Treasure trove of 9th-12th century C.E idols found in Odisha village

A team from the group 'Rediscover Lost Heritage', on Friday claimed to have discovered a treasure trove of old temple idols and panels at Laudanki village near Satasankha on the Bhubaneswar-Puri road.

The six-member team, which was conducting a survey of the Ratnachira Valley, came across the ancient idols on Thursday while inspecting the precincts of the ancient Gateswar temple in the village, just 15 km from Pipli and 40 km from Bhubaneswar.

Anil Dhir, the leader of the team, said the assortment of nearly two dozen artifacts was discovered beneath a big garbage heap at the rear of the temple kitchen.

The team had earlier discovered surface remains of an ancient temple strewn around the complex which comprised of carved stone blocks.

Deepak Kumar Nayak, the Chief Co-ordinator of the RLH group, who is heading the Ratnachira project, says that the identified images include a three feet Kartikeya image in Mayurasana, a two feet Ganesh in Ardhaparayanika, a two feet Mahisasishmardini image, a seven hooded serpent image of Manasa besides an assortment of temple panels with intricate carvings of Alasyakanyas, Brushavas, Nara Vidalas etc.

A small brass mask of Lord Shiva too was found. The antiquities, except the brass mask, can be dated to a period between the 9th to 12th Century C.E. The artefacts have been kept inside the temple and the authorities have been informed, Nayak said.

Local villagers had told the team that many old images had been recovered during the restoration of the temple by the State Archaeology Department in 1999. These images had been kept aside by the authorities for transportation to the State Museum. However, with the temple inundated during the Super Cyclone in 1999, the trove was since lost.

Officials too forgot about the recovered images, and they have since then been lying buried in the garbage heap for the past two decades, Dhir said.

The team members included Conservation Architect, Aloukika Mohanty, Subhashish Dash, Suman Prakash Swain and Sitakanta Mishra.

The team had earlier discovered a very early stone temple at Biropurusottampur, just four km from the present find.

According to Dhir, like the Prachi Valley, the Ratnachira Valley too is a treasure house of many archaeological wonders, most of them being obscure remain unknown and undocumented.