SISUPALAGARH
Sisupalagarh is one of the most
ancient archeological structures in eastern India, situated near Bhubaneswar
the capital city of modern day Orissa. In the ancient times Orissa was Kalinga
and supposedly Bhubaneswar was the capital . To understand the antiquity of Sisupalagarh, we need to understand the nomenclature of
this ancient structure. Sisupalagarh is in fact Sisupala and garh and Sisupala is the name of
an ancient King of the Mahabharata
era and Garh
means a fort .
As per the sacred
Maha Bhagabat Puranna::: In the Dwapara yuga a prince was
born to King Dhamaghosa and Queen Srutadava
( sister of Vasudeva who was the farther of Lord
Krishna) a king of the Chedi dynasty. This prince was
named Sisupala and incidentally this prince was a
cousin of Lord Krishna.
As
per our Puranas , many legends and stories are associated with this king Sisupala . One such Legend is that Sisupala
was in love with Rukmini, the most beautiful damsel
of those times. Sisupala had many romantic dreams of
this girl and desired to marry her. On the other hand ,
Lord Krishna , the then lover boy and a Casanova of the era, enticed Rukmini,
eloped and married her. This annoyed Sisupala
extremely who in a fit of rage abused Lord Krishna in an open court ,to the extent
that Lord Krishna slew Sisupala by beheading him then
and there. Puranas speak of King Sisupala
being a general of the Kourabas in the great
Mahabharata War against the Pandavas.
History mentions
about King Kharavela being a Chedi
king and having his Palace at Sisupalagarh after extensive renovation
of the older one. Though the Chedi Dynasty was from Madhya
desa or midland 
India,
in the past some Chedi Kings migrated to the eastern
coast and set up their Kingdom.
Hence
taking into account the Chedi Dynasty Kings, Sisupala being a powerful Chedi
King and Sisupalagarh being his Fort, the association
with Lord Krishna and The Great War Mahabharat
wherein Kalinga warriors fighting for the Kourabas under the generalship of King Sisupala,
Todays Sisupalagarh is an
antique of (or may be beyond ) the Mahabharat era or about 3137 B.C. Subsequently King Kharavel did extensive rennovations
to it and built his Maha Vijaya
Prasada. The Great Victory Palace.
This is as per the inscriptions on Hatigumpha, Udayagiri, Bhubaneswar of present
day.
Rukmini Haranna.
As
per eminent and established archeologist Dr.B.K.Rath,
the archeological finds from that place like pieces of pottery, vessels,
building materials etc
have been carbon dated and date back to more than ten thousand years old.
Articles
recovered on excavation by Archiological Scociety of India.
As we travel
towards river Daya on our way to Puri
from Bhubaneswar , we cross the small river Gangua and come
across a left turn only about a mile from Gangua.
This left turn takes us to our Sisupalagarh through a
winding narrow country road. We go through a very old village and reach the excavated western
gate of the fort. Larger than usual size laterite stone
slabs used for the construction of the fort walls and gate make up for all the
construction material that is visible.
Eminent Historian
and Archeologist Sri N.K.Sahoo has done elaborate
exploratory work at this place and his book on the subject Kharavela is an invaluable reference . He mentions
as
The fort is
almost square in plan, each of its sides being almost three quarter of a mile
long. It thus encloses an area of over half a square mile which
accommodated the royal house hold, military and administrative
establishments. The contour of the fort
walls suggest that there were corner towers rising high into the sky while
traces of eight large gateways , two on each side are
also found. The pottery of that period which was wheel turned was plain and
devoid of any decorations and it appears that residential houses were all made
of earth and perishable material.
Of the eight
gates, this gate on the western side was excavated in 1948. The laterite blocks measure 6x2x1 feet. The longer arm of the laterite stone gates flank measure 160 feet and the shorter arm 63
feet while the width is 27 to 28 feet. The passage flanked by the two longer
arms takes the form of a slow rising ramp about 25 feet wide and provide
accesses to the interior of 
the
fort. There were two gates, one near the entrance and the other further back at
a little over 100 feet apart. These were probable of wood hence no remains have
been found but door sockets could be traced. Each gate is about 13 feet wide
and high enough to allow elephants and chariots to pass.
Adjacent to the
inner gate is the ancillary passage, 5 feet three inches wide built into the
northern flank. This passage could have been used by pedestrians while the main
doors were closed. Well formed laterite
steps at the inner side of the gate on both flanks provides easy
accesses to the top of the high rampant wall tops. A large sized rectangular laterite stone tub at mezzanine level on the inside of
the southern flank near the main gate could be located. This may be for storage
of water.
The 30 feet
rampant wall running away to the north and south, now covered with earth and
wild growth are the un excavated portions of the
perimeter defense system awaiting further exploration.
About
a
100 yards inside the perimeter of the fort, straight towards east from the
excavated western gate, was the foundation part of probably a guard house.
Rectangular in shape with about three rooms, the remains of a foundation of
large laterite stone slabs,
could be noticed till only about two years back. Now this structure is lost
among many building construction activity in the vicinity.
As present day land occupation and house construction activity has stepped up along side the insensitivity of our urban civic bodies and urban population, it has indeed become a difficult preposition to locate age old remains of such an ancient civilization. Literally one has to search hard for such artifacts among the fast upcoming concrete jungle. Few years hence , we may find Sisupalagarh only in books.
We now proceed to
the center of the fort area, which is about 400 / 500
yards from the western gate towards east. This is the unexcavated area where
still stands the sowla khamba sixteen pillars of the structural hall. Among rice fields and mounds of earth
are the 14 remaining laterite monolithic pillars,
standing almost 15 to 20 feet tall. Ravages of nature and man may have had its
effect but still the monolithic pillars are majestic. There are socket hole at
the top of these pillars suggesting of additional fixtures of wooden beams for
the upper stories and the roof. The shape, size and socket holes etc give us an
idea about the architectural style of those times.
Only about a
distance of 200 feet , towards south eastern direction
from the pillared area, we come across a large and well built pond. With high
embankments on all four sides this rectangular pond measures approximately 150
x 100 feet and known as the Rani Pokhari
/ Chedi pokhari or the Chedi Queens Pond. The size ,
shape and proximity to the palace site indicates of a distinct status of this ancient
pond.
On further
enquiries at the hamlet on the bank of this pond revealed the finding of a laterite stone LINGUM structure of about 3 feet in height
and almost 3 feet in circumference from the center of the pond about 26 years
back. We also notice a serpentine form spiraling upwards on this LINGUM. Villager speak of more such images in the pond which they
have felt with their feet while swimming across in the pond.
Indeed its but
obvious for such a large water body to exist near such a palace. This Rani Pokkhari or Chedi pokhari till date finds no
mention in any of our History or Archeology texts. Thus remaining a neglected
part of this important
archeological site, calls for immediate
attention of concerned bodies. We shall
initiate some exploratory ground
work with local assistance and throw more light on this ancient water body and
encourage professional excavatory work in this direction.
In short the end.
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