Place · ancient city · Bangladesh
Mahāsthāngarh
Pundranagara, the ancient capital of the Pundravardhana kingdom, 18 kilometres north of Bogura in Bangladesh — the oldest excavated city in Bengal and the eastern anchor of Mauryan administration. The Mahasthan Brahmi inscription on a limestone slab (3rd c. BCE), ordering stocking of local granaries for distress relief, is the oldest written record from Bengal and one of the earliest post-Ashokan administrative documents known. The city was a continuously occupied capital through the Guptas, Palas and Senas (c. 3rd c. BCE - 12th c. CE). The eastern limit of the Mauryan epigraphic belt before the Pala period extended the administrative zone further.
- Function
- Archaeology & heritage
- Tradition
- Mahasthan Brahmi inscription
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 24.967, 89.350
Connections (1)
- Early urban BengalWari-Bateshwar
Wari-Bateshwar in the delta interior and Mahasthangarh on the Karatoya are the earliest urban sites in Bengal — fortified towns with punch-marked coins, semi-precious stone beads and evidence of long-distance trade in the pre-Mauryan and Mauryan centuries. Mahasthangarh has a Brahmi inscription of the Mauryan period about famine relief grain, which makes it the eastern anchor of the Ashokan administrative map.
On these journeys
Sources
Mahasthangarh — Bangladesh Dept. of Archaeology
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