An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s18.t3.1

v1.c9.s18.t3.1

Stretching from the e. Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal, roughly between 86° and 90° lat. and 22° and 27° long., W. Bengal has four major physical divisions (Spate and Learmouth, 1967, p. 573): (i) the submontane *tarai*, still largely under forest (Dts Darjeeling, Koochbehar and Jalpaiguri); (ii) the n. para-delta (Dts W. Dinajpur and Malda); (iii) the w. margins comprising largely the laterite piedmont plain between the Hooghly and Contai c. plain (Dts Burdwan, Birbhum, Bankura, Purulia and Midnapur); and (iv) the Bhagirathi (Ganga) delta (Dts Murshidabad, Nadia, 24-Parganas, Howrah and Hooghly). The third division, drained by endless fans of rivers—Ajay, Damodar, Rupnarayan and Kasai (Kangsabati)—had witnessed the extension of the prehistoric black-and-red ware culture of c. and w. India [4.14.5, 4.14.6], but nothing has so far been discovered to make a picture of transition from prehistory to history in this region. Some early historical sites have been noticed in this division, but their presence appears to be more a result of the extension of the early historical culture from the delta area (the fourth division) than an emergence out of a prehistoric background. The most important early historical city in this region is the port-town of Tāmralipta (Ramachandran, 1951), represented by TAMLUK, a sub-divisional town in Dt Midnapur. As a result of excavation and exploration a large number of antiquities from the Mauryan epoch have been discovered here. A few wooden fragments recovered from the Bargabhima temple site are believed to be the remains of a Mauryan palisade. From a high mound were unearthed 300 cast coins [3.1] of the 2nd and 1st centuries B.C. Among the terracottas some are of Hellenistic affiliation, though the majority belong to the Śuṅga-Kushan art idiom. Several pottery vases from this site are said to have Egyptian or Minoan parallels. Fragments of the Rouletted Ware [11.21] have also been reported. post-Kushan finds suggest that the port-town continued to thrive even after the early historical period. The latest excavation at the site (1974-5) has been without any significant result.