By Sagar
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Dec 23: Destroying evidence is not exactly the job of the archaeology department, but that was what it did, for a change, here the other day. What was lost apparently is the first evidence of existence of an 11th century mandap buried under the Lingaraj police station in Old Town.
This goes against the motto of archeological survey, namely to find and preserve what is old and precious.
The Mandap was hit upon by Orissa Archeology (OA). It surfaced during the excavation of a temple. An OA official, speaking on condition of anonymity, admitted that not only was the mandap buried under the police station building, but that there was also the possibility of the existence of an entire temple lying under the premises of the Lingaraj temple.
A few days ago, excavation was done to unearth an 11th century temple, which earlier had only protruded above the ground a little. That was when an entire ‘parikrama’ was discovered, on the left side of which three ‘Shiv lings’ were also found. “The temple might have formed the model for the present Lingaraj temple, and was obviously built in ancient times. In those days, there was a practice of erecting several small temples before a grand one is set in the area,” said Ashwini Kumar Satpathy, OA curator.
During the excavation, on the north side, some slabs were found sticking out when the earth was dug to put a wall in place. This led to the discovery of a stack of several slabs lying one over the other. OA was not sure as to how to proceed further, and the excavation work on the north side was halted. However, within a week, OA hit upon an idea. It removed the slabs that were sticking out of the wall, and applied plaster over the place, to make sure the public will not notice the slabs and open a Pandora’s box, leading to relocation of the police station.
Deputy director Bhabani Prasad Ray appeared to be on the defensive and said, “The slabs were removed so that the wall can be plastered to save the nearby road and buildings from collapse.”
Earlier, while speaking to Orissa Post, Ray had said that he would be writing to his higher officials about the existence of the Mandap. Then, why the plastering? “This is for the time being. We have documental evidence. There is no need to keep them open. When the time comes, we will show the evidence.”
“During the excavation, the police made a lot of fuss. There was even some obstruction from them to the work we were doing.” “True, the job of the OA is to conserve and preserve monuments. As an archaeologist, I would say the best way out is to relocate the police station and the temple office nearby, to excavate the area and bring the mandap and the temple underneath, to light,” he said.
Ray said his priority however is to maintain the already-excavated temple. “Before the rainy season, we have to find a way out for water to be discharged, so that during rain, it doesn’t get submerged and weaken the structure. Plastering of the wall will in fact strengthen the nearby structure,” he said.
Srinivas Kabi, executive officer of the Lingaraj temple trust board, refused to comment on anything related to the existence of a temple beneath its office.
Bhuvan Vikrama, superintending archeologist at the Archeological Survey of India, said, “Excavation is being done by the state archaeology department, so we can’t interfere with the matter. Also, it appears there is no certainty as to whether there is something or not.”
