Scope and Limitation of the Research

The present day administrative boundary of any area cannot be taken to contain a culturally homogenous identity. When observed through time, even the apparent uniformity seen today might vanish. Therefore, it is quite understandable, as it has been already asserted, that this lack of cultural homogeneity is likely to remain as a constraint in studies of a region with a historical or archaeological perspective.

There have been volumes of works published on either the general history of Jainism in ancient Bengal based on literary sources or documentation of some Jain images as well as structural remains of the different archaeological sites. Although these studies often help one to draw a complete scenario of Jainism in ancient Bengal including the gradual development of Jain art and iconography as well as temple architectures of the concerned region. The correlation between the archaeological sites/settlements or find spots with the Jain edifices are also elaborately discuss here.

One of the basic aims of the present undertaking is to systematically synthesize the information gathered through the intensive fieldworks,^_______ coupled with the study of the Jain art, iconography and structural remains,^_______and finally examine the archaeological contexts of those Jain antiquities and try to develop a general picture about the historical development of Jainism and its close associated with the settlement dynamism in the concerned region during the particular period of time. Two varying strategies were adopted for carrying out fieldwork in different geographical terrains of ancient Bengal in accordance with the relevance to specific context. Firstly, exploration has been conducted on the basis of known area mentioned in the earlier works, resulting in the discovery of a number of hitherto unknown sites/settlements or find spots and their material assemblages. Secondly, a number of visits were made to the sites/settlements or find spots that have already been reported with the focus on a fresh analysis of the newly available database juxtaposition with existing bulk. Extensive explorations were conducted in the different region of the study area to study the contexts and contents of the Jain antiquities and try to trace out the trends of the gradual developments of the Jain art style in ancient Bengal.

The present research has several aims which may be explained in the following ways, the recent trends of researches is to study the thematic researches on the different aspects of West Bengal archaeology, though:

(a) The present study is basically the reconstruction of the religious history of the Jainas in ancient Bengal however, in this reconstruction archaeological assemblages are the main subject and on the basis of the different Jain antiquities the study gradually elaborate the origin and development of the Jainism in ancient Bengal.

(b) The study attempts at a thorough documentation of the Jain antiquities of ancient Bengal in order to provide a broader skeletal outline of the development Jain art style in the study area.

(c) Subsequently, the work also undertakes details study of the iconographic advancement in the concerned sculptural remains.

(d) It also explores the textual data as well as the limited epigraphical records in connection with the development of Jainism in ancient Bengal.

(e) In order to understand the relationship between Jainism and the contemporary society of the concerned region, the study also comprehensively examines the archaeological context and content of the different Jain antiquities.

(f) The study will also try to investigate the involvement of different social groups in the late historical -early medieval settlements that ultimately absorbed and retained the Jain tradition (as is clearly apparent from the archaeological remains) in the different zones of ancient Bengal. Here, a preliminary attempt has been made to explore the reasons for the expansion of the Jain settlements in this region that had/has a sizeable concentration of socially backward groups generally identified now as Doms, Hanris, Bagdis, Bauris and Antyaja groups. After all, the retention of ideological practices is dependent upon the then social dynamics inherited from its past. Further, ethno-archaeological data in form of living practices retrieved from the study area and betraying the continuity of the Jain tradition have encouraged us to search for the Jain antecedence.

One of the major limitations of the present research, besides those mentioned in the Preface, deserves a separate and specific explanation. In the study of Jainism in ancient Bengal, in any of its aspects, is that lack of information regarding the historical development of Jainism in this part of the country. Earlier scholars have taken into account only the beginning phase of Jainism in this area and then they shifted their attention to the other parts of the country, simply assuming that owing to some peculiar conditions, Jainism could not survive here in ancient Bengal. However, the recent explorations in this area proved that Jainism survived here at least the end of 13^th century CE. Another difficulty in the present study is the lack of epigraphical records particularly in association with the Jainism. There are very few epigraphical records which deal about the Jainism and its association with ancient Bengal though, these records are not enough to draw a comprehensive scenario about the historical growth of this religious ideology in ancient Bengal.

No attempt in the present dissertation has been made towards the reconstruction the religious history of Jainism as well as its philosophical aspect and its acceptance towards the contemporary society of ancient Bengal. Though the present study try to give a complete picture about the stylistic evolution of the Jain sculptural specimens constituting the present database by comparing them with the Jain remains found from other parts of eastern India and this study indirectly help us to trace the evolution of the Jain religious sentiment in the contemporary society. Earlier scholars (Beglar, J.D 1878/1966; Mitra, D 1958: 131-134; Majumder, R.C. 1968: 136-37; Saraswati, S.K. 1976: 57-60 Calcutta; Banerji, R.D. 1980: 144-148; Chakrabarti, Dilip K. 1993; Das, D.R., 1997: 107-124; Gupta, C. 1993-94: 216-225; Chhattopadhyay, R.K., 2010: 155-214) while reporting a few Jain images and temples of this study area have clubbed them within the early medieval-medieval time bracket without suggesting the stages of stylistic development of these images as well as they felt to trace the association with the Jain images and the archaeological sites/settlements or find spots. In most of the cases they include every find spots as archaeological site and they did not pay much attention to club these stay findings of Jain images and prepare a complete scenario of Jainism in ancient Bengal.

Another limitation of the present study is to identify the Jain images properly, because in most of the cases Jain images lost their own identity and presently converted as Brahmanical deity and in a few cases these images are covered with garments so it creates problem for proper identification. Often there are later addition and alterations to the few images and this does not allow us to make the proper identification of the concern images.

“More than the political, social and literary historian, the student of religion and mythology will feel in every step the need of a thorough acquaintance with the divine rivers and mountains which receive to this day the homage of the faithful, and those Dharma-kshetras and Puṇya-sthānas which even now attract pilgrims from the remotest corners of the country”

H.C. Raychaudhuri (1958)