Paharpur

This chapter represents the key aspects on Somapura Mahavihara of Bangladesh, a renowned Buddhist monastery from the early medieval (c. 7th -13th centuries CE) as a summarized form. The site of Somapura Mahavihara, one of the two world heritage sites in Bangladesh, is popularly known as Paharpur. In addition to the normative and descriptive narraratives on the excavated and preserved architectural remains of Paharpur, this paper emphasizes rethinking of the foundational conceptual assumptions on the basis of which Buddhism and Buddhist monasticism in South Asia, especially in the eastern part of the Indian sub-continent is articulated in dominant discourses. It focuses of the landscape context and archaeological understanding of the mahavihara and points out the importance of engaging with the transformation of 'site' and calls for understanding the mahavihara as related to the contemporary settlements and agrarian expansion in the region. Situated on a dynamic flood plain characterized by the history of the changes oi rivers and flood, the paper also suggests that the monastic community was not necessarily mediating Buddhist monks engages in learning and ritualistic practices in isolation from the contemporary social and economic processes. Evidence of flood and damages by both anthropogenic actors and landscape changes have been detected both vertically and horizontally. Presently visible architectural remains were constructed upon habitations and architectural remains of earlier periods and the transformation and stratigraphic sequence indicate that the monastic establishment was neither a new construction not was it completely abandoned after 13th-14th century CE.