Archaeology of Odisha and Paramananda Acharya

Padmashree Paramananda Acharya, a passionate archeologist was the first Indian scholar who brought Odisha into the pre-historic archacological map of the world through his in depth study of teh culture of Mayurbhanj.

He has earned accolades for his works of restoration and reconstruction of the temples at Khiching (Mayurbhanj, Odisha), specifically the Chandra Sekhar temple, which was dismantled and restored from bottom to the top.

He has shown interest also to find out the socio-cultural history of the Odia people. Paramananda was a great organizer of Museums. He developed the Odisha Stote Museum at Bhubaneswar from its infant state.

Dr. Jayanti Rath obtained her master's degree in History (1981), M. Phil and P.hd from Utkal University, Bhubaneswar. She is a connoisseur of art and also a noted literary personality of the State of Odisha.

At present, She is holding the post of Superintendent, Odisha State Museum and Secretary, Odisha Sahitya Akademi. She is not only a capable administrator but also a sedulous researcher. A number of articles written by her have been published in different Journal both in India and abroad. She has represented the country in a SAARC conference at Srilanka in 2015. She has received a number of prestigious awards for her literary contributions including the State Sahitya Akademi Award in 1995.

Apart from rich cultural heritage, Odisha is endowed with vast architectural potentialities. Few scholars of erudition in the first half of the twentieth century have labored hard to unearth the latent facets of the by-gone days. Among them, Paramananda Acharya stands out as the pioneer in the field of archaeological exploration, who by his close observation and scientific judgment brought to light certain amazing account of the history of Odisha.

In the early phase of his career he had the opportunity of working with very reputed archaeologists of his time from India and the west, such as R.P. Chanda, R.D. Banarjee and E.C. Worman (Harvard). After the exploratory work of the legendary geologist Valentine Ball in Odisha in late 19th Century, Paramananda Acharya was the first Indian scholar who brought Odisha into the pre-historic archaeological map of the world through his in-depth study of the lithic culture of Mayurbhanj. It is really surprising to find that a person like Paramananda has spent his whole life time in explaining the past and thus enriching the historical thought.

The present work is an humble attempt to describe the contributions of Paramananda Acharya as regards the archaeology of Odisha is concerned. I also find no dependable and exhaustive biographical account of this great personality. In my knowledge, no serious investigation has yet been conducted on it, which further strengthened my conviction regarding the justification of such an attempt.

Glyn Daniel in "The origins and growth of Archaeology" (Penguin books Ltd, 1967) defines archaeology as "the way in which actions of human beings may be understood through the study of what human beings did rather than simply through what they said of themselves". It is the careful examination and analysis of the antiquities for reconstruction the past.

"Archaeology is a Science to study and reconstruct various stages of the development of man in the past with the help of those tools, weapons and other traits left behind by him which have survived the onslaughts of time, nature and climate" Through the study of Archaeology as a systematic discipline took its birth only in 1859 with the publication of "Origin of Species" by Charles Darwin, the roots of it had developed in a distant past, the specific time of which cannot be determined.

Archaeological exploration in India had its humble beginning as late as 1784 when Sir William Jones founded the Asiatic Society on 15th January. But with the appointment of Sir Mortimer Wheeler as the Director General, Archaeology in 1944, a new impetus was given to the study of Indian Archaeology. He infused a new spirit amongst the scholars in India by his strategic planning, new techniques and above all, a rigorous discipline in the field. He introduced the latest technique of excavation in the principle of stratification unknown in India till then. Further improvements have been incorporated in the study of Archaeology (in the modern period) by scholars like L.R. Binford, Chang and Graham Clarke. The term 'new Archaeology' was coined to cover-up those concepts.

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