| There are in
all eleven monasteries, sites and several chaitya sites that have been excavated. All them
have extremely interesting finds for the ordinary visitor, not to speak of the student of
archaeology. For the students of temple history, a ruined stone temple, described in the
Archaeological Survey of India Report as Stone Temple site No. 2, is of great importance.
We would do well to quote the fine description of it given by Shri Ghosh: "Specially
interesting here is the dado of 211 sculptural panels over the moulded plinth. These
panels are symmetrically arranged, 20 appearing on each side of the main entrance and 57
in each of the three remaining walls.
The pilasters intervening between the panels are decorated
with pot-and-foliage design and are surmounted by arches, some of them being pointed.
There is a large variety of scenes depicted on them; human figures in variousattitudes;
household scenes; kinnaras playing on musical instruments; Siva and Parvati separately or
together-, Kartikeya on his peacock; the gods Agni, Kubera, Gajalakshmi; the child Gautama
with his writing material; scenes of archery; the Kachchhapa Jataka: a human-headed bird
with a foliated tail; makara designs; a snake charmer; geometrical and scroll patterns
etc. |
