Antique idols of Lord Hanuman, Shani Dev recovered from Mahanadi river in Odisha

Two antique idols of Lord Hanuman and Lord Shani were recovered after being entangled in a fisherman’s net from the Mahanadi River near Padmabati village in the Bhapur block of Nayagarh district on Monday.

As per reports, a fisherman from the village alerted locals after discovering idols coiled in his fishing net yesterday afternoon. Soon enough, the two idols, measuring 4 feet, were retrieved off the nets and subsequently placed in the Baulakshetra Jagannath Temple for safekeeping.

While the discovery of the idols sparked significant discussion in the area, it is not the first time that such an occurrence was witnessed in Padmabati.

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In 2020, the spire and eventually a portion of the ‘mastaka’ (top portion) of a reportedly submerged 500-year-old temple reappeared off the Mahanadi banks in Padmabati due to lower water levels in the river.

A survey team of The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) later, based on its architectural style and construction materials, stated that the 60-foot temple, dedicated to Lord Gopinath (a form of Lord Vishnu), dated back to the late 15th or early 16th century.

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Similarly, in December last year, as many as eight antique metal nag idols were found in the same area by locals taking a dip in the river.

A local had then appealed to the government to carry out a survey and cited records from elders claiming that at least 16 more temples were submerged near Padmabati in Mahanadi. Subsequently, INTACH launched a project on the ‘Documentation of the Heritage of the Mahanadi Valley’ that also included a case study of the submerged Gopinath Temple.