In a culturally and historically significant incident, a professor and research scholar have discovered some Hindu and Buddhist-influenced sculptures at a hill place near Assam-Mizoram border from the 8th century.
Assam University’s Visual Arts department Assistant Professor Dr Ganesh Nandi and researcher Dr Binoy Paul claimed the sculptures found at Kolalian village in Mizoram’s Mamit district have similarities with the 7th and 9th century sculptures found in Tripura’s Unakoti and Pilak.
Both, however, were not sure “if it is a Buddha or a Hindu deity but the art form” has resemblance to the Buddha idols in Cambodia and it seems like a female structure.
They had to go through an arduous forest journey for a whole night from Assam’s Hailakandi district, crossing the State border, to reach Mizoram’s Mamit where mostly people from Reang Tribes reside and worship Hindu deities.
Dr Nandi said as per the history of the Manikya Kings of Tripura, King Dhanya Manikya sent his General Rai Kachak to this part of the land to control some Reang rebels and he did a Durga Puja at this place.
Dhanya Manikya was the Maharaja of Tripura between 1490 and 1515 CE and Rai Kachak was his general. Many temples with beautiful stone works including Tripura Sundari Temple in Udaypur were built during Dhanya Manikyas reign.
However, there is no evidence if the stone works in Kolalian were created during that period. Professor Nandi said the art form of these sculptures is similar to the art forms found during Gupta and Paul periods (between 7500-1200 CE). “We’ll need detailed research to come to any concrete conclusion,” he said.
Dr Nandi and Paul shared, “When we reached the spot, the local residents from Reang community said nobody ever went there for research. Our research says these sculptures are undoubtedly the oldest of such art works in Barak Valley’s history.”
Local resident Pitaram Reang said, “We believe in Hindu religion and for generations, we have been offering Puja to these idols as Hindu God and Goddesses.”
Another local Pradip Kumar Reang informed about the destructions caused to these structures by outsiders after 1989, when Assam and Mizoram became two different States.
Locals kept calling researchers, journalists from other parts of Bharat to highlight these works because they believed it would have protected the last of the sculptures.
Senior researcher and former Assam University Silchar vice-chancellor Dr Jayanta Bhushan Bhattacharjee too testified they never came across such important works despite working on the historical monuments of Barak Valley for decades.
He suggested “it is very much possible, sculptures found in Kolalian are more than 1,000 years old” adding this discovery by professor Nandi and his scholar has the potential to change the history of Barak Valley and surrounding areas.
He lamented, “We lost many historical monuments but now this has to be preserved. The Archaeological Survey of India is coming to visit the place and they may find more works there.”
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