300-year-old artefacts unearthed by farmer in Patuakhali

Abdul Mannan Mridha, a farmer in Kalaraja village of Patuakhali's Galachipa upazila, found some artefacts while digging a pond in 2015

Seven years later, on November 21, Galachipa Upazila Nirbahi Official (UNO) Mohiuddin Al Helal handed over the artefacts to a delegation of the archaeology department of Khulna regional office in the presence of Abdul Mannan.

The artefacts, over 300 years old and from the Bakla-Chandra kingdom will be displayed at Barisal Divisional Museum, sources at Department of Archaeology said.

The items, which include wooden sticks and shovels, a few lamps made of terracotta, and bones of unknown animals, the department said.

The kingdom comprised present-day Bakerganj of Barishal, Patuakhali, Madaripur, Gopalganj, Kotalipara of Gopalganj and the eastern part of Bagherhat, the department said.

Mannan found the artefacts nine feet deep, when he was digging a pond in 2015.

He realised the archaeological and historical value of the artefacts and took care to preserve them. But it took him five years to figure out ​​how and to which organisation he would hand over the artefacts.

In April 2019, when a team of the Department of Archaeology went to Galachipa for a survey and research operation, he informed it about his discovery. The team requested him to hand over the artefacts to the department immediately to find out its historical and archaeological value. But the handover process was delayed due to the pandemic.

Later, according to the written instructions of Afroza Khan Mita, regional director of the department, the UNO of Galachipa handed over the artefacts to the five-member delegation headed by Md Golam Ferdous, assistant director of the Khulna regional office.

While receiving the artefacts, Ferdous said although Kalaraja village is well-known in the history of Bangladesh's southern region, details about the place or kingdom could not be known till now due to the lack of archaeological materials and artefacts.

This discovery will help the department of archaeology to conduct research in the future, he said.

According to the Department of Archaeology, Jayadeva was the king of Bakla Chandradwip. After his death, his daughter Kamala Sundari ascended the throne. Queen Kamala's husband Balabhadravasu.

Locals called Balabhadravasu "Kalaraja" and the village was named after him.