Some insight into Ancient Dhaka

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Unearthing civility
Kazi Khaleed Ashraf

The reader was faced with two realities as she opened the newspaper few days ago. Old Dhaka has come to a near standstill over protests in the gruesome killing and more gruesome dismemberment of two businesspeople. In Narsingdi, not very far from Dhaka, the remains of a two thousand five hundred old urban site have been unearthed. On the one hand, there is the erosion of civility, and on the other hand, the unearthing of civilization. Side by side, only seventy kilometers apart, and yet worlds, and not just the centuries, away.

The name "Dhaka" literally means concealed or hidden, suggesting a wry truth of its vague past. Not much is known with certainty about the happenings of the city or the region before the fourteenth century. What is its origin? Who were the people who lived here in early times? What were they like? Although the archaeological dig at Narsingdi unveils another historical layer -- a most significant layer -- of the region called Dhaka, the news is already non-news, while reports on the other event continues as protests, marches, arrests, and even a building demolition spin out of it. Yes, in the context of mayhem and murder, what does it matter if the urban culture of the Dhaka region is pushed back a few centuries making it one of the oldest in eastern India?

An archaeological team from Jahangirnagar University headed by Professor Sufi Mustafizur Rahman was responsible for unearthing the ancient site located in Wari village in the Narsingdi area. From what is reported in the newspapers, the archaeologists working in the area for the last four years have discovered an 18-meter length of an ancient road that is also 6-metre wide and 30 centimetre thick. Discovery has also yielded the walls of what appears to be a fortified citadel, as well as artifacts and some building remains. The most significant fact is that the archaeological remain of the site dates back to 450 BCE, a date apparently corroborated by carbon sampling of certain artifacts. In other words, the site is 2,450 years old!

What does an ancient road measure by itself? Apparently, no road has been found in the Trans-Gangetic Valley earlier. Professor Mustafizur described the road as being made of crushed bricks and "potshots" (black slipped ware), and cemented by brick dust. Two layers were found for the road that might indicate that the road was renovated or used after being abandoned earlier. The walled precinct or what is being called a citadel measures 600 metres by 600 metres, an evidence of a planned building. That the citadel is a pure geometric figure gives credence to a sense of fundamental architectural organisation. The road implies a network of connections, something that could only flourish in an environment of civility and sociality. All in all, both the road and the citadel imply a certain civic purpose, the significance of which is that it will redefine the history of eastern India.

Since a study of the site has not yet begun, conjectures abound, that it was part of the Mauryan empire, that it was a major Buddhist centre. Was it part of the so-called Brahmaputra civilisation? How was it part of the Mauryan empire which would be later in any case (324-187 BCE)? Perhaps 450 BCE is too early for a Buddhist base in this region! What about less grand stories? What sort of a community or society comprised the settlement then? How were social conflicts resolved? Did traders in the city get minced by assailants? Did women get beaten on the streets by the guardians of law? Did the citizens live in fear of shutting their business at the slightest coercion? Did children laugh? What was the price of ginger?

As historians, archaeologists and anthropologists consider these things, we can marvel at the simple fact that there existed an urbanised settlement 70 km from present Dhaka nearly two thousand five hundred years ago. This is a matter of utmost significance for it replaces Pundravardhan (Mahasthangarh, 370 BCE) in northern Bangladesh as the oldest urban site in the region thus pushing back documented urban history. The region of Bengal/Bangladesh has largely been seen as an agricultural milieu as there is little evidence of urbanity before the 10th century or so. Whether the vacuum is due to the destructive behaviour of nature, or whether the region was actually made of dispersed settlements coming out of the predominant agricultural ethos is hard to say. The discovery at Narsingdi changes that quite a bit, encouraging the possibility of more evidence of urbanity in Bengal.

Archaeological remains have always presented a fascinating prospect. Caught between the nexus of absence and presence, weaving a mythology of the missing, it nonetheless provides opportunities for revealing a new understanding. And, hopefully, as more evidence is unearthed in Narsingdi, the foggy past of the region of Dhaka will lift somewhat. I recently compiled the contents of a web page on Dhaka city for the Architectural League of New York. In chronicling the history of Dhaka for the page, I wasn't quite contented to label Dhaka as a Mughal city with a chronology from only the 14th century. I pondered on how far should the urban history of Dhaka go back? I pointed to the 8th century Buddhist monuments in Savar as evidence of an organised social, even perhaps, urban life, even though not located in what we might call the epicentre of the city. Now Narsingdi changes that sharply. The urban history of Dhaka region now goes back to 450 BCE. Plato was not yet born (that would be in 428 BCE).

the big Buddhist council at Vaisali would not take place until 440 BCE or even later. And, of course, Asoka who died in 238 BCE would be a couple of centuries later.

In the meantime, very close by, two thousand five hundred years later, businessmen vanish only to be found as severed parts, women lie beaten on the streets, river waters choke as stubborn encroachment continues, parks and lakes are plundered endlessly, and citizens watch helplessly as their last bit of dignity is usurped. In short, two thousand five hundred years later, in the twenty-first century, civility is not only in short supply, it is violently challenged.

Kazi Khaleed Ashraf, an architect and writer, currently teaches at the University of Hawaii,

The Daily Star 17.04.2004