| archaeology and memory
TRACING SHIFTS IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL ASPIRATIONS AT NALANDA MAHAVIHARA | BIHAR
Mohammad Husain
LA82 |
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| The article explores Nalanda Mahavihara’s rich cultural landscape, tracing its archaeological rediscovery, overlooked environmental context, and evolving interpretations through advanced technology and shifting heritage frameworks.
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For the British Crown post 1857, the business of unearthing ancient Indian history enshrouded beneath layers of even more history perhaps did not rank high on the list of pressing matters. Nonetheless, a group of curious British antiquaries roused by narrations in Buddhist manuscripts preserved by the Asiatic Society of Bengal set about scouring these lands reverberating with echoes of long-lost cultures and traditions. One antiquarian extraordinaire, a retired engineer by the name of Alexander Cunningham, who later pioneered the field of Indian archaeology despite having no formal education in the field sketched out a plan in 1861 of the ruins of a certain Buddhist monastery he surveyed in Nalanda, Bihar. Interestingly, his sketch prominently featured pokhars (ponds) and agricultural lands in the immediate vicinity, possibly hinting at some connection between the prominent monastery ruins and the inconspicuous surrounding landscape.
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