Excavation work going on in Visvesvaraya temple complex
Oleru Temple Idols: The restoration work of Sri Visvesvaraya Temple located in Oleru village of Bhattiprolu mandal of Bapatla district of Andhra Pradesh is going on. During this period, finding ancient stone sculptures has become a topic of discussion. Officials are monitoring the restoration work of this approximately 300 year old temple. Excavation was being done with a bulldozer in the temple premises, in which sounds of heavy stones hitting the ground were heard. On becoming suspicious about this, the local people stopped digging with the machine and started digging by hand with great care.
In the process, when stone statues were found one by one, the excavation was continued with the suspicion that there might be more statues there. In the end, a total of 15 ancient stone sculptures were found. Of these, 12 Alwar idols, one idol of Lakshmi Devi, one idol of Narasimha Swamy and one idol of Vishvakshena were identified.
The villagers carefully took out the idols from the ground and after performing special puja, kept them safely in the temple premises. When temple executive officer Mallela Ramesh got information about this matter, he informed the higher authorities. Mukteshwar Rao, former settlement department commissioner of Oleru village, inspected the idols and is trying to find out their period with the help of archeology department officials.
Questions raised after finding the statue
However, it is an interesting fact to find the idols of Alwar, Lakshmi Devi, Narasimha Swamy and Vishvakshena of Vaishnav tradition in the Shiva temple complex. Was there any Vaishnava temple in this area in the past or were these idols buried underground for some reason? Officials have started investigation.
After this treasure of ancient sculptures came to light, this incident has become a topic of discussion at the local level. Officials of the Archeology Department have started research about the age of these statues and the person who installed them. More information is likely to be available after the release of the report.
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