Himalayan News Service

Rajbiraj, March 2:

The ruins of an ancient palace have been discovered at Kanakpati of Khoksarprawah VDC in Saptari district. According to the Department of Archaeology (DoA), the find is the fruit of over three months of excavation.

A riverine flood washed down a man-made artistic wall to Kanakpati located in the lowland of Chure mountain. In the excavation that began in December, a 340 meter-long infrastructure of the palace building has been discovered. The foundation of the building is of stone and the building has doors and windows in separate rooms which were constructed with artistic bricks. Archaelogists believe it is the infrastructure of the palace of some king from the olden times. The old-style bricks can easily be seen. Bricks of this type were used to construct the boundary wall that enclosed an area of 40 bighas of land.

As the design of the building seems very similar to the design of the statue situated at Kundan in Kapilvastu, DoA official Prakash Darnal surmised that the palace might be of Lichhavi era.

An idol of Buddha with a beard found during excavation indicates that the building might be older than the Lichhavi era, said Associate Professor Dr Pitambarlal Yadav, chief of the History Department at Mahendra Bindeshwori Multiple (MBM) Campus, Rajbiraj. The idol, which is 25 centimetres broad and 22 centimetres high will be taken to DoA, Kathmandu, for tests. As idols with beards were believed to have been found during the Kushan era, which existed after Gupta era in India, this idol of Buddha might be of the Kushan era, opined Harikrantlal Das, chief of department of History and Culture at MBM Campus. At the same time, Maithili inscriptions have been found on the walls of the ancient palace. It is said that Sen kings of Bengal while expanding their kingdom, constructed a palace on Chandramaya hillock.