An India, a sunken templa is resurfacing

200 years ago, a catastrophic flood completely submerged a Hindu temple, leaving villagers of the time only time to move the idols to settle elsewhere. The temple in question is a 500-year-old monument dedicated to the god Vishnu, which stood on the banks of the Mahanadi River in eastern India.

Au during the great floods of the 1800s, the river deviated from its course, which caused the engulfing of the village and that of the temple. Since then, research to find the location of the temple has all failed since information on it has been lost through the different generations. The week of June 22, however, the sunken temple has resurfaced with the water level falling. So,we can now see the temple spire again.

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INTACH or Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage is the organization which was in charge of finding the traces of this Hindu temple.

Unsuccessful research

According to Anil Dhir, who heads the r projectHowever, he and his team managed to document several temples in the Mahanadi Valley, however, they could not find the location of the Vishnu Temple. He also added that the temple was in the middle of a group of 7 villages called Satapatana. During the flood period, the villages and the temple were abandoned.

Dhir said that in the beginning, the temple reappeared every year during the summer. Then we decided to build a dam, which caused the water level to rise. Because of this, the monument has not reappeared in twenty years.

Buried under the sand

On site, the INTACH researchers took pictures of the temple amalaka, that is to say a stone disc which is placed at the top of the main tower of a Hindu temple. According to a sketch produced by an archaeologist, we can see that only a small portion of the temple is visible at the surface. The majority of construction, which is within 18 m, is thus buried under the sand. According to experts, this means that a large part of the structure is still in perfect condition.

According to Dhir, for the moment, there are no plans to excavate for fear of attracting looters. The part of the river where the monument is located is also a fairly dangerous area with fast currents.

The temple that reappeared was built by a local king in 16 ^th or in the 17 ^th century. Its architecture is in the classic Kalingan style of Rekha Deul. It is also known that this place of worship once contained an idol made of black chlorite representing Lord Gopinath, one of the forms of the Hindu god Vishnu.