Chandraketugarh, located in the

Ganges Delta The Ganges Delta (also known the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta, the Sundarbans Delta or the Bengal Delta) is a river delta predominantly covering the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent, consisting of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Be ...

, are a cluster of villages in the 24 Parganas district of

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

, about north-east of

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

. The name Chandraketugarh comes from a local legend of a medieval king of this name. This civilization can perhaps be identified with the

Gangaridai Gangaridai (, ) is a term used by the ancient Greco-Roman writers (1st century BCE–2nd century AD) to describe people or a geographical region of the ancient Indian subcontinent. Some of these writers state that Alexander the Great withdrew f ...

of Graeco-Roman accounts. In early historic times, Chandraketugarh was connected to the Ganga by the Bidyadhari River and must have been an important centre of trade and possibly also a political centre. The Asutosh Museum of Indian Art conducted an excavation between 1957 and 1968, which revealed relics of several historical periods,Dr. Gaurishankar de & Prof. Subhradip de, Prasanga: Pratna-Prantar Chandraketugarh, First Edition: 2013, although the chronological classification of the relics remains incomplete. Many of the Chandraketugarh items and terracottas are now in collections of museums in India and abroad; many of them are a part of private collections. According to the List of Monuments of National Importance in West Bengal (serial no. N-WB-1), Chandraketu's Fort is an ASI listed monument.

Location

It is located in

How to reach:

* By Air Chandraketugarh can be reached by car from Dum Dum airport(also known as Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport) which will take all together 2 hours. * By Train Harua Road railway station is the nearest Railway Station to Chandraketugarh. * By Road Chandraketugarh is situated at a distance of about 50 kilometres from Kolkata and can be reached by road, via Barasat. The journey takes around 2 hours. From

Ultadanga Ultadanga is one of the most crowded junctions in North Kolkata. The place is located at the north-eastern fringe of the city and marks the limit of Kolkata district. Prominent places in Ultadanga are Telenga Bagan and Muchi Bazar. Etymology ...

and Espalanade, regular buses are available to Barachampa. From there, you can easily reach Chandraketugarh.

Legend

Excavated Brick Structure - Khana-Mihir Mound - Berachampa - North 24 Parganas 2015-04-11 7158

The name of this site is derived from the mythical Hindu king of the medieval period, Chandraketu. A mound at the Berachampa village (Deuliya), off the Barasat-Basirhat Road, used to be called Chandraketur Garh (fort of Chandraketu), which was later compounded as Chandraketugarh. The legend of Khana, a medieval

Bengali language Bengali, also known by its endonym and exonym, endonym Bangla (, , ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language belonging to the Indo-Iranian languages, Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. ...

poet and astrologer from the 9th to 12th centuries AD (also known as Lilavati in some traditions), is closely tied to the ancient site of Chandraketugarh. At this site, a mound has been found with the names of Khana and Mihir, suggesting their connection to the area. Khana is also the daughter-in-law of the astronomer and mathematician

Varāhamihira Varāhamihira ( 20/21 March 505 – 587), also called Varāha or Mihira, was an ancient Indian astrologer-astronomer who lived in or around Ujjain in present-day Madhya Pradesh, India. Date Unlike other prominent ancient Indian astronome ...

(505 – 587). Varāhamihira, often called Mihira or Varaha, was one of the Nine Gems (Navaratna) in the court of the Indian emperor

Chandragupta II Chandragupta II (r.c. 375–415), also known by his title Vikramaditya, as well as Chandragupta Vikramaditya, was an emperor of the Gupta Empire. Modern scholars generally identify him with King Chandra of the Iron pillar of Delhi, Delhi iron ...

'Vikramaditya'. It is widely believed that Khana was Varahamihira's daughter-in-law, and an accomplished astrologer, becoming thereby a potential threat to Varahamihira's scientific career. However, she exceeded him in the accuracy of her predictions, and at some point, either her husband (or father-in-law) or a hired hand (or possibly Khana herself under great duress) cut off her tongue to silence her prodigious talent. There is another heritage mosque in the name of Pir Gorachand (an

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

missionary of 14th century named Syed Abbas Ali).

History

Chandraketugarh is thought to be a part of the ancient kingdom

that was first described by

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

in his famous work Geographica (150 CE). A recent archaeological study being conducted by a team from IIT Kharagpur, believes that King Sandrocottus (mentioned by Greek explorer Megasthenes) was Chandraketu, whose fort

Megasthenes Megasthenes ( ; , died 290 BCE) was an ancient Greek historian, indologist, diplomat, ethnographer and explorer in the Hellenistic period. He described India in his book '' Indica'', which is now lost, but has been partially reconstructe ...

visited India in the third century BCE, after Alexander's invasion of India, and gives a detailed account of what he saw in Indica. He mentions King Sandrocottus as one of the most powerful kings of

, the Gangetic delta that spread over the five mouths of the river and was a continuum of a landmass comprising Anga, Banga and Kalinga. The history of Chandraketugarh dates back to almost the 3rd century BCE, during the pre-Mauryan era. Artifacts suggest that the site was continuously inhabited and flourished through the Shunga-Kushana period, onwards through the Gupta period and finally into the Pala-Sena period. Archaeological studies suggest that Chandraketugarh was an important town and a port city. It had a high encircling wall complete with a rampart and moat. The residents were involved in various crafts and mercantile activities. Although the religious inclinations of the people are unclear, hints of the beginning of some future cults can be seen in the artefacts. Some of the potteries carry inscriptions in Kharoshthi and Brahmi scripts. After these periods, there was no such example of any other civilization on the ruin of Chandraketugarh.

Excavated archeological objects

Brahmi Brahmi ( ; ; ISO: ''Brāhmī'') is a writing system from ancient India. "Until the late nineteenth century, the script of the Aśokan (non-Kharosthi) inscriptions and its immediate derivatives was referred to by various names such as 'lath' or ...

inscriptions with Megalithic Graffiti Symbols read "yojanani setuvandhat arddhasatah dvipa tamraparni", meaning "The island of

Tamraparni Tamraparni (Sanskrit for "with copper leaves" or "red-leaved") is an older name for multiple distinct places, including Sri Lanka, Tirunelveli in India, and the Thamirabarani River that flows through Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu. As a name for Sri ...

(ancient Sri Lanka) is at a distance of 50 yojanas from Setuvandha (

Rameswaram Rameswaram (; also transliterated as Ramesvaram, Rameshwaram) is a municipality in the Ramanathapuram district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is on Pamban Island separated from mainland India by the Pamban channel and is about from ...

in Tamil Nadu). The mast of a ship with Vijayasinha's seal, describing Vijayasinha, the son of the king of Sinhapura of Vanga's marriage to Kuveni – the indigenous "Yakkha queen of Tamraparni". Chandraketugarh features many examples of

terracotta Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based non-vitreous ceramic OED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used for earthenware obj ...

art, displaying an unusual degree of precision and craftsmanship. These plaques are comparable to those found at other better-known sites such as Kaushambi and Ahichhatra. The terracotta plaques from these sites often carry similar motifs executed in nearly identical fashion. This similarity suggests an established communication link and common cultural heritage among these sites. Finds include

Northern Black Polished Ware The Northern Black Polished Ware culture (abbreviated NBPW or NBP) is an urban Iron Age Indian culture of the Indian subcontinent, lasting –200 BCE (proto NBPW between 1200 and 700 BCE), succeeding the Painted Grey Ware culture and Black and ...

(NBPW) relics, later wares dated from about 400 BC to 100 BC and approximately contemporary with the

Maurya The Maurya Empire was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in South Asia with its power base in Magadha. Founded by Chandragupta Maurya around c. 320 BCE, it existed in loose-knit fashion until 185 BCE. The primary sourc ...

period, as well as from the more recent

Kushanas The Kushan Empire (– CE) was a Syncretism, syncretic empire formed by the Yuezhi in the Bactrian territories in the early 1st century. It spread to encompass much of what is now Afghanistan, Eastern Iran, India, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbe ...

and Gupta periods. Many silver punch-marked coins and a few gold coins have been unearthed from Chandraketugarh, including a gold coin of Chandragupta-Kumardevi. Many semi-precious stone beads were also found here, along with items made of ivory and bone. Even a few wooden objects have survived. A museum has been built near the site depicting largely collections of Dilip Kumar Moitey, a retired school teacher and amateur archaeologist.

References

External links

Banglapedia article

Website concerning Chandraketugarh

Chandraketugarh

A plaque of Chandraketugarh

* ttp://www.rangan-datta.info Rangan Datta's Home Page
IITKGP Research.
{{North 24 Parganas District Monuments of National Importance in West Bengal Former populated places in India Archaeological sites in West Bengal North 24 Parganas district Indo-Aryan archaeological sites