Send ASI expert team to carry out study on Bhubaneswar's 'Ekamra Kshetra': Pradhan urges Centre

Union minister DharmendraPradhan on Saturday urged the Centre to send an expert team ofthe Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to carry out adetailed study and a scientific excavation exercise at the'Ekamra Kshetra' here to unearth ancient structures.

He wrote to Prahlad Singh Patel, Union minister ofstate (independent charge) for culture and tourism, seekinghis intervention to protect old Odisha architecture, two daysafter the ASI had unearthed a stone structure during theexcavation works under the development project of the 'EkamraKshetra', the old town of Bhubaneswar.

The structure was believed to be remains of an ancienttemple.

''Keeping in mind the immense archaeological, artistic,socio-cultural and religious importance of ancient Odisha'stemples, I request your personal intervention in directing ASIto send an expert team to Bhubaneswar for carrying out adetailed study and thorough scientific excavation of the'Ekamra Kshetra' area in Bhubaneswar...'' Pradhan said in theletter.

The ASI team found some invaluable remains of a 10th-11th Somavamshi period temple floor on the north-west cornerof the Sari temple while carrying out scientific cleaning ofthe two-acre land adjacent to the complex, he said.

The ASI also discovered two other structures, believedto be the remains of small shrines and a portion of the Saritemple, the Union petroleum and natural gas minister said inthe letter.

These findings have led ASI experts to believe thatthe Sari temple complex was built on the ''Panchayatana'' modelwhere the main structure is surrounded by four subsidiaryshrines, Pradhan said.

''This means that there is a high chance of additionalheritage structures lying buried under encroachments in the'Ekamra Kshetra','' he said.

The minister also mentioned that Lord Lingaraj andSuka-Sari temples in Bhubaneswar are protected by the ASIunder the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites andRemains Act (AMASR Act).

''There is an urgent need to act quickly in order tosalvage and preserve what remains of this priceless ancientOdishan architecture,'' Pradhan added.