Once, during the reclamation and settlement of jungle land in Lot No. 23 of Barivhangabad, which was formerly part of the Sundarbans, three Vishnu idols and a bronze ten-armed idol were discovered from the ruins of a royal structure. It is noteworthy that the settlement got the name Barivhangabad from the vast ruined brick building found there.

At that time, the landlord of the place, Bardaprasad Raychowdhury, donated the ten-armed Durga idol to Pandit Digambar Nyayatirtha, the nephew of Pandit Nakuleshwar Vidyabhushan (author of the historical novel Kumudananda, published in 1314 Bengali era) and also his beloved priest. Nyayatirtha established the idol in their residence at Kalighat and began daily worship.

However, in 1931, Sriram Raychowdhury, the landlord of Senhati in Jessore, invited him to accept the post of Chief Pandit in his established Chatuspathi (traditional Sanskrit school). Digambar Nyayatirtha moved to Senhati with his family and took the worshipped ten-armed idol with him. The idol might have remained hidden from public attention, but by chance, in 1938, Nalini Kanta Bhattasali met Pandit Digambar Nyayatirtha during the annual session of the Varendra Research Society and came to know about this idol. Their subsequent correspondence also mentions this idol (Collected Papers of Nalini Kanta Bhattasali as Preserved in Varendra Research Society, Rajshahi, Bangladesh).

The bronze idol from Barivhangabad is 34 cm in height. Goddess Durga is standing in a tribhanga posture on a lotus-adorned pedestal. She wears a crown, has three eyes, and is decorated with various ornaments. She rides a lion, with the demon beneath her left foot. The ten-armed goddess holds weapons such as thunderbolt, goad, sword, noose, arrow, serpent, and others. With her principal right hand, she pierces the demon’s chest with a long spear, while her left hand pulls the hair of Mahishasura.

The importance of this idol lies in the two-line inscription engraved on the back of the pedestal. Although the inscription has not been fully deciphered, the deciphered portion reveals that in the fifteenth regnal year of Maharaja Lakshman Sen, one of his queens offered this idol to a priest as a sacrificial gift during a ritual.

From an ancient historical perspective, the location belonged to the Eastern Khari Mandala. Very close to this place, the Sundarban or Bakultala copperplate inscription of Maharaja Lakshman Sen, regarding the donation of a village, was discovered. Through this inscription, Lakshman Sen, in the second year of his reign, donated land to a Brahmin named Shrikrishnadhar Devasharma for the spiritual merit of his parents and himself. The region along the Adi Ganga or Jahnavi was considered a sacred pilgrimage site during that period. Apart from administrative centers and palaces of local governors, Maharaja Lakshman Sen also maintained a royal palace and Ganga residence here. Evidence suggests that one of his queens and relatives resided there, and he himself stayed there occasionally.

Byasadeva Pal of the Kherwali lineage was the chief governor of Eastern Khari during the time of Ballal Sen. He and his son played a significant role in driving out the Gahadavala dynasty from Khari and parts of present-day Bihar on behalf of the Sen rulers. As a result, Maharaja Lakshman Sen elevated Byasadeva’s son, Domman Pal, to the rank of chief feudal lord of Eastern and Western Khari. They were known as Dhabal Samanta. Domman Pal is known to have donated a village named Dharmahatta to a Brahmin named Sribasudev Sharma in 1118 Shaka (1196 CE) during the month of Baisakh at Sridwarhat. Some historians like Binoy Ghosh believed Domman Pal to be a rebellious feudal lord of Lakshman Sen, but archaeological and other evidences from this region suggest that this view is incorrect.

From the inscription of the ten-armed Durga idol of Barivhangabad, which belonged to Eastern Khari Mandala, we learn that in the fifteenth regnal year of Maharaja Lakshman Sen, one of his queens donated the idol to a priest as ritual offering. According to Saduktikarnamrita, Lakshman Sen ascended the throne around 1179–1180 CE. Therefore, the donation of the Durga idol by one of his queens from Khari Mandala likely occurred around 1194–1195 CE, almost during the same time as Domman Pal’s village donation. This evidence indicates that Domman Pal was loyal to the Sen dynasty and that the royal queen and relatives were under his protection. Hence, it can be concluded that Domman Pal was not a rebellious feudal lord of Lakshman Sen. The Barivhangabad ten-armed Durga idol holds immense importance in understanding the history of the Sundarbans and the Sen period.

Field research later revealed that during the partition period of 1946–47, Digambar Nyayatirtha passed away in Senhati. In 1952, his son migrated from riot-affected East Pakistan to India and brought the Barivhangabad ten-armed idol with him. He settled in Bhatpara, North 24 Parganas. Due to extreme poverty and inability to continue daily worship, Nyayatirtha’s grandson, Anadicharan Bhattacharya, installed the idol in the shrine of a wealthy priest. The idol was reportedly still being worshipped there in 2002. Credit for investigating this remarkable idol goes to the late archaeologist Nirmalendu Mukherjee.

References:

  1. Rakshaskhali Copperplate and Ayodhya, Debashankar Midya, Gramonnayan Katha, April–June 2008
  2. Adibasi Rajbansha, Dr. Dinesh Chandra Sarkar
  3. Lost Sundarban Copperplate and Some Astonishing Facts, Debashankar Midya, Ahalya, 1412 Bengali Era
  4. The Ten-Armed Idol of Barivhanga, Nirmalendu Mukhopadhyay, Bibekbarta, June 2007

Author: Debishankar Midya

Image courtesy: Sundarban Pratna Gobeshona Kendra