2000 Year Old Kushan period Idol found in River in Lakhisarai | 13 Jun 2023

Why in News?

On June 12, 2023, Lakhisarai District Magistrate Amarendra Kumar of Bihar said that during the excavation at Rampur Balu Ghat located on the Kiul river in Chanan block of the district, a precious statue of Ashtadhatu of Kushan period’s archaeological importance has been found.

Key Points:

• The discovery of the statue from Rampur Balu Ghat was informed by Professor Dr. Anil Kumar of Visva-Bharati Santiniketan University, West Bengal. According to archaeologists, this statue is two thousand years old Kushan Period.
• The District Magistrate said that the museum inaugurated at Ashok Dham More in the district is not yet fully ready for the maintenance of the idols, due to which the statue has been kept in the temporary museum located in the district headquarters.
• According to information received from the Curator of Patna, the statue found in Chanan, Rampur is of Kushan periodic Sawl Bhanjika Moksha Devi and is two thousand years old. This idol is being called a folk goddess belonging to Buddhists.
• According to the Curator, in the first century, statues were made of such red sandstone in Maharashtra, which must have been brought by the followers of Buddhism. It is a sample of Mathura art of red stone.
• The museum head said that the statue related to Buddha's birth scene also shows Maya Devi holding the Shal tree, but usually there is also a small statue of Buddha in it. While there is no such idol in it, so it would be appropriate to consider this idol as a folk goddess.
• The DM said that apart from this, many idols of Kushan period have been kept by the villagers in Nongarh village near Rampur Balu Ghat, which will also be investigated.