Posted on 02/22/2009 2:47:22 PM PST by nickcarraway
Believed to be among the oldest brick shrines in India, Lucknow University’s department of ancient Indian history and archaeology has unearthed a 2,000-year-old Shiva temple as part of its excavation project recently in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao district.
‘‘It’s actually a complex comprising five temples,’’ Prof D P Tewari of the Lucknow University said. ‘‘While four temples belong to the Kushana period (1st-3rd century AD or 2,000 years ago), it appears that the primary temple was constructed during the Sunga period (2nd century BC to 1st century AD or 2,200 years ago).’’
The temple site is a mound in Sanchankot in Unnao. The excavations have been going on since 2004, when UGC cleared the project for funding. ‘‘A lot of things have come to fore since we began, but the temple complex has suddenly given impetus to our research,’’ said Prof Tewari.
Spread across an area of 600 acres, the temple is made of baked bricks. In India, most of the brick temples were built in the Gupta period which existed in the fourth century AD. The temple’s architecture is ‘apsidal’ (semi-circular or u-shaped) in nature.
The LU has many artifacts to conclude that Lord Shiva was worshipped in this temple. Prof Tewari said, ‘‘A terracotta seal bearing the legend of ‘Kaalanjar peeth’ in Brahmi script was found from the site in Dec 2008.’’
A shivling, trishul, nandi bull, and a river are inscribed over the seal. The legend of ‘Kaalanjar peeth’ is inscribed just below the river.
Ping
Interesting.
Imagine, a 600 acre temple just lost ~ but then again everybody loses stuff sometimes ~ I’ve regularly been losing socks in the wash.
Awesome!
I know someone who had an old dryer in her basement. When she replaced it, it had to be disassembled to get it out of the basement. Somehow socks and wash cloths had gotten out of the tub and had been partially burned underneath in the motor compartment. It was a gas dryer.
Guess we know where those socks go.
Of course, having repeated waves of conquerors sweep through the land, decimating and scattering the local population before converting the survivors to Islam might have an effect on the collective memory.
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Thanks nickcarraway. |
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