Artifacts and Relics of Wari-Bateshwar
Artifacts and relics of Wari-Bateshwar have changed the history of Bangladesh. Archaeologists collected many artifacts and relics from nearly 50 sites of Wari-Bateshwar. Moreover, Hanif Pathan and Habibullah Pathan contributed a lot to the museum. Among these artifacts, there are Neolithic Celt, semi-precious stone beads, sandwich glass beads, pendants, amulets, flakes, early historic blades, black and red wares, knobbed wares, rouletted wares, northern black polished wares, vessels, statues, and punch-marked silver coins. These discoveries are proof of civilized people living in these sites who knew modern techniques. The best way to understand the past is by studying the artifacts used in the past. So, here are some important artifacts and relics of Wari-Bateshwar we should know to understand the ancient city.
Punched Marked Silver Coins
A great number of silver coins were discovered from Wari-Bateshwar and nearby villages such as Kandua, Marjal, Jessore, Kundarpara, Jaimangal, Candipara, Patuli, Chula, Harisangan and Govasia. There are two types of punched silver coins found in these areas. One of them belonged to Janapada or the pre-Mauryan period. These coins circulated from 600 B.C. to 400 B.C. in some parts of the MahaJanapada (ca. 600-400 BC) kingdom of the Indian subcontinent. The other series of coins belonged to the Mauryan period (400 BC to 200 BC).
This means Wari-Bateshwar could have been a port city that traded with other parts of the Indian subcontinent. The coins have unique shapes and sizes. Most of these are oval, circular, rectangular or square. The people of Wari-Bateshwar marked the coins with various signs and symbols like cow, elephant, deer, owl, sun, tree, flower, wheel, trident, mountain, bird, six-armed devices and so on. Many of these silver coins also have symbols of lobsters, fish, tortoise and boat. These symbols show naval connections. This means Wari-Bateshwar was a city that had river-based trade and commerce. Archaeologists found similar coins in other parts of Bangladesh such as Rajshahi, Bogura and Mymensingh, but the amount is not as much as Wari-Bateshwar.
Semi-precious Stone Beads
Archaeologists found a lot of semi-precious stone beads from Wari-Bateshwar. the local people call them ‘Solemani Pathor’ or ‘Stone beads of King Solomon’. These beads are made of carnelian, agate, jasper, quartz, amethyst, chalcedony, chert and crystal. The ancient people of Wari-Bateshwar used various techniques to cut, colour, and polish the beads. Local people still find these beads in their fields. According to archaeologists, Wari-Bateshwar was probably a manufacturing place of the beads.
The beads have different shapes and sizes such as cylindrical, globular, pentagonal, triangular, hexagonal, oval, trapezoid, barrel, disc, spherical, crescent and diamond. The artisans used natural soda and crushed shoots of Kirar to polish the beads. After that, they baked or burned the beads. This technique was also common in Harappa (3rd-2nd millennium) in South Asia. The technique vanished for a long time but revived in the Ganga Valley between 600 BC and 200 AD. So, this means Wari-Bateshwar had a link with south and south-east Asia during the Early Historic Period and traded stone beads.
Knobbed Ware
Knobbed Wares common discoveries from the sites of Bangladesh, India and south-east Asia. Recently, archaeologists found knobbed ware in Wari-Bateshwar. In fact, Wari-Bateshwar is the only site of Bangladesh where knobbed wares have been found. The potters used a combination of tin-bronzed metals to make knobbed wares. One feature common of these vessels is 7-10 grooved spots around a knob in the middle. The exact use of knobbed wares is still unknown. But archaeologists guess that people used the vessels for religious and funeral purposes.
Northern Black Polished Ware
The northern black polished wares from Wari-Bateshware have exceptional quality. They have different colours and sizes. Most of them are black with a combination of red. The vessels were usually made from clay of the Ganga Plain. They were coated and polished with chemicals and then well-baked at a perfect temperature. The northern black wares are indicators of urbanization and artistic superiority. The elite people of society might have used these vessels just for their artistic value. Therefore, they are known as “Elite Ware”. Gold, bronze and magnetite were used to make these vessels. So, they were very expensive. Apart from Wari-Bateshware, Bangladeshi archaeologists have discovered northern black wares from Mangalkate, Chandaketugarh and Mahastangarh. The presence of a great number of the vessels establishes a correlation between the Maurya Empire and the practice of Buddhism in Wari-Bateshware.
Rouletted Wares
Rouletted wares originally came from India, Sri Lanka, other Asian countries and Rome. The rouletted wares are a type of colourful dish with unique patterns. The patterns consist of various shapes like tiny dots, strokes, wedges and triangles. We can see similar vessels in the archaeological site like Mahastangargh and Wari-Bateshwar of Bangladesh. Rouletted Ware, knobbed ware, northern black polished ware, different beads, amulets and pendants etc. were not native art of Bangladesh. The Buddhist monks might have brought these items with them when they travelled to Bangladesh from other parts of the Indian subcontinent.
Black and Red Ware
One of the significant findings in Wari-Bateshwar is black and redware. The interior of the vessel was painted black and the exterior was painted in black and red. Specialists think the potters baked the vessels in a special oven to give them unique colours. Black and red wares were mostly made in wheels, but sometimes they were handmade. The excavators found black and red wares of different shapes and sizes from the sites of Wari-Bateshwar. Among them, there were some flower vases, jars and bowls. According to the carbon dating, the pots developed during 1500 BC and continued to grow till the Chalcolithic culture fused into the historical period dating from the 3rd century BC.
Lockets and Charmed Amulets
Till now, excavators found various kinds of lockets and charmed amulets from Wari-Bateshwar. The pendants have carvings of animals like lions, tigers, elephants, turtles, and swans. The Archealogits collected an amulet from the village Sonarutala of Wari. The amulet has exquisite artistic carvings in the middle. There is a goddess standing on a pot. She is holding a horn in her right hand and a halo in the left hand. She is wearing a funnel-shaped crown and huge earrings.
We can also see a woman and a man kneeling before the goddess who is praying to her. From the two holes at the two ends of the amulet, it seems, someone wore it as a charming amulet. Specialists think this rare pendant was used in 3rd-2nd BC. According to Dilip Kumar Chakrabarti, the goddess is Ghath Devi, and the amulet is one of the artistic crafts of the Maurya period.
Final Words
All these artifacts and relics of Wari-Bateshwar are proof that the ancient city was a center of trade and commerce of its time. Trading with different parts of the world was possible for the city because it was located near the Brahmaputra river. The river Brahmaputra had a close connection with the river Ganga and thus connected with different parts of the world. Its location and artifacts are quite similar to Gangaridae. Greek and Latin writers like Ptolemy, Virgil, Strabo, Diodorus, Kartius and Plutarch mentioned Gangaridae as a powerful kingdom several times.
Artifacts and Relics of Wari-Bateshwar By Umme Hanee licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
References and Further Readings:
- Hamid, Kazi Kawsar. “Wari-Bateshwar: The Story Of An Ancient Fort City.” Daily Sun, 2018, www.daily-sun.com/post/332579/2018/08/30/WariBateshwar:-The-Story-Of-An-Ancient-Fort-City-.
- Hossain, Emran. “Wari-Bateshwar One of Earliest Kingdoms.” The Daily Star, The Daily Star, 18 Mar. 2008, www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-28431.
- Jahan, Shahnaj Husne. “Archaeology of Wari-Bateshwar.” Ancient Asia, vol. 2, 2010, p. 135., doi:10.5334/aa.10210.
- Salim, MD Adnan Arif. Pratnocharchai Bangladesh. Prakriti-Porichoy,2015.
- “Wari Bateshwar.” Tongi Industrial Area Comments, offroadbangladesh.com/places/wari- bateshwar/.
- “Wari-Bateshwar.” Bengal British India Society – Banglapedia, 2015,en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Wari-Bateshwar.
