Dharaut ancient site remains neglected

JEHANABAD: Of the various places in Jehanabad district which have yielded ancient remains, Dharaut occupies a notable position. Judging from the extent of its mounds and ancient sculptures, Dharaut must evidently have been a place of considerable repute in the days of yore. Ironically, however, the village with such a rich historical legacy is presently in utter neglect.
Dharaut, a village in the south of Jehanabad, about 7 km north-west of the Barabar hills, has been identified as the site of the Buddhist monastery of Gunamati.
According to the legend, Gunamati was a learned Buddhist of southern India, who engaged Madhava, a Brahmin heretic, in a controversy and finally vanquished him in the argument.
The then king built a great monastery to celebrate the victory of Gunamati. This monastery was visited in the seventh century AD by Huen Tsang.
Not only does the position of Dharaut correspond with the account of the itinerary given by the Chinese pilgrim but the site of the ruins still agrees with Huen Tsang’s descriptions. It has been suggested that the name of the Kunwa hill to the south of the village is derived from the old name of Gunamati or Gunmat.
On the northern slopes of this hill there are the ruins of a great monastery out of which numerous Buddhist statues have been dug up. Near the foot of the hill, a 60-feet-long terrace has been traced and 200 yards away, on the western side, is another 250-feet-long terrace on which several Buddhist figures stood over the years.
The villagers have unfortunately ransacked these remains, leaving in places only a number of trenches to mark the position of the walls and most of the statues have been carried off to the Brahminical temples in the neighbourhood. The excavations made by general Cunninghan, however, proves that the lower platform was covered with a great building with its back wall against the hill as described by Huen Tsang.
At the foot of the hills, on the south of Dharaut, stretches a long tank, 2,000 feet in length and 800 feet in breadth, known as ''Chandokhar'' or ''Chandra Pokhar''.
Two modern temples at its north-eastern corner once contained a large collection of ancient statues, of which the most remarkable were the statues of Kartikayini, the war god, and the Bodhisattva Avalokita.
Most of these images found at Dharaut have been now shifted to the museums at Patna and Gaya. However, the ruined monastery still offers a wide scope for exploration to the archaeologists.