Today is Saraswati Puja and also the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Standing at this significant moment, while enjoying the traditional khichuri served as an invitation meal during Saraswati Puja, I was chatting with the cook from Biyen.
During that conversation, he mentioned two archaeological objects that were found while digging his pond—about 8 feet deep in the soil.
One is a lamp (pradip) and the other is a measuring vessel / offering pot.
Now it is the time of paddy transplantation in the fields. All around, machines are running, water is being pumped through pipes, and young paddy seedlings are being planted. In the middle of this muddy, water-filled field, I went to see that pond.
Nearby stands an old “Jangal Pattoni Than” (a sacred forest shrine). Under an ancient tree locally known as “Da Karanja”, there is a mysterious shrine wrapped in shadows and half-light. In the silent afternoon, the place feels strangely eerie.
Perhaps, in such a shrine, some town-dweller once lit that lamp in the 11th or 12th century (an assumption).
The lamp appears to have been made from a mould.
The accompanying measuring vessel might have been used by someone of that time to measure water, oil, ghee, or milk. Or perhaps it was used to offer ritual offerings, much like the way today villagers place chire and batasa in earthen pots during rural worship rituals.
When we see such Jangal Pattoni shrines standing today outside the main village settlements, it raises an interesting question. Why do people still visit these shrines located in such deserted corners of fields and wilderness? What draws them there?
It is not merely attraction.
Rather, it is the deep-rooted traditions and cultural practices of our ancestors, which we continue to carry forward through habit and perhaps even through our genes.
After events like floods, earthquakes, or tidal disasters, these places may have once become deserted. But when conditions improved and the waters receded, people returned—driven by their cultural beliefs—and resumed worship. The next generations then continued those rituals.
If proper excavations are carried out beneath these shrines, perhaps we will uncover traces of ancient human settlements.
Thus, in the history of the Sundarbans, such scattered archaeological findings repeatedly suggest that until the 12th–13th centuries there existed a continuous culture and human habitation in this region.
With more scientific and government-led excavations, the glorious history of those golden days will surely come to light in the future.
We must keep that faith alive.
Author – Ranajit Debnath
Image courtesy: Sundarban Pratna Gobeshona Kendra
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