ASI officials visit ancient site in Orissa
Bhubaneswar, Jan 15: A group of archaeologists Tuesday visited a site in Orissa's Jajpur district from where a group of workers had accidentally dug out the remains of what looked like an ancient Buddhist monastery.

"We visited the site in the district of Jajpur and are examining them," Shantanu Maiti, assistant superintending archaeologist of the Archaeological Survey of India here, told IANS about the ancient remains.

"The remains that we found are believed to be of the ninth century AD, but I am not sure if it is an ancient Buddhist monastery," he said.

The workers who found the remains were engaged in digging out the earth to construct a wall near Palei village, some 50 km from district headquarters Jajpur.

The land, used until now for cremations, was acquired by authorities to build a railway line from Haridaspur to Paradeep.

"The labourers were thrilled when they saw a stone images of Hindu god Ganesha after digging out some five feet on the site," Harischandra Prusti, a noted Buddhist researcher of the locality, told IANS.

"The decapitated two-foot high statue of Ganesha has four hands," he said and added that the workers kept on digging and "discovered a three-foot high meditating Buddha statue, an ancient three-foot thick brick wall and many ceramic hoards.

"They also found some high framed tiny clay bowls, spout jars, terracotta lamps, many broken potteries, and some stones with inscriptions," Prusti said, and added, "This Buddha vihar (monastery) might have been built during the eighth century AD."

After the discovery, villagers rushed to the spot and stopped the digging. They also informed the local administration requesting authorities to take steps for the preservation of the site, he said.

Orissa has a host of ancient Buddhist sites - Ratnagiri, Udaygiri, Lalitgiri, Kuruma, Brahmavana, Langudi and Ganiapali.