Possibilty of 2000 yr old civilisation in Bihar, artefacts discovered

Saharsa, May 14: The discovery of an ancient ringwell and some decorated broken earthen pots in digging at the house of a villager at Mahishi in the district last week, has opened up the possibility of discovering a 2000 year old ancient civilisation in the area.

The incident came to light when Manoj Choudhury, a former panchayat pradhan of Mahishi, ordered digging up of his residence's backyard fro erection of a cellphone tower on Friday last.

After digging nearly ten feet into the ground, the labourers suddenly hit something big.

Everyone present at the spot thought that they had found some underground treasure trove but following careful observation and some specialised digging, remains of about a five feet long and nearly three feet wide big earthen ringwell came to the fore, generating tremendous curiosity among the villagers.

Encouraged by the sudden discovery and hoping to find an underground treasure, further digging continued in and around the area for some more time following which several other pieces of decorated earthen pots were recovered.

Failing to understand what to do with the sudden discovery of these underground ''invaluable treasurers'', the local government officials were soon informed, who in turn contacted the ASI (ASI) in Patna for an on the spot visit to access the historial value of the findings.

Though no proper step to preserve the discovered items had yet been taken by the ASI or government, the preliminary observations have revealed that the artefacts were nearly 2000 years old, and might indicate that a thriving civilisation existed in the area.

Incidentally, the ASI had already identified at least four ancient mounds in the district including those at Kandaha and Bongaon for starting excavation of the remains of possibly the 'Maurya period'', which existed within the precints of the district long time ago.

However, with the discovery of several artifacts at Mahishi, a new chapter of Indian history might have now flung opened, signalling the existence of even an older civilisation in this part of Eastern India for long.