CHANDIMAO

Chandimao is situated about 100km south-east of Patna and about 12 km east of Silao, famous for Khaja (a kind of sweet), located on Bihar Sharif Rajgir road. Several sculptural fragments have been recovered while ploughing the agriculture field which insisted archaeological investigation of this area.

The excavation work was started on the mound, locally known as tilhapar which roughly measured 70X60 square mts. It is situated in south-western end of the village.

The excavation revealed remains of a brick built Buddhist temple and votive stupas, on a brick paved floor which seems to the courtyard of the temple. Entrance to the temple is exposed only in the south-eastern portion of the complex. The votive stupas are of various shapes and dimension. 12 nos. of votive stupas are exposed in the northern and the southern side of the temple. Most of the votive stupas are circular from base to hemispherical top. But four of them are raised on a square brick platform. A good numbers of fragements of circular bricks with a central hole, collected around these stupas, suggests that they might have been used as Chhatra-Vali  to fix on the top of the these votive stupas.

Another apsidal brick structure has been noticed towards the western part of the mound. The front portion of the structure is 7 mts. in length the width could not be determined as rest of the portion could not be exposed. The northern end is semi-circle with a radius of 1.40mts. The brick sizes are 35cmX26cm, 34cmX25cm. The patches of thin lime plaster are also observed on the brick floor.

Among the antiquities terracotta beads, sealings and plaques are found. Among the stone object mentions may be made of sculptures of Hindu and Buddhist deities belonging to 8th to 10th Cent. A.D. and fragment of a pedestal depicting Astaratna.

RTI