A sculpture depicting Shiva and Parvati seated on Nandi has been unearthed near the ancient Jalakanteshvara Temple in Bengaluru’s Kalasipalya locality. A cannonball has been discovered too, in the same dig site. This has led to hopes of a larger structure being discovered at the site.
Labourers working on the grounds of the Vani Vilas Girls High School and Pre-University College near the Jalakanteshvara Temple discovered the sculpture and the cannonball while carrying out digging work last week.
Gopal Rao, director of the state archeology department, visited the spot with a team to carry out an initial assessment. “We believe the sculpture can be traced back to about 700 years. It looks like a depiction of a tale from Shiva Purana. However, since the sculpture is incomplete, we will conduct further investigation on Monday”, he said. Adding that the cannonball and the sculpture were unrelated, Gopal Rao said that the cannonball fits the pattern of similar findings from the last 10 years, including those discovered at the time of the Bengaluru Metro construction work. “It most likely belongs to Tipu Sultan’s era”, he said.
The priest at the Jalakanteshvara Temple, Mohan Dixit, called the findings significant and said that a group of priests has petitioned the Karnataka Religious Endowments and Muzrai Department to conduct larger excavations in the area with the aim of unearthing archaeological and religious structures. According to reports, signs of a ‘kalyani’ or stepwell were also found at the site.