Dah Parvatiya

Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R)

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Dah Parvatiya (दाहपरवतिया) is a small village very close to west Tezpur, in the Indian State of Assam.

Variants

• Da Parbatia (दा परबतिया)
• Dah Parvatiya (दाहपरवतिया)
• Dahaparabatiya (दाहपरबतिया) (जिला दरंग, असम) (AS, p.433)

History

In the village there are significant architectural remnants of an ancient temple of the 6th century overlying the ruins of another Shiva temple built of bricks during the Ahom period. Archaeological excavations done here in 1924 have unearthed a sixth-century antiquity in the form of a stone door frame with extensive carvings. The ruins of the temple built during the Ahom period are built over the ancient temple's foundations and are in the form of a stone paved layout plan of the sanctum sanctorum and a mandapa. This complex is under the jurisdiction of the Archaeological Survey of India and its importance and notability is recorded under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act 1958.

The antiquities found at the Dah Parvatiya are inferred to have been from a temple complex built during the 5th or 6th century, prior to the Bhaskaravarman period. On the basis of the mouldings and its architectural style it is inferred that the terracotta plaques are definitely not later than the 6th century; the altered form of motifs noted in Assam confirms this assessment. This type of architectural feature, particularly in the styistics of figurines of the ruins, is seen in North India, in the temples of the Bhumra and Nachha Kuthara which belonged to the Gupta period. Further confirmation of the dating is provided by the carvings of the river Goddesses Ganga and Yamuna, which are also akin to the Greek architecture with striking similarity to the Hellenistic art. The decorative elements of the ruins also have close similarity with those seen in the temples of Orissa.

During the Ahom period, a Shiva temple was built with bricks over the ruins of an ancient Gupta period temple. When the Ahom period temple was destroyed during the Assam Earthquake of 1897, the remains of Gupta period temple were exposed but only in the form of a door frame made of stone. Epigraphic evidence and ancient literature found here, supplemented by the ruins seen scattered around the area, also confirms that in the pre-Ahom period Gupta art extended into the early Medieval period.

दाहपरबतिया

विजयेन्द्र कुमार माथुर ने लेख किया है ...दाहपरबतिया (AS, p.433) दरंग ज़िला, असम में तेजपुर के निकट एक ग्राम है। यह ग्राम पुरातात्विक दृष्टि से बहुत ही महत्त्वपूर्ण है। यहाँ से गुप्त काल के कई अवशेष प्राप्त हुए हैं। गुप्त कालीन मंदिरों के कई अवशेष दाहपरबतिया से प्राप्त हुए हैं। यहाँ के अन्य अवशेषों में गुप्त कालीन शिल्प शैली में निर्मित पत्थर के द्वारपट्टक प्रमुख हैं, जिन पर चैत्यवातायन तथा गंगा-यमुना की प्रतिमाओं का अंकन है। यह प्रतिमाएँ गुप्त कालीन कला का विशिष्ट अंग है। गंगा-यमुना की मूर्तियों का उत्किरण अत्यन्त कलात्मक ढंग से किया गया है तथा विशेष रूप से स्वाभाविक है। मंदिर के पार्श्व में खंडितावस्था में मिट्टी के सुंदर पटके भी मिले थे, जिन पर मानवाकृतियाँ बहुत ही आकर्षक और सजीव मुद्रा में अंकित हैं।