Lauriya

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West Champaran District Map

Lauriya (लोरिया) or Lauria Nandangarh (लोरिया नन्दनगढ़) is a city and historical site in West Champaran district of Bihar state in northern India.[1]

Variants

Location

Lauria Nandangarh is a town about 14 km from Shikarpur and 28 km from Bettiah in West Champaran district of Bihar. It is situated near the banks of the Burhi Gandak River.

Jat clan

Origin of name

The village draws its name from a pillar (laur) of Ashoka standing there and the stupa mound Nandangarh (variant Nanadgarh) about 2 km south-west of the pillar. Remains of Mauryan period have been found here.[2]

History

Lauriya has 15 Stupa mounds in three rows, each row upwards of 600 m; the first row begins near the pillar and goes E to W, while the other two are at right angles to it and parallel to each other.[3]

Alexander Cunningham partially excavated one of them in 1862 and found a retaining wall of brick (size 51 X 20 cm). A few years later Henry Bailey Wade Garrick excavated several mounds with indifferent results. In 1905 T. Block excavated four mounds, two in each of the N to S rows. In two of them, he found at the center of each, at a depth of "1.8 m to 3.6 m" (probably meaning 1.8 m in one and 3.6 m in the other) a gold leaf with a female figurine standing in frontal pose and a small deposit of burnt human bones mixed with charcoal. The core of the mounds was, according to him, built of layers of yellow clay, a few centimeters in thickness, with grass leaves laid between. Further down in one of them he found the stump of a tree.[4]

His conclusions were that the earthen barrows had some connection with the funeral rites of the people who erected them, and he found an explanation of the phenomena encountered by him in the rites of cremation and post-cremation prescribed in the Vedas. On the basis of this hypothesis he identified the gold female figurine as the earth goddess Prithvi and ascribed the mounds to a pre-Mauryan age. After him the mounds came to be known loosely as "Vedic burial mounds". The locals call these mounds Bhisa, a word also recorded by Cunningham.[5] Some believe that the 26-metre-high ancient brick sepulchral mound is the stupa where the ashes of Lord Buddha were enshrined.[6][4]

In 1935-36, archaeologist Nani Gopal Majumdar re-examined the four mounds with important results. He found that all of them were earthen burial memorials with burnt brick revetments, two being faced with a brick lining in a double tier, so that there was no justification of regarding them as mere earthen barrows. He also pointed out that the golden leaves found by Block had their exact replica in the Stupa at Piprahwa which is definitely a Buddhist Stupa of 300 B.C. or earlier. The respective Lauriya Stupas might be of a comparable date and there is nothing to connect them with Vedic burial rites. The layers of yellow clay which had a share in the building up of the Vedic theory of Block, are according to observations of archaeologist Amalananda Ghosh, nothing but mud bricks, husk and straw being a common ingredient in ancient brick. [7]

Excavation of the Nandangarh site was started by Majumdar in 1935 and continued by Ghosh until 1939. Before excavation the mound had a height of 25 m and a circumference of about 460 m, standing at the East of a brick fortification about 1.6 km in perimeter and roughly oval of plan, no doubt enclosing a habitation area, perhaps the headquarters of a clan that was responsible for the erection of the Lauriya Stupas. Surface finds indicate that it was inhabited in Shunga (if not earlier) and Kushans times.[8]

On excavation, Nandangarh turned out to be stupendous Stupa with a polygonal or cruciform base;[9] [10][11]with its missing dome which must have been proportionately tall, the Stupa must have been one of the highest in India.[12]


The core of the stupa consists of a filling of earth with a large number of animal and human figurines in the Shunga and Kushana idiom, a few punch marked coins and cast copper coins, terracotta sealing of the 2nd and 1st century B.C. and iron objects.[13] As the earth was brought from outside, obviously from a part of the habitation area to the south of the stupa where the resultant pond is still visible, the objects are understandably not stratified.

Pillar of Ashoka: Less than half a kilometer from the village and 2 km from the mound, stands the famous pillar of Ashoka.[14] It is a single block of polished sandstone over 32 feet (10 m) high. The top is bell shaped with a circular abacus ornamented with Brahmi geese supporting the statue of a lion.[15]

The pillar is inscribed with the edicts of Ashoka in clear and beautifully cut characters.[16] The lion has been chipped in the mouth and the column bears the mark of time just below the top which has itself been slightly dislodged. Signs of vandalism over the years are clearly visible.

Visit of Alexander Cunningham

Alexander Cunningham[17] writes that From Vaisali, Hwen Thsang proceeded to the north-east for 500 li, or 83 miles, to Fo-li-shi, or Vriji, which has already been identified as the territory of the powerful tribe of Wajji, or Vriji.


[p.448]: According to Hwen Thsang the country of the Vrijis was long from east to west, and narrow from north to south.[18] This description corresponds exactly with the tract of country lying between the Gandak and Mahanadi rivers, which is 300 miles in length by 100 miles in breadth. Within these limits there are several ancient cities, some of which may possibly have been the capitals of the eight different clans of the Vrijis. Of these Vaisali, Kesariya, and Janakpur have already been noticed; the others are Navandgarh, Simrun, Darbanga, Puraniya, and Motihari. The last three are still inhabited and are well known ; but Simrun has been deserted for upwards of 550 years, while Navandgarh has probably been abandoned for at least fifteen centuries. Simrun has been described by Mr. Hodgson,[19] but its ruins still require to be carefully surveyed before we can form an opinion as to its probable antiquity. I visited Navandgarh my-self in 1862, and found it one of the oldest and most interesting places in northern India.

Navandgarh or Naonadgarh is a ruined fort from 250 to 300 feet square at top and 80 feet in height. It is situated close to the large village of Lauriya, 15 miles to the north-north-west of Bettiah and 10 miles


[p.449]:

from the nearest point of the Gandak river.[20] The ancient remains consist of a handsome stone pillar, surmounted by a lion and inscribed with Asoka's edicts, and of three rows of earthen barrows or conical mounds of earth, of which two rows lie from north to south, and the third from east to west. Now the stupas usually met with are built either of stone or of brick ; but the earliest stupas were mere mounds of earth, of which these are the most remarkable specimens that I have seen. I believe that they are the sepulchral monuments of the early kings of the country prior to the rise of Buddhism, and that their date may be assumed as ranging from 600 to 1500 B.C. Every one of these barrows is called simply bhisu, or "mound," but the whole are said to have been the kots or fortified dwellings of the ministers and nobles of Raja Uttanpat, while the fort of Navandgarh was the king's own residence.

लोरिया नन्दनगढ़

लोरिया नन्दनगढ़ (AS, p.825): बेतिया से 16 मील दूर है. यहां अशोक का एक शिलास्तंभ है, जिसके सिर पर सिंह की मूर्ति प्रतिष्ठित .इस पर ब्राह्मी में पांच अभिलेख उत्कीर्ण हैं. बुद्ध के समय वृज्जिगण की नगरी अलप्पा या अल्लकप्प इसी स्थान पर थी जिसके विस्तीर्ण खंडहर यहां दिखाई पड़ते हैं. वृज्जियों के 8 गोत्र थे इनमें से बुलियों की राजधानी इस स्थान पर थी. अशोक ने गौतम बुद्ध की जीवन कथाओं से संबद्ध इस नगरी के निकट शिलास्तंभ स्थापित करके इसका महत्व बढ़ाया था. [21]

अलप्पा

विजयेन्द्र कुमार माथुर[22] ने लेख किया है ... अलप्पा (AS, p.42) नगर संभवत: गंडक नदी के तट पर बिहार में स्थित था। बौद्धकाल में यहां वृज्जियों की राजधानी थी। ज़िला चंपारण में स्थित लौरियानन्दनगढ़ नामक ग्राम के पास ही अलप्पा की स्थिति रही होगी।

अल्लकप्प

विजयेन्द्र कुमार माथुर[23] ने लेख किया है ...अल्लकप्प (AS, p.44) बौद्ध साहित्य के अनुसार उन आठ स्थानों में है जहाँ के नरेश भगवान बुद्ध के अस्थि अवशेषों को लेने के लिए कुशीनगर आए थे। संभव है यह अलप्पा का ही रूपांतर हो। अल्लकप्प में बुलिय (वृज्जियों की एक शाखा) क्षत्रियों की राजधानी थी। यह राज्य वेठदीप या बेतिया (ज़िला चंपारन, बिहार) के सन्निकट ही रहा होगा क्योंकि धम्मपदटीका (हार्वर्ड ओरियंटल सिरीज़ 28 पृष्ठ 24) में अल्लकप्प के राजा और बेठदीपक नाम के 'बेठदीप' के राजाओं में परस्पर घनिष्ठ संबंध का उल्लेख है। अल्लकप्प की स्थिति लौरियानंदनगढ़ के पास स्थित विस्तृत खण्डहरों के स्थान पर मानी जाती है।

References

  1. "Archaeological Survey Of India; Excavations - Important - Bihar".
  2. "Archaeological Survey Of India; Excavations - Important - Bihar".
  3. "Archaeological Survey Of India; Excavations - Important - Bihar".
  4. "Archaeological Survey Of India; Excavations - Important - Bihar".
  5. Report of Tours in North and South Bihar in 1880-81. Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing.
  6. Lauria NandanGarh'".
  7. "Archaeological Survey Of India; Excavations - Important - Bihar".
  8. "Archaeological Survey Of India; Excavations - Important - Bihar".
  9. "Archaeological Survey Of India; Excavations - Important - Bihar".
  10. Kaushik, Garima (2016). Women and Monastic Buddhism in Early South Asia: Rediscovering the Invisible Believers. Routledge. p. 27. ISBN 9781317329398.
  11. Pande, Govind Chandra (2006). India's Interaction with Southeast Asia. Project of History of Indian Science, Philosophy, and Culture. p. 419. ISBN 9788187586241.
  12. An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology. BRILL. 1990.
  13. "Archaeological Survey Of India; Excavations - Important - Bihar".
  14. Vishnu, Asha (1993). Material Life of Northern India: Based on an Archaeological Study, 3rd Century B.C. to 1st Century B.C. Mittal Publications. p. 175. ISBN 9788170994107.
  15. "Lauria Nandangarh".
  16. Ray, Niharranjan (1975). Maurya and Post-Maurya Art: A Study in Social and Formal Contrasts. Indian Council of Historical Research. p. 19.
  17. The Ancient Geography of India: I. The Buddhist Period, Including the ...By Sir Alexander Cunningham, p.447-449
  18. Julien's ' Hiouen Thsang,' ii. 403. See Map No. XI.
  19. See Map No. XI.
  20. See Map No. XI.
  21. Aitihasik Sthanavali by Vijayendra Kumar Mathur, p.825
  22. Aitihasik Sthanavali by Vijayendra Kumar Mathur, p.42
  23. Aitihasik Sthanavali by Vijayendra Kumar Mathur, p.44