The Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) has recovered an ancient Vishnu Vigraha made of rough stone and abandoned on the India-Bangladesh border at Panchagarh district in Bangladesh.
At midnight, members of the Tokapara BGB camp under Nilphamari 56 BGB recovered the Vigraha from a house 500 yards inside the Tokapara border area of Amarkhana Union of Panchagarh Sadar Upazila on Friday.
Later on Saturday (October 29) morning, it was taken to the battalion for examination. Locals said that the Vigraha was abandoned in a house in the Tokapara border area. BGB camp members raided and recovered it based on secret information.
After the examination, BGB battalion officer Lt. Colonel Asaduzzaman Hakim said, “It is known that the Vigraha is made of hard stone. The Vigraha may be placed in a museum. “Weighing 95.8 kilograms, the Vigraha is 46 inches long, 20 inches wide and two inches thick at the top, six inches at the middle, and five and six inches at the bottom,” he said.
Previously, an archaeological excavation at Rezakpur in the Kapilmuni union of Paikgachha Upazila of Khulna unearthed a thousand-year-old specimen. It has been named ‘Kapilmuni Dhibi’. Terracotta, Vigrahas, large earthenware hooks, cowries, rice, bricks, etc. were found there. The excavation work started on March 12 and lasted till the last week of April. The excavation team was led by Afroza Khan Mita, Regional Director, Khulna and Barisal Division of the Department of Archeology. She said, “The patterns we have found in Rezakpur village are thought to be between 1000 and 1200 years old.”
The Ramayana mentions Kapileshwar Muni and the vast swampy forest, which is identical to the Sundarbans forest. Satish Chandra Mitra’s hundred-year-old book, “History of Jessore-Khulna,” contains various archaeological monuments and places mentioned in Kapilmuni.