An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v2.c42.249

v2.c42.249

It is clear that the pillared hall of Kumarahar lying isolated at the s. outskirts of Patna can hardly be identified as a durbar hall of Candragupta Maurya. A guess may be hazarded that it was the assembly hall of the third Buddhist Council convened by Aśoka, with whom only we have evidence of the first use of stone for monumental buildings. Nor is there anything pre-Mauryan at the site. As Pātaliputra had an earlier history a search was started in 1955-6 in e. Patna, which is thickly populated with little scope for excavation. However, small trenches were laid in the localities of Mahabirgarh, Sadargaly, Shah-Kamal road and Begam-ki-Haveli and in the compound of the Government Press (Sinha and Narain, 1970), Pd I as represented in the trenches is associated with the NBPW [11.16] of fine quality, black-and-red [11.6.4] and grey wares and Black-slipped [11.13] Wares. At the lowest levels are encountered terracottas of an archaic type, which may go back to the 5th century B.C., with the ear, nose and hair indicated by pinched clay, the mouth by a deep horizontal cut, legs and arms by stumps of clay and fingers by notches. But in the middle and top layers of the Pd appear well-moulded clay figurines, which may belong to the 4th-3rd centuries B.C. No structural remains of the Pd have been found except a polished sandstone piece, 1·8 m×91 cm bearing the bead-and-reel design, traces of walls of burnt brick, 27·4×26·7×0·76 cm, and terracotta ring-wells [14.15]. Another important discovery is a couchant bull of polished Chunar sandstone from a trench in Shah-Kamal road area, where a broken polished stone piece with the bead-and-reel designs and another with the same and an acanthus leaf design have also been recovered. Pd II, 150 B.C. to A.D. 300, has numerous flimsy walls of brick, 43×29×0·5 cm, terracotta ring-wells and numerous Śuṅga and Kushan terracottas, a gold amulet fashioned after a coin of Huviṣka with legends in Greek and Naigameṣa figures. In view of the very limited areas available for excavation no clear house plans have been detected. But there is no doubt that e. Patna was inhabited from the 5th century, that it formed part of the Mauryan architectural complex and that it continued under occupation at least till the 3rd century A.D.