Biggest Buddhist Monastic Complex Found In Bengal

Dantan going to be included as the historical place in the tourist's map
of Bengal 'cause the biggest Buddhist Monastic Complex (Boudh Vihar) have been found
at Mogolmari of Dantan under Paschim Medinipur district of West
Bengal.

The Archaeological Department of Calcutta University started the
excavation work here from the year 2003 and the excavation of last
phase i.e. sixth phase was started on 12 March and ended on 25 March.

So far as 12 Buddha statues have been found under this project and
names of 3 have been found: the statue in the pose of Saraswati with
Veena in hands and tangled by snakes named 'Janguli'; the statue in a
sitting position with a lotus in hand named 'Abalokiteswar' and the garlanded statue named 'Lokeswar'. Other 9 statues will
be named soon. Height of each statue is 42 cms.

Before it, two Buddhist Monastic complexes found at Jagjibanpur of
Malda district and the other at Karnasubarna near Berhampore in
Murshidabad. This third one is bigger than previous two sites. The area of it is
about 40 thousand sqf.

The name of present complex 'Mogolmari' mentioned in the statement of
Huen Sang and clearly stated that out of 10 Buddhist Monastic Complex
of Tamralipta, the complex of Mogolmari is one of them. It is known
that Huen Sang also visited Mogolmari. --
A. B.

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