Saptagram (sapta: seven, just like septa in Latin; gram: villages) or Satgaon was an ancient port on the Ganges (river Bhagirathi to be precise, which is one of its distributaries). Around 10th century A.D. Saptagram became a major centre for trade in Eastern India. By 12th century ship from all over the known world came to Saptagram port to buy Indian spices, silk, fabric, perfumes, ornaments, and jewelry and to sell their own merchandise. Rome, Portugal, Netherlands, as well as the far eastern countries, like Java, Sumatra, and later (16th century onwards) France and Britain were connected to Saptagram through the trade-route. Believe it or not, there is still a village nearby of the Portuguese settlers from that era and their present population is about 6000. Interestingly, none of them know a word of Portuguese any more. The first church in Eastern India was built by the Portuguese in Bandel, few kilometers away from Saptagram (started : 1599, finished : 1660). Here is a stained glass work of one of the windows of the basilica.
A scholarly, yet brief review on
Saptagram can be found in :
Here is a map to give you an idea about the location, although, the map of India looked very different then..
Saptagram became a centre for education and culture. Both Hindu and Buddhist scholars gathered around Saptagram. Until the Muslim invasion in 1298 it flourished as a center for pilgrimage to the Hindus. There was a huge Hindu temple on the eastern bank of the river Ganges. Zafar Khan Gazi, the general of the Muslim invaders destroyed the Hindu temple and converted it to a mosque. Chiseled statues of Hindu deities can still be seen on the back walls of the temple. I took this picture just of the west side of the temple not too long ago.
"History has many cunning passages, contrived corridors
And issues, deceives with whispering ambitions,
Guides us by vanities.." (Gerontion by T.S.Eliot)
Near the temple, there is an old banyan tree. No one knows how old it is. I sometimes wonder, how much of history has this tree witnessed! I wish it could talk.
Opposite to it flows the river Ganges. Here you see a tiny hand-made wooden boat used by a local fisherman. Some of the things did not change in the last thousand years.
and some obviously did...
Not too far from here, there are two beautiful temples. One is Hanseswari... Its unique architecture is unlike any other temple of Bengal. It does have some resemblance with St Peters Chapel of Moscow. Recently the temple underwent minor renovation. White paints were used in several parts of the temple. I like the original uncoloured red bricks rather the coloured structure. Renovation and restoration are two different words to me, and I prefer the later when it comes to old structures.
The other one is the Basudeb temple. It is a single canopied Bengal-style architecture.
The burnt-clay terracotta on the walls of the Basudeb-temple are slightly worn out with its age. A few of them have been removed (not sure by whom). Still, you can see quite a few of them. They depict stories from the Hindu mythologies. I wish I had better pictures of the terracotta than these:
As a young boy, I used to bike on the road along the riverbank. On some hot summer afternoons I would sit underneath the shade of an old tree and refresh myself with the river breeze, and hear the boatmen singing folklores from their tiny fishing boats. I wondered a thousand years ago, I would probably watch the Roman or the Portuguese or the Sumatran sailors singing some unknown melodies, perhaps the folklores from their own land. I would not understand the lyrics, but I know that they would be songs of love, or of amorous grieves and pangs. After all we are all the same...our melodies might vary, but not our feelings.
No comments:
Post a Comment