10th Century Idols Found in Kalinjar Fort

• 24 Jan 2023

Why In News?

On January 23, 2023, Arvind Chhirauliya, director of Uttar Pradesh Social Organization Kalinjar Research Institute, said that ancient idols of Shivalinga, Ganesh, Lord Vishnu, Mother Lakshmi and many gods and goddesses have been found from the wall of Koti Tirtha Sarovar of historic Kalinjar Fort in Banda district of the state.

Key points

• Arvind Chhirauliya said that there are many small and big lakes and ponds in Kalinjar Fort. One of them is Koti Tirtha Sarovar, where sculptures and artifacts made of stones have been found, which date back to the ninth and tenth centuries.
• He said that there are carvings of gods and goddesses on some stones. It also has idols of Lord Vishnu, Ganesh, Lakshmi ji, Parvati ji with a happy posture. Except for The Shivalinga, most of the idols are fragmented.
• Vivek Shukla, a social worker who knows the history of Kalinjar Fort, said that in 1986, a road was being built to go to Fort. Even then, during the excavation, the idols came out in a similar way. He was preserved by the Archeological Department and kept in The Raja Aman Singh Palace.
• Sources associated with the fort say that then statues and cannon shells ranging from 282 KF number 305 were found. They were taken under the protection of the Archaeological Department. Apart from this, in 1960, the Archaeological Survey of India took Kalinjar Fort under its protection.
• It is known that Kalinjar is a very ancient fort, where the rule has been from the Gupta period to the Bundels. Here in the past also such statues have been found during construction work.
• It is known that Theertha Sarovar is the most beautiful and mythological site of Kalinjar Fort. The entire fort is under the Archaeological Department of India. It is being rebuilt by saving statues and artifacts from the wall of the lake. There are statues and artifacts of gods and goddesses on the ancient walls around the lake.
• Arvind Chhirauliya, associated with Kalinjar history, said that the sixth ruler to rule India was known as Aurangzeb Alamgir. He ruled between the 15thand 16th centuries, calling it the idol Bhanjak. He used to break the idols of Hindu religion.
• Between 1812 and 1947, during the British rule, the work of destroying memories related to Hinduism was also done. The Court Tirtha Sarovar is quite ancient, but the walls around it were built by the British. Then these idols were also buried behind the wall, so that Sanatan Dharma and Hinduism could not be awakened.
• Pandit Shankar Pratap Mishra, Rajpurohit of Kalinjar Fort Neelkanth temple, said that water of all the pilgrims has been found in Koti Tirtha Sarovar. In such a situation, by offering water to Lord Neelkanth sitting here with the water of this lake, one gets the virtue of donating one thousand cows. Especially on Kartik Purnima, Jalabhishek is considered more fruitful.