A 60 foot tall 500-year-old temple found submerged in Odisha’s Mahanadi came to light recently this month by the experts as a heritage project was underway by the National Trust for Art & Cultural & Cultural Heritage (INTACH) in Odisha. A documentation project of the heritage sites in the river valley had been going on for sometime since last year and the temple was noticed in the mid-river near Baideswar in the Padmavati area in Cuttack. The temple was dedicated to Gopinath Dev. It is said that nearly 50 ancient temples were lost due to the Hirakud dam that covers a vast area.
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| Submerged 500 year old temple, Mahanadi, Odisha democraticaccent.com |
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| submerged temple, Mahanadi, Odisha. deccanherald.com |
Based on the style of construction - the Mastaka and the materials used in the structure, according to the project co-ordinator, Mr. Dhir. the temple dates back to the 15th century. The INTACH would make a formal request to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to take steps for relocating it to a much safer site and carry out the restoration work. The state government will also approach the ASI as they have the technology and manpower to do this delicate job. The INTACH, it is said, had so far located as many as 65 ancient temples in the Mahanadi river during its documentation project and many of them are in the Hirakud reservoir. The INACH director said, they need to be ''dismantled and reconstructed''. The region where the temple was found submerged was known as “Satapatana” in the early days. Owing to catastrophic flooding, the over-flowing river changed its course of flow and caused the submergence of the village.
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| Herakud dam, Odisha one of the 10 largest dams in the world. trendrr.net |
In the mid 19th century, it had been a practice by the temple administrators to shift the idols and deities of the vulnerable temples to a much safer and higher location for the purpose of saving the structure and the deities for the posterity. The Gopinath Dev temple of Padmavati village was shifted to the present place way back in the past. The heritage survey covering the various sites all along its course from the source of the Mahanadi to its confluence in the Bay of Bengal - a distance of 1700 km is in its final phases of completion, according to the INTACH. A multi-volume report of the nearly 800 monuments that have been documented will be released by 2021. For the heritage lovers, it will be a great boon to get to know the temples that had not been seen or studied in detail so far. The heritage survey covers 9 districts through which the river Mahanadi flows. Mr. Dhir, who had earlier led the Old Jagannath Sadak and the Prachi valley documentation projects, was of the opinion that the richness and diversity of the Mahanadi valley had not yet been taken up in depth so far. Perhaps, it may be a beginning to know the hidden heritage structures of Odisha. There is also an urgent need to repair and restore numerous heritage monuments that are slowly crumbling due to poor maintenance and lack of protection from the vandals and hooligans.
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