Meet Biswajit Sahu, a fisherman at day and an archaeologist by night

A fisherman from the Sundarbans has historians reassess the region's history

Five years ago, the West Bengal government identified a virgin beach in the Sitarampur and Gobardhanpur islands, which are connected at the south-western tip of the Sundarbans, as a potential tourist destination. While the plan never kicked off, Gobardhanpur did not go ignored. If not tourists, archaeologists and historians have been landing on its shores. The place they come to visit is the house of Biswajit Sahu, a fisherman whose accidental discoveries have raised questions about the history of the vast delta.

Like all other houses here, Sahu’s is a modest dwelling. A cropped family photo, a certificate, portraits of freedom fighters and poets, and a clothesline hang on a patchily cemented wall facing its entrance door. On the ledge of a window on this wall are stacked bones and broken wares of different shapes and sizes. It is these — and other such finds — that have piqued the interest of archaeologists and historians.

Over the last 30 years, Sahu has collected more than 10,000 such artefacts while fishing. The collection includes sculptures, stone tools, terracotta objects and pottery similar to the ones found in north India and ascribed to the Gupta (320–540 AD) and post-Gupta period. The rarer items include Brahmi and early Brahmi scriptures, indicative of the Mauryan (about 321 to 185 BC), Kushana (1st to 3rd century AD) and Shunga (from around 185 to 73 BC) periods.
 

Seen alongside other findings from recent excavation in and around Kolkata, Sahu’s discoveries gain significance. They indicate that the history of the region could date back to far earlier times than what is known.

There is not much documentation of the history of the Sundarbans prior to the Mughal period. The East India Company bought proprietary rights of the region from Mughal emperor Alamgir II in the mid-1700s. Subsequently, some of the forests were cleared for settlements.

Sahu’s discoveries push the history of the Sundarbans back to the Mauryan period — perhaps even before it. “His work indicates that the history of the Sundarbans goes back to the 1st or 2nd century BC, even in areas that still constitute the forests. So, his work is very important,” says Sharmi Chakraborty, fellow at of Centre for Archaeological Studies and Training, Eastern India, Kolkata.

Sahu’s work is unique given the “structural and contextual nature” of his collections, and it points towards potential sites of settlement and not just stray findings, says Rupendra Kumar Chattopadhyay, Paresh Chandra Chatterjee professor of history at Presidency University, Kolkata. Sahu finds extensive mention in Chattopadhyay’s recent book, The Archaeology of Coastal Bengal.

“Some objects are very rare and could be of pre-Gupta period and pre-Christian era. This is fascinating information,” adds Chattopadhyay.

On an island where the sea throws a challenge every day — Sahu has witnessed some 30 floods since he was born 50 years ago — the fisherman’s passion has earned him laurels. In 2016, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) gave a citation to Sahu for his work on the Sundarbans. The visits from historians and archaeologists, which are recorded in a 10-page visitor’s book that he now maintains in his house, have further validated his efforts.

Life otherwise remains tough. While electricity reached his island last year, his house is still waiting for it. And, there have been times when he and his family have had to go without food for days. “During calamities, sometimes the sea is so wild that aid does not reach us,” he says.

Sahu was 14 when he left school to work as a daily wager, building river embankments or transporting fish to nearby areas. The interest in archaeology developed quite by chance when at 16 he went to Kolkata for treatment for appendicitis. The wait at the government hospital was long. One day, to kill time, he visited the Indian Museum, which wasn’t far from the hospital. To his amazement, some of the objects he saw there were strikingly similar to the items he would come across while fishing.

Once back at the Sundarbans, Sahu started to search for such items. While the other fishermen would return home after the day’s catch, Sahu would venture deep into the forests in search of the artefacts.

Later, he started going to local history and archaeology seminars armed with his finds. It wasn’t long before the archaeologists and historians he met started getting intrigued. Some of them gave him books on archaeology. He also started visiting universities to participate in sessions on archaeology.

Archaeologists are divided on the extent to which the history of the Sundarbans can be pushed back on the basis of Sahu’s discoveries.

Acknowledging that Sahu’s discoveries point to the Mauryan period, P K Mishra, former regional director (eastern region), ASI, has submitted a 35-page report to the Centre and sought permission for independent government-backed explorations. “I have identified seven sites at the Sundarbans, all of which show traces that the region’s history goes back to the Mauryan and early Gupta period,” says Mishra.

Chakraborty, however, says, “Ascribing the date of findings to Mauryan age is far-fetched but that to the Shunga age is quite possible.”

And then there are those like Tapan Kumar Das, professor, department of ancient Indian history and culture at Calcutta University, who believe that the “Neolithic artefacts in Sahu’s collection and at other sites indicate that human settlement in the Sundarbans dates back to the Neolithic-Chalcolithic age till the early medieval period.”

Besides Sahu’s finds, the discovery of artefacts from the Dum Dum mound, from Chandraketugarh in North 24 Parganas, from the Park Street Metro Station site and during the construction work at Bethune College also point to sophisticated settlements and vibrant maritime trade in the region much before the arrival of the East India Company. 

“We can guess the Sundarbans were a flourishing settlement. The vessels leaving from Tamralipti (the modern-day Tamluk near Haldia port) might have used the area on the way to Java, Sumatra, Malaysia and Sri Lanka,” says Santanu Maity, who retired as superintendent from the ASI. “Chadraketugarh possibly served as the centre and all the other areas, including the Sundarbans, were satellite settlements.”

So then what happened to the rich settlements of the Sundarbans? “The Ganga shifted its course over the years and the settlements also moved away. There is geological work to suggests that delta building activity has shifted eastwards,” says Chakraborty. “The Portuguese and Burmese pirates also caused large-scale devastation to the settlements near the coast. However, the real archaeological work in the region is yet to be done.”

Archaeologists say only a scientific, joint excavation in collaboration with the ASI, the Geological Survey of India and the Zoological Survey of India can ascribe certainty to the assumptions. “We need more elaborate explorations to confirm the presence of extensive human settlement,” agrees Nandini Bhattachrya, regional director (East), ASI. The ASI has informally identified close to 20 sites in the Sundarbans for possible exploration.

The fisherman who is behind these developments has, meanwhile, kept his treasured finds with the 12-member trust that runs the Gobardhanpur Sundarban Old Museum. The Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972 stipulates that antiquities cannot be kept in private collection, unless they have been registered with the government after verification. ASI is yet to officially verify Sahu’s collection, which also needs to be catalogued and preserved. But that would entail costs beyond the fisherman’s means.