A 500-year-old temple submerged in river Mahanadi has resurfaced in Pamavati village in Odisha’s Nayagarh. The local people believe that the temple is atleast 400-500 years old and that it got submerged during the flood in the year 1933.
The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) had recently noted that they had discovered an old and ancient temple that has been submerged in the Mahanadi upstream from Cuttack.
Quoting a villager, the ANI reported “The temple was submerged very long back but around 11 years ago, the temple started emerging again. Now, the temple is visible a little bit above the water level. A research team is also working on it.”
Deepak Nayak, a local heritage enthusiast had located the temple earlier and had been aware of its existence as its submerged top became visible during summers.
Mr. Anil Kumar Dhir and his project assistant Deepak Kumar Nair of Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) located the temple. According to Mr. Anil, this temple which is 55-60 feet long belongs to Lord Gopinath, an avatar of Lord Vishnu, and dates back to the late 15thor early 16th century. The region where the temple was found was earlier known as ‘Satapatana’. The Padmavati village was part of Satapatana, an agglomeration of 7 villages. The river had changed its course due to flooding and the village was submerged during the 1933 flood.
It is said that the Lord Gopinath idol from this temple was taken from here to another temple. Mr. Dhir is working on documenting Mahanadi valley and was supposedly in search of this temple.
He says that there are around 65 temples in the area that are under water.