Accidental findings have ASI pleased

The field staff of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Aurangabad circle reported finding of sculptures by villagers of Anjaneri while pipeline was being laid for a check dam recently. The findings, termed as ‘accidental findings’ by the inner circle of ASI experts, buried three metres below the ground revealed 10 startling and unique sculptures supposedly belonging to Yadava Dynasty (AD 1142) and are said to have enlightened the experts on the reign of King Seunachandra III.

Releasing their findings at Mumbai University, Dr Tejas Garg said that the incident that led the team to the sculptures came to them as a pleasant surprise. Apparently the village, suffering from water shortage, was under the state government’s Maharashtra Jivan Pradhikaran project of pipeline digging work. The proposed pipeline was also passing from the east of Anjaneri cluster of temples, of Yadava Dynasty that houses the ruins of around 16 temples, protected by the ASI as heritage sites.

“The villagers first found one sculpture and when they dug further, one by one, 10 of them were unearthed from the east of temple seven of the Anjaneri temple cluster. The 10 stone sculptures include images of Vishnu with his incarnations in the form of Varaha and Padmanabha, Bhairava, Uma Maheshwar, Vishnu Lakshmi, and a unique image of unidentified goddess with two elephants on its head,” said Dr Garg.

Decrypting the images, the ASI experts said as all them bear unique and intricate details, they throw more light on the social and cultural nature of the Yadava Dynasty. “The image of the goddess is one that we are still trying to identify. Initially we recorded her as Durga as Gajalaxmi due to the weapons in her hands and Gaja (elephants) on her head but only later we found out she is in fact not Durga but an unidentified goddess,” added Dr Garg.

Experts said as as the contribution of King Seunachandra III and Yadava Dynasty to the development of art, architecture and religion was immense, on a greater scale the sculptures were also a part of the classical age in Indian Art where architectural and art forms had reached to its zenith.