Renegotiating Sectarian Space through the Realia and Monasteries of Early Medieval Bengal

Abstract

Abstract This article considers the practices about ‘the special dead’ related to the monastery at Pāhāṛpur (‘Hill--town’) in the Rājshāhī region of North--Western Bangladesh. This Early Medieval community was rich in religious diversity from the Gupta to Pāla periods—dense with evidence of Jain, Hindu, and Buddhist activity. There are a number of stūpa structures throughout the grounds for the burial of revered teachers and leaders such that the living comingled with the dead in an academic and religious setting. The Pāla era monastery was dedicated to advanced learning, meditation, worship, student housing, and burial. At the centre of the monastery is a large stūpa that has been celebrated widely for its diverse imagery in the form of terracotta plaques and relief sculptures with Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain themes. This article focuses on the reception history of this site and especially on its unique role as a mediator of religious voices from the region’s past. Under Dharmapāla, the site became branded as Buddhist as part of a broader imperial effort to promote Buddhist networks. Locally, however, the site maintained and promoted relationships to Hindu and Jain communities as well as Buddhist ones. Its endurance as a sacred site through complex interreligious permutations is intriguing though not surprising. Death and learning were not separated. Evidence from Pāhāṛpur raises questions about the communities who lived there as well as our understanding of their approach to death in practice in the Bengal region.