Ancient Hindu temple built on Buddhist shrine

Bangladeshi Archaeologists of prestigious Jahangirnagar University have recently discovered a unique example of conversion from a Buddhist temple to a Hindu temple in Bochaganj Upazila of Dinajpur district. Dating to a period between 8th and 11th century CE.Earlier the same team of archaeologists unearthed a millennium old Hindu temple, in Maherpur village of the same Upazila.

Their construction may date back to the 8th or the 11th century, the archaeologists say, and expect carbon dating to fix their antiquity.Evidence of Buddhist ‘Stupas’ being changed to Hindu temple already exists, but now, for the first time, archaeologists have found proof of their imposition on a Buddhist place of worship.

It was Emperor Ashoka in the third century BC who had first built a ‘Stupa’ to preserve the bodily remains of Gautam Buddha, initiating the practice of building these mound-like structures to house the dead.

Jahangirnagar University Professor Swadhin Sen led the team that found the temples after digging 3,600 square feet at ‘Itakura Dhibi’ at Setabganj’s Ranagaon Union. “It is among around 126 archaeological sites identified when we began our survey at Setabganj (Bochaganj) in 2012,” Prof Swadhin Sen told. The expedition was being funded by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs. 

“The temple had walls on its eastern, northern and southern sides with an opening on the west. The wall was of the tri-ratha type, a significant feature of Hindu temple architecture.”‘Tri-ratha’ implies a building style having a projection on each side.A 30-40 cm thick metal panel had been used to separate the base of the Buddhist temple from the Hindu one on top. 

“The main entrance was faced west. The bricks had been carried away by the local people, who used them to build houses, making it difficult to get a clear idea of the rectangular gate’s main design. “But there might have been a huge stairway there.” The excavation would definitely throw some light on the socio-religious history and would help us interpret the gradual downfall of Buddhism in the northern part of undivided Bengal, an area where it once had a stronghold. 

Owing to the lack of systematic excavation, the history of such complex interrelationship is absent from archaeological perspective,” he continued. Prof Seema Hoque of the archaeology department at Jahangirnagar University added that these findings are crucial evidence to understand the intermingling of two dominant religious currents in the Varendri region.

The team, supervised by the Dean of the Faculty of Arts of Humanities Prof Dr. Syed Mohammad Kamrul Ahsan Titu, is excavating the Hindu mandir for the past three months with financial grants provided by the Cultural Affairs Ministry.