Pratna Samiksha: A Journal of Archaeology: New Series Volume 3, 2012 (Special Issue) Gaur: The Medieval City of Bengal c. 1450-1565
Contents: 1. Background: An overview of the archaeology of Bengal: medieval period/Aniruddha Ray. 2. Historiography: Situating Gaur in colonial and nationalist historiography/Ratnabali Chatterjee. 3. Political history and economic formation: i. Pre-medieval Gaur/Sharmi Chakraborty. ii. Dynastic history: A framework/Aniruddha Ray. iii. Economic Formation: An analysis of the background/Aniruddha Ray. 4. Environment, archaeology and settlement pattern: i. The city of Gaur/ Aniruddha Ray. ii. Environment of Gaur/ Sharmi Chakraborty. iii. Settlement pattern through archaeological finds/Sutapa Sinha. 5. Epigraphy and numismatics: i. Documentation on some new epigraphic discoveries from Gaur/Pratip Kumar Mitra. ii. Coins from Gaur/Sutapa Sinha. 6. Technological innovation: Changing designs: a study of glazed tiles from Gaur/Ratnabali Chatterjee. 7. Technological innovation: Technology of the Glazed Bricks from Gaur and Pandua: An archaeometric study/Somnath Ghosh, Varada Khaladkar and Kaushik Gangopadhyay. 8. Aftermath: i. Gaur to St. John’s Church/Soumitra Das. ii. Henry Creighton (1764-1807)/Pratip Kumar Mitra.
This is the third volume of Pratna Samiksha, New Series, published annually by the Centre for Archaeological Studies and Training, Eastern India. This Volume has been specially designed to be a thematic one enriched with a collection of research papers on the Medieval City of Gaur. The contributors have mostly been the core team members of a research project on Gaur.
Based on the findings of archaeological explorations, collection of contemporary records of various languages, inscriptions and coins as well as maps from the nineteenth century, this study revolves round the urbanization of Gaur, the Medieval City of Bengal (c. 1450-1565).
The opening section on ‘Background’ initiates the readers to the very important political region of Bengal in medieval period. The section on ‘Historiography’ looks into the colonial writings on Gaur while the section on ‘Political History and Economic Formation’ includes several articles that look at the political and the economic forces operating in the urban area of Gaur. The section on ‘Environment, Archaeology, and Settlement Pattern’ of the city followed by the section on ‘Epigraphy and Numismatics’ deals with some new inscriptions from Gaur discovered in recent times and on coins from Gaur kept in various collections. The section on ‘Technological Innovation’ brings out the technological problems of medieval Gaur. The final section, called ‘Aftermath’, describes the correspondences found in the Minutes of the St. John’s Church on the despoliation of the ruins of Gaur. It also sketches the life and activities of Henry Creighton, the indigo planter, who pioneered the archaeological research on the ruins of Gaur.
This volume has been profusely illustrated with photographs of the sites, sketches, illustrations and copies of maps for the first time to enable the readers to understand the features of urbanization of the largest city of medieval Bengal during the Sultanate period.
