India history and geography

Source: varalaaru: Airāvati (Jain religious tradition in Tamil Nadu)

Somapura is the name of ancient archaeologically important site.—The Somapura Mahāvihāra at Paharpur, Bangladesh, dating from 8th cent. AD. is especially famous for the continuous friezes comprising thousands of stamped terracotta plaques adorning the exterior walls of the plinth and the lower terraces. The plaques are known for their 'exuberant treatment' of 'all conceivable subjects of human interest' including divine figures, both Brahmanical and Buddhist (many more of the former than the latter).

Source: Shodhganga: Legacy of Buddhism in Bengal

Somapura (Paharpur) is the name of ancient Buddhist centre.—One of the memorable centres of Buddhism that sprang up in eastern India under the patronage of the Buddhist Pālas was Somapura, far away from any known town or capital. The establishment of the Somapura monastery, monumental of its kind, was due to the munificence of Dharmapāla (circa A.D. 770-810), the second ruler of the dynasty.

The ruins of the Somapura monastery have been identified with those at Paharpur (lat. 25° 2' N.; long. 89° 3' E.; District Rajshahi, East Pakistan), 3 miles away from the Jamalganj railway-station. Paharpur, “hill-town”, apparently owes its name to the loftiness of its ruins (presenting the appearance of a pāhāḍ or hill), mainly of the main sanctuary of the place, rising 70 ft. above the flat land.

According to a twelfth-century Nālandā inscription, a temple of Tārā was constructed at Somapura by a monk, Vipulaśrīmitra, for the removal of eight perils. As the temple originated earlier than the twelfth century, it is contended that Vipulaśrīmitra might have renovated and not actually built this very temple. Dīpaṅkara Śrījñāna Atīśa, a famous monk of Bengal who went to Tibet, is known from the Tibetan source, to have stayed for years in this monastery of Somapura in which his spiritual preceptor Ratnākara-śānti was a sthavira.

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The history of India traces the identification of countries, villages, towns and other regions of India, as well as mythology, zoology, royal dynasties, rulers, tribes, local festivities and traditions and regional languages. Ancient India enjoyed religious freedom and encourages the path of Dharma, a concept common to Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism.

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Sanskrit dictionary

Source: Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries: Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary

1) Somapura (सोमपुर):—[=soma-pura] [from soma] n. the city of Soma, [Mahābhārata]

2) [v.s. ...] an ancient Name of Pāṭali-putra, [Vīracarita]

3) [v.s. ...] n. or f(ī). Name of a temple, [Buddhist literature]

[Sanskrit to German]

Somapura in German

context information

Sanskrit, also spelled संस्कृतम् (saṃskṛtam), is an ancient language of India commonly seen as the grandmother of the Indo-European language family (even English!). Closely allied with Prakrit and Pali, Sanskrit is more exhaustive in both grammar and terms and has the most extensive collection of literature in the world, greatly surpassing its sister-languages Greek and Latin.

See also (Relevant definitions)

Partial matches: Pura, Soma.

Full-text: Paharpur, Somasena, Abhinavacandrarghavidhi.

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Search found 3 books and stories containing Somapura, Soma-pura; (plurals include: Somapuras, puras). You can also click to the full overview containing English textual excerpts. Below are direct links for the most relevant articles:

Hevajra Tantra (analytical study) (by Seung Ho Nam)

3. history of Yogaratnamala < [Chapter 2 - Place of Hevajra Tantra in Tantric Literature]

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Settlement in Early Historic Ganga Plain (by Chirantani Das)

Part 7 - Nalanda’s Rise of a Multi-functional Nodal Centre < [Chapter III - Nālandā: Evidence for rise and progress of the settlement]

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Triveni Journal

Reviews < [Oct-Dec 1971]

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