Karian Excavations 1955

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It is, indeed, a matter of great pleasure for me to write a foreword to the Report on the excavations conducted at Karian in 1955 under the auspices of the K.P. Jayaswal Research Institute. Impelled by the necessity to erect a Memorial for perpetuating the name of Udayanacharya, the celebrated 10th century philosopher of Mithila, the Bihar Legislature was siezed with the problem of finding out the exact place of the birth of this scholar, and placed the matter before the K. P. Jayaswal Research Institute to conduct excavations at Karian in the District of Darbhanga, a village traditionally known as the birth place of Udayanacharya, in order to find out the corroborative archaeological finds, if any, in support of the aforesaid version. The Institute, accordingly, undertook the excavation work in Karian which, in addition, gave us the benefit of finding out the chain of the cultural continuity right from the Gupta period, if not earlier, in the region under study. Though the antiquarian remains found after excavation at Karian in its three occupational periods do not throw positive light on the association of Udayanāchārya with the place in the 10th century A.D.

Kalivana, the birth-place of Udayanāchārya, the great philosopher of the 10th Century A. D.,' is a problem before scholars, so far as its location is concerned. The modern village of Karian, in the district of Darbhanga (North Bihar), has been traditionally associated with the philosopher in question. Kadama, a village situated about 12 miles to the south-east of Madhipura in the district of Saharsa, also claims to have been the ancient site of Kalivana. Where the element of truth lies is still unsettled.

The problem of erecting a memorial of the celebrated philosopher (Udayanāchārya) compelled the Bihar Legislature to search for the genuine site of the former's birth place. Karian, being one of the claimants, was selected for archaeological excavations with a view to confirming the genuineness of the site. The K. P. Jayaswal Research Institute, Patna, was requested to shoulder the responsibility of excavation, and under its auspices trial excavations were carried out by Shri Vijayakanta, Mishra, M. A.

Then Research Fellow in the archaeological section of the Institute in the month of April, 1955. The excavator left the Institute in 1957 to join his new appointment in the Archaeological Survey of India (then Department of Archaeology, Government of India). The author replaced Shri Mishra in the Institute one year after the latter's departure, and in July, 1960 the former was asked by the Director (Dr. K. K. Datta) of the Institute to take the responsibility of writing the report on the excavation, referred to. As he (the author) was engaged in regular excavations at Vaisali and other explorations, he could not take up the work earlier.

The pleasant duty of the author is to thank his colleagues who have variously helped him in the preparation of the work. Shri S. K. Kaviraj, senior Draftsman-cum-Surveyor (then Surveyor-cum-Photographer) deserves many thanks for he, though single handed, could manage to keep the records of both the drawing and photograph of excavations. Shri Lala Suresh Narayan, Draftsman-cum-Surveyor, did the drawings of the pottery and also prepared the other final drawings while Shri N. C. Ghosh, the photographer, performed successfully all the remaining photographic works. Shri Jamil Akhtar, Draftsman-cum-Surveyor, helped Shri Lakshman Prasad Singh in the preparation of the contour-map of the site. To all of them the author extends his grateful thanks.

**Contents and Sample Pages**