Bhubaneswar: Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, in a letter, urged the Odisha Government to undertake ‘restoration and relocation’ an ancient temple that has resurfaced from the Mahanadi River in Nayagarh district.
The Minister of Steel in the cabinet of Modi 2.0 asked the State to ‘keep in mind the intangible, cultural and religious significance of this temple to the people of Odisha’. He sought the Government’s personal intervention in directing officers of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to undertake the restoration and relocation to a suitable site.
Two days ago, a team of experts had inspected the site. Nayagarh Collector and District Magistrate Poma Tudu also examined the site and sent an official report to the State Government. “The area is also filled with natural beauty as it lies on the bank of river Mahanadi. It can be developed as a very beautiful tourism site and a proposal in this regard will be sent to the Tourism Department,” Tudu had said.
The archaeological survey team of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) recently claimed that they discovered an ancient submerged temple in the Mahanadi upstream from Cuttack.
The top of the submerged temple was discovered mid-river near Baideswar in the Padmavati village near Nayagarh. The 60 ft submerged temple dates back to the late 15th or early 16th century, considering the construction style of the Mastaka and material used for the construction.
The temple has an idol of Lord Gopinath Dev (Vishnu). Its structure can be estimated to be of the 15th or 16th century.
Around 1933 as Mahanadi changed its course, the village was frequented with floods and later submerged it. People moved to a higher place, but some of the art and culture of the village sank in the river. Sources say that it is part of the ancient Gopinath temple.
