Rediscovering Gaur : a Medieval Capital of Bengal

The paper attempts to reconstruct the archaeological re-discovery of the capital city of Sultanate Bengal, popularly known as Gaur during mediaeval time. The account and reason of the decline of this once populous and glorious city, its abandonment and eventual desertion in the 16th century have been dealt with by several scholars and hence kept beyond the purview of this lecture. It is also well known that the rich architectural heritage of the desolate city was systematically stripped off for building material for more than two centuries sparing only the religious edifices.