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EARLY TERRACOTTAS FROM VAIŠALI
GAUTAM SENGUPTA
Ancient Vaiśāli is now represented by Başādh and adjoining villages like Chakramdas, Baniya, Kolhua within Muzaffarpur and Vaišāli districts of Northern Bihar. The archaeological sites are distributed over in wide area and corroborate to a great extent, the measurement of the city as proposed by Theodor Bloch. Bloch, following the account of Hiuen-Tsang, measured its extent to about twenty five square miles. 1
Re-discovery of Vaiśāli coincided with the growing European interest in Indian antiquities. J. Stephenson visited the sites in 1834 and wrote a first hand account of the ruins. Cunnigham's concern with Buddhist sites brought him to Vaišali. With his characteristic throughoess he explored the area in 1862 and 1864. This was followed by a series of excavations by Bloch 4 in 1903-04 and Spooner5 in 1913-14. While Bloch established the identity of the site on the basis of inscribed sealsø, Spooner succeded in qushing back the history of the city to an early date.? Since then, Krishna Deva & V. K. Misra conducted a series of diggings in 19508 and B. P. Sinha and Sitaram Ray between 1958-629. Thes: excavations have facilitated our understanding of the historical sequence and cultural milieu of the city.
The personality of the city can be appreciated through a combined study of the literary sources and archaeological data. Although, there is no denying the fact that the picture is far from complete. Literary tradition associates the city with king Viśāla of the Iksvāku lineage. But, as pointed
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Archaeological Survey of India. Annual Report, 1903-04, p. 81 (hencefort ASIAR). Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1853, p. 128. Archaeological Survey Repart, Vol 1, pp. 55 ff. ASIAR, 1903-04, pp. 88 ff. ASIAR, 1913-13, pp. 98 ff. Ibid, 1903-04. Ibid, 1913-14. Krishna Deva & V. K. Misra, Vuisali Excavation, 1950, Vaisali 1960 (henceforth, V. E. 50). B. P. Sinha & S. Ray, Vaisali Excavation, 1958-62, Patna, 1969 (henceforth, V. E. '58-62).
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