous sacred banyan of Balbal Duari apparently is one single tree that has spread to such a large carpet area.

The above banyan of Balbal Duari (Plate 3) is huge. It has spread to a large area. Once lightning had struck on a portion of this old tree and the burnt chunk had fallen on the ground, yet the banyan displays its enormous size.

Plate 5. The iconic Jamun (Syzygium cumini) tree of the Police Line.

Jamun trees also known as the Malabar or the Java Plum is a long lived tropical evergreen tree. This tree is receding in numbers as people are felling them for its timber as this wood does not rot in water.

This jamun tree of the Police Line is a favourite of the youngsters who love the fruit that ripes during the summer and the monsoon months. The children love the jamun for its sweet taste and also for the purple colour that carpets their tongue.

The fruit also invites numerous birds and squirrels.

Plate 6. The famous large imli or teetaria or the tamarind tree (tamarindus indica) of the Majar road next to the Data Majar. 

Plate 7. The huge banyan is located in Dipugarha. 

 On the right side beside the road to the Kanary Hill stands a large Babyan Tree (Plate 5) with much pride. The red strings wrapped around the girth of the tree gives evidence of the tree being worshipped by the womenfolk during Vat-Savitri. The tree was once planned to be felled by the land mafia so that the land could be sold off. But public awareness protected this tree.

Plate 8. The large banyan tree too is a single tree that has spread to such a large area and it does seem to be quite ancient.

 Credit: Zamir Arif

Plate 9. This very large and ancient Banyan  is one tree.

  This enormous banyan tree is actually a sacred grove known as Daroga Gosaiwn. Such groves are also known as Mandars. This apparently is a single tree that has shot so many roots and has spread to such a large area which suggests that this tree is indeed quite ancient. 

    The Daroga Gosawin banyan has a myth that is quite popular among the villagers. The deity of the Mandar is believed to be a very powerful oracle granting wishesd to all its devotees. 

     Devotees come from far and wide for having their wishes granted. If anyone distrusts the spirit of the tree who is an old baba is bound to suffer hardships and bad luck. It so happened that one Britisher distrusted the deity of the tree holding it as superstitious and he fired many several bullets at the tree. The villagers speak that nothing happened to the tree but the Britisher died a cruel death.

Winter Solstice sunrises at the megaliths of Hazaribagh. Jharkhand. India.

 

    Subhashis Das

Images of the Winter Solstice sunrises in the prehistoric megalithic sites of Hazaribagh.
The two left vertical images are that of the Chano/Rola megaliths; The top one shows a triangular pointer within the Chano megalithic site indicating the sunrise and the bottom image shows a few onlookers observing the sunrise.
The right vertical images are that of Punkri Burwadih and the people that have gathered to witness the Winter Solstice sunrise beating the winter chill. 

The page demonstrates a few photographs of sunrises during the Winter Solstice morning in two megalithic sites of Jharkhand discovered by me some 20 years ago.

Commemorating the Solsticial and Equinoctial sunrises is a pagan festival given to fertility rituals. Megaliths being fertility burial- shrines were used to view the sunrises on these occasions to celebrate fertility festivals.

Hence a few of such megalithic burials were created astronomically to observe the sunrises of these dates to enable them to celebrate these significant days. Therefore such sites that were created by the ancient tribal megalith makers who possessed a fair knowledge of basic mathematics and astronomy thousands of years prior to the Brahmanical astronomers and mathematicians. 

PUNKRI BURWDIH

The first photograph is that of the megalithic complex of Punkri Burwadih. 
Studying the site for several years I have found it having alignment towards the sunrise of the Equinoxes and that of the both Summer and the Winter Solstices.

THE WINTER SOLSTICE SUNRISE IN PUNKRI BURWADIH

The ancient tribal megalith makers have positioned the two menhirs so accurately that standing on a particular point on the North-South axis one can view the sun rise today exactly from the gap created by the two tall menhirs M1 and M2 in the Punkri Burwadih Megalithic complex. 

THE WINTER SOLSTICE SUNRISE IN PUNKRI BURWADIH

The ancient megalith makers have positioned the two menhirs so accurately that standing on a particular point on the North-South axis one can view the sun rise today exactly from the gap created by the two tall menhirs M1 and M2 in the Punkri Burwadih Megalithic complex. 

 

Sharing a hot cuppa tea with Bubu, my wife and Shib Shankar in the foggy and shivering cold Winter Solstice morning while the megalithic site is visible in the distance

 

Bubu, Prantik, my son and I look for the sunrise in the foggy morning

CHANO (ROLA)

The Chano (aka Rola) Megalithic complex near Hazaribagh in the Eastern State of Jharkhand in India that was discovered by me some two decades ago no more exists today; thanks to the negligence and disregard of tribal megalithic sites by Hazaribagh District Administration, State Archaeological Department and the Archaeological Survey of India.

Chano was one of the most fascinating megalithic sites that was created with mathematics and astronomy in times of prehistory by the erstwhile tribes. This amazing site when it existed was aligned towards the sunrises and sets of both the Summer and Winter Solstices. 
The small triangle within the now defunct megalithic complex was positioned so accurately by the ancient tribal megalithic astronomers  that on Winter Solstice mornings the triangle points towards the sunrise of this day (as seen in the photograph).

The tiny stone triangle in the now defunct megalithic site of Chano has been planted is such a manner that the vertex points accurately towards the Winter Solstice sunrise.
(This view can never be viewed now as the site is thoroughly destroyed with the stones within the site having uprooted)

This is the perhaps the last photograph of the gathering during the Winter Solstice sunrise viewing at the Chano megalithic site.

(This view can now never ever be seen as the site is completely destroyed)

If you wish to know more of these and a few more of other archaeoastronomical megalithic sites of Jharkhand you may order  one of my earlier books THE ARCHAEOASTRONOMY OF A FEW MEGALITHIC SITES OF JHARKHAND from Amazon or other online book stores (if it is not available at a bookstore near you):

https://www.amazon.in/Archaeoastronomy-Few-Megalithic-Sites-Jharkhand/dp/9386906163

CHOKAHATU, THE HUGE MEGALITHIC SITE OF JHARKHAND

 Subhashis Das

  

   

Fig 1.  Sketch of the Great Munda burial ground of Chokahatu by J.Scharamburg.  The skecth show a Munda tribal siting beside a sansandiri dolmen. The Baranda Buru (hill) is visible in the background.

Credit:  Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Vol 42 . 1873. 

  

   In Vol 42 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal published in 1873, Col. E.T.Dalton, the then Commissioner of Chutia Nagpur (present day Chotanagpur of Jharkhand) writes about the enormous megalithic burial site of the Mundas in Chutia Nagpur called Chokahatu (Fig 1) of which he was informed by one T.F.Peppe. Dalton further writes that arriving there “at past noon” he “set all his clerks at once...to count the slabs and to measure the area of the space which they covered”. Counting revealed to him that there were about “...7360 tombs mostly of the dolmen or cromlech form...” and the entire site which Dalton had sent his aides to measure was spread to a whopping land area spanning more than seven “statutory” acres. Dalton informs that excavation of the site may reveal an understratum of “similar graves”. But what was astonishing was what Dalton saw there; the site despite being massive was “...still used by the Mundas...” for over two thousand years; this disclosure was undeniably astounding which immediately tempted this author to journey to Chokahatu. 

    To travel here I, the author required more information about the site and about the route. Books of S.C.Roy, M.G.Banerji and D.R.Patil do make scanty mention of the Chokahatu megalithic site taken largely from Dalton’s write-up hence he could acquire no extra information from these.
 
     At the fag-end of the 90s I made a trip to the Great Munda Burial of Chokahatu. Arriving at Bundu from Ranchi a few villagers who were sentient of the site guided him to the site. My visit to the megalithic site finds significant mention in one of my earlier books SACRED STONES IN INDIAN CIVILIZATION (with special reference to megaliths). 

   The term Chokahatu is austric Mundari in origin which means “a place of mourning”; this has lent its name to the village whose predominant population is yet that of the austro asiatic Munda tribe. 

    The megalithic site of Chokahatu in actuality is a burial ground of the Munda tribe which in the austric Mundari speech is called a hargarhi or a harsali etc that can be seen in every tribal village of Jharkhand. The village and the burial ground of Chokahatu are located between Buranda and Bundu. During the visit of Dalton these estates were in the Lohardagga district or in the region of Chutia Nagpur (present Chotanagpur). The area then as today was also known as the Panch Parganas or the five districts of the region where the old panchparganiya language also known as the Kurmali language was spoken; which is a blend of Nagpuri, Hindi, Bangla, Odiya, Mundari and Kurmali languages and that is still prevalent among the residents of  here.
 
    The Mundas narrate a story of their migration of entering Jharkhand from outside more than 2800 years ago. The Munda families and their clans after reaching here during the prehistoric times are believed to have felled the woods in the region to build their villages and acquire ownership of the land; a system which they still identify as khuntkatti. The Mundas, had brought their megalithism along with them into the land which is now known as Jharkhand. However this Mundari migration lore has not yet been scientifically testified. 

    The Panch Parganiya region is believed to have been under the Jaina influence during the Kharavelas and during the reign of the Nagavanshis, Brahmanism was wide spread here. A fable quite popular among the natives is that Lord Shree Chaitanya who had spearheaded the bhakti movement in Bengal and Odisha was believed to have trekked from Puri to Varanasi through this route thereby spreading the cult of kirtana which is still popular across the region. Despite these Hindu influences several Mundas have held on to their animism and megalith making.
 
     For me, arriving at Chokahatu for the first time was a jaw-dropping experience ; standing in the middle of the site I found myself lost amid a sea of innumerable burial stones. So massive is the site that once at the center it is purely unfeasible to view its outer peripheries. If in 1873 Dalton found the land area to be over 7 acres with approximately 8000 tombs, then today the size of the burial ground must have augmented many a fold and the number of the megalithic monuments too ought to have proportionately swelled as the Munda tribes even today erect their megaliths there.

Fig 2. Large size burial slabs

    

Fig 3. A large sasandiri dolmen comprising of a large capstone that has been made to rest on 6 short heighted vertical orthostats.

Fig 4. A sasandiri dolmen resembling a table.

   The local non-Brahmanical paganstic/tribal priest known as “pahan” informed me that the megalithic burial ground was still being used by the Mundari tribes not only of Chokahatu but nine of other contiguous villages who have their areas allotted to them in the hargarhi since hoary times. This phenomenon is also cited in Dalton's paper published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1873 The megalithic ground comprises of large sized horizontal burial slabs (Fig 2) and dolmen like structures with out sized capstones supported by 4, 6 or 7 short horizontal stone stands (Fig 3); many resembling tables (Fig 4), both known as sasandiris in the Mundari language.

Fig 5. I stoop over another table top sasandiri dolmen

  No excavation of the site has been conducted either by the Archaeological Survey of India or by the State Archaeology Department. The “pahan” informed me that after the cremation of the dead, his/her bones and ashes are placed in an earthen pot which is buried at the allotted space of the respective village in the megalithic site and on top of it the relevant sasandiris are erected or placed. Several stone slabs and even the dolmen type sasandiris contain the bones and ashes of the dead members of the same family. The larger and elaborate the grave stones, the more noteworthy the position of the dead person may have been in the prevalent society.
   The megalithic tribes of Jharkhand more or less practice the pot burial mode of entombment. Any other type of burial which Chokahatu may hold could be revealed after an apposite scientific excavation of the site. Such an exercise would also demonstrate its hoariness by dating the antiquity of the megalithic tombs and their yields.
 
       The quarry of the dolmens and the horizontal burial slabs, many of which are very large in size and are of various irregular forms seems to be the hills of Buranda and Hesadih Burus located few miles to the due North and South respectively of the sacred burial ground of Chokahatu.
 

Fig 6. I stand holding a birdiri menhir.

   Since my last visit to Chokahatu I could spot only two menhirs (commemorative standing stones) known in the Mundari vernacular as birdiri (Fig 6). According to the locals these menhirs were implanted as boundary markers of the burial ground. 

Fig 7. Few small sized cupules can be seen engraved in an irregular manner on this small semi-circular stone.

     

   On a short inclined raised stone with a semi-circular top about 20 small sized cupules can be seen engraved in an irregular manner (Fig 7). Cupules are one of the most enigmatic creations of the ancient peoples. Although these small circular depressions have been elevated to the status of rock art today, one does not categorically understand the purpose behind their creation.

Fig 8. Within a bamboo grove in the eastern periphery of the megalithic site several modern day burial slabs and sasandiri dolmens could be viewed.

   In the outlying eastern fringe of the site is a bamboo grove into which several of these megaliths disappear. The vicinity houses present-day dolmens and atop several of these capstones of the smaller sized sasandiris are epitaphs inscribed in Hindi of the dead persons (Fig 8). Standing there and observing the abundant modern day megalithic tombs one would quiver in utter thrill; as being here is like witnessing history in the making. Many megalithic monuments of the site appear to have been erected at a hoary age and a few seem to have freshly set up. In other words megaliths are being made here unrelentingly till the present day for over 2000 years or more making the Chokahatu megalithic site as an obvious contender for the UNESCO’s World Heritage status.

Fig 8. I stand amidst a sea of burial slabs

Fig 9. I gaze at a small Stonehenge type sasandiri dolmen.

    India despite being a treasure house of megaliths cannot boast of a single megalithic site adorned with this prestigious tag as that in countries like the UK and France. By the time of writing this story Hire Benekal in Karnataka was declared as the only megalithic site to be included into the 6 tentative lists of World Heritage Status of 2021 India.    

     If Hire Benekal does get honoured with this status then it would be the first megalithic site in India to be granted with this prestigious label. It is a pity that the megalithic site of Chokahatu although is a better claimant for the World Heritage Status for its continuous usage for over 2000 years, the state government has not even been awarded it or any other megalithic site in the state with a heritage grade.

      A video on the Chokahatu megalithic site:

 

 

My new book on MEGALITHS OF JHARKHAND with OUTLOOK TRAVELLER GETAWAYS

 Subhashis Das

  My new book on the Megaliths of Jharkhand called LOST HERITAGE OF JHARKHAND INCLUDING MEGALITHS is published with three other booklets of OUTLOOK TRAVELLER GETAWAYS under the jacket of COLOURS OF JHARKHAND.

  In this new book/booklet I have cited not only the various megaliths (most of which are my discoveries) of the state but other heritages as well, as that of the archaeological site of Benisagar in West Singhbhum, the fascinating colourful mud huts of the Ho tribes, rock cut temples, various water bodies around Ranchi, the different haunts of the migratory birds and scores of alluring places. 

The book is interspersed with fascinating photographs of a variety of megalithic architectures of the state from Chatra, to Chaibasa including Hazaribagh, Lohardagga etc clicked by me and by others apart from the other lesser known heritages of the state. 

Written lucidly as an itinerant traveller, the book is indeed worth a read hence is worth a buy. 

Apart from the LOST HERITAGE OF JHARKHAND INCLUDING MEGALITHS the COLOURS OF JHARKHAND is an assortment of three other interesting booklets called WATERFALLS OF JHARKHAND, FAMOUS TEMPLES OF JHARKHAND, CULTURE, CRAFTS AND CUISINE OF JHARKHAND.

The booklets would soon be available in all book stores and stalls of the country and also on line.

THE FASCINATING DIDARGANJ YAKSHI

 Subhashis Das

 

Plate 1. The left image (a) has me standing beside the Yakshini. The right image (b) is  her portrait emanating a smile that is much enigmatic and alluring than that of Mona Lisa's.  Photo Credit (left): Abhisek Mishra.  Credit (right): Author.

    The Didarganj Yakshi/Yakshini is undeniably one of the finest sculptures of ancient Indian and indeed the supreme most that the Mauryan era has produced. Sculpted from a block of a single sandstone and transported possibly from the same quarry of Chunar in UP from where several Ashokan sculptures and pillars originate, the Yakshi has been composed with remarkable skill with the finest detail and with a mirror finish lustre; known as the Mauryan Polish. How did the craftsman procure this gleam that still exist even after more than 2000 years is yet unknown to the scholars.

   As Mauryan sculptures used to be life sized whose rears were also shaped (Plates 2) and which were extracted from the mine in Chunar and were given the yellow lustre, the Didarganj Yakshi displayed all these characteristics suggesting that the idol must be of the same period.

    The life sized Yakshi is a voluptuous figure standing barefooted 5’ 2” tall on a stone pedestal with perfectly rounded breasts and slender waist and wearing a smile more haunting than that of Monalisa’s, exuding grace and a silent sensuality; she undeniably is every male’s fantasy Plate 1 (b).     According to Charles Allen the Yakshi is also known as the Venus de Milo of Indian art. Allen opines that as she carries a fly-whisk she might have been one of the two attendants flanking a colossal central Buddha.

Plate 2. The rear of the Yakshini. Credit: Author.

    

Plate 3. The profiles of the Yakhshini. Credit: Author

   Standing in the “tribhanga” posture her garments and her jewellery have been sculpted daintily to demonstrate her elegance. She stands barefoot wearing kadas both on her hands and feet. She dons bangles, mangteeka and  kamarbandh, bangles and a garland of pearls. Her rounded face with beautifully sculpted eyes sans eyeballs is a rarity in Indian sculpture. She holds a fly whisk in her right hands hence she is also known as chowrie. Although her left hand is lost and her nose broken yet she indeed is a breathtaking sight to behold.

   That she was a procreating mother is evident from the two crescent muscles on her belly and that she was lactating is opined from her breasts of which one has been made a little larger than the other suggesting that she was sculpted on purpose as  a mother figure of the then recurring prehistoric fertility cult.

    The story behind the retrieving of the Yakshi is an interesting one. The washer men and women at Didarganj locality of Patna washed their clothes on a block of stone that stuck out of the muddy banks of the river Ganga.  One Ghulam Rasool and his men while chasing a snake which had slipped into an opening below the said block of stone tried heaving it out. In the process they pulled out an entire figurine of the Yakshi that was buried into the muddy earth.

   It was in Oct 18, 1917; Prof Samaddar of Patna College was notified of the sudden find of this exclusively beautiful statue at the banks of Ganga at Didarganj in Patna. The professor along with the then Commissioner of Patna, E.H.C. Walsh and  the noted American archaeologist Dr. Spooner who had excavated Kumhrar, salvaged the image from the banks of the Ganga at Didarganj by towing it to the Patna Museum who since then was the foremost crowd puller of the museum.   

      It was the Calcutta based historian Dr.Nihar Ranjan Roy who named her Yakshi as he believed the image revealed resemblance to the Yakshis of Mathura of 2^nd century CE. Several scholars however are of the opinion that she in most probability was a fertility figure. The image reveals influences of Greece and Persia but her countenance being round does appear Indian in origin. The statue definitely illustrates the standard of art and sculpture prevalent in contemporary Patliputra. Chandragupta’s wooden palace displayed Persian and Greek influences while both the 80 pillared hall and the palace of Ashoka was built in the Persian model possibly by masons and architects from Persia for which Patliputra was known as the Persepolis of the East.

  So enticing and alluring is the Yakshini that I could not help rewriting Leonard Cohen's poem/song "Suzzane" with that of the Yakshi. Credit: Author.

    The technique of the mirror-finish shine of the Yakshi and the Ashokan pillars and several other images of this period also known as Mauryan Polish may indicate an association between Magadh and Persia. Although debatable most scholars today are of the opinion that the Yakshi indeed belongs to the Mauryan period of 3^rd century BCE.

         The Yakshi has travelled to several countries of the world including the Smithsonian Institution and the National Gallery of Art at Washington DC in America. Today she has been removed from the Patna Museum and has been housed permanently in the newly constructed Bihar Museum where she draws her admirers from all over the world.

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