There
also exists ceramic evidence. Pottery found in the lower levels of the trenches is
ascribable to the early centuries of the Christian era. Lakulisha, the founder of
the Pashupata cult, also flourished in the second century. The First Temple must be taken to pertain to the first second centuries of the
Christian era, and its relics from the traces of one of the earliest temples in stone in
India. Here was the romance in stone, stretching out to 2,000, years and unfolding a
unique story of devotion and heroism, of vandalism and desecration, of defeat and triumph,
of the best and worst in man epitomised in a single symbol. |