What if Bengal’s greatest contributions to Indian civilisation have been almost entirely forgotten? This panel brings together scholars to excavate the layers — from a millennium-old university to a buried maritime empire.

Prof. Prabhal Roy Choudhury traces Navadvip’s history as a premier seat of Navya-Nyaya and Sanskrit scholarship that predates Oxford, once hosting 1,500 scholars and 5,000 students — free of charge — before British policy dismantled it. Prof. Amitabh Chatterjee follows with a sociocultural history of Indian wrestling: from the Malla Purana and Hanuman-worship rituals of the Akhara to Bengal’s own Gobor Guho, who won the Scottish championship in 1913 and defeated European wrestlers in Paris. Shudra Shekhar Roy then reframes the Akhara not as a sports institution but as a strategic civilisational defence system positioned around temples — and resurrects the forgotten Bagdi warrior Babu Vishwanath, first martyr of the Indigo Revolution. The panel closes with a wide-ranging exchange on Bengal’s ancient maritime trade — ships carrying 700 to 2,000 men built with nail-free swing technology at Tamaralipta and Chilika — and a sharp indictment: India has yet to excavate a single shipwreck from its own Bay of Bengal coast.

About the speakers:
Prof. Probal Roy Chowdhury – Director, Centre for New India Studies, Sister Nivedita University
Dr. Amitava Chatterjee – Professor, Kazi Nazrul University
Surya Sarathi Roy – Heritage Conservationist, Historian, Author, Director IHAR (N. India)

Moderator:
Suropriyo Chakraborty – Research Scholar, Sister Nivedita University