GajaLakshmi Worship in Gangaridai Civilization

Worship of Debi Gõjõ-Lōkkhī in Gangaridae Civilization 

🪙 Śubha Dhanatraẏōdaśī  🪙

On this day, the Vaishya merchant community of Bengal - the Baṇikas take a vow to worship their goddess GajaLakṣmī. During the heyday of the ancient Gangaridai civilization, the Gangazha merchants used to trade in Sinhala, Java, Sumatra, Rome, Greece, Crete with huge cargo ships and returned home with huge wealth. At that time, Pippali spice of Bengal was in great demand in the world. Pliny lamented that all Rome's gold would have been spent buying Pippali from the Gangaridai. Many famous merchants like Banik Chandrapati, Banik Pundarik, Banik Jambhalamitra, Banik Dhanpati Shresthi have traded in the foreign and the stories of their huge ships, Saptadingha, Madhukar Dinga have become legends.

Picture : Gangaridai era Gaja-Lakshmi/Gõjõ-Lōkkhī murti from Chandraketugarh, West Bengal.

Gold came from foreign trade, through the export of various cash crops of Bengal abroad. Although there is an indication of gold mines not far from the capital of the Gangaridae kingdom in Bengal (the river Suvarnarekha is a memorial of gold, gold mines are not impossible) in the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, where a gold coin known as "Caltis" is mentioned in the Gangaridae kingdom. Incidentally, the two rivers Labanyavati and Suvarnavati were like the two arteries of the capital of the Gangaridae civilization: the Noai and Sonai canals of today's North Twenty-four Parganas. So gold connection will be something.

Gangaridai in Ptolemy's Map

But the Ivory was a special signature in the Gangaridae civilization. Elephants were a specialty of the Gangaridae Empire. Roman historian Quintus Curtius Rufus states that the Gangaridai army had 3,000 elephants, 2,000 horses, 2,000 infantry and 2,000 chariots. Of these, the elephant army was the most formidable. Virgil says that he will record the valor of the Gangaridai in pure gold and ivory. Numerous Greek and Roman sources refer to this race living in the Ganga estuary as the Gangaridai. With them there is regular trade and cultural exchange between the Greek and Roman worlds.