Sculptural Art of Upper Mahanadi Valley (Set of 2 Volumes)

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About the Book The present book is the outcome of the extensive explorations undertaken from 1984 to 1993 and from 1998 to 2000, as a result of which more than fifty hitherto unknown temple sites of the period from the 6th century A.D. to the 14th century A.D. came to lime-light, adding new chapters in the history of the temple architecture and sculptural art & iconography of the Upper Mahanadi Valley of Odisha.

It includes the discovery of two major temples in situ, one the Paficayatana Temple complex at Daspur Surda of the ninth century A.D. and the other being the Kusan gat (Ten-handed Mahisasuramardini Durga) Temple of the eleventh century A.D. at Kusang, besides minor Triratha temples at Sirekela, Gandharla and Badpada, all in the Balangir district of Odisha. The contents of this book add new dimensions to the study of Iconography and Art of the Upper Mahanadi Valley of Odisha, thereby throwing new lights on the art history of Eastern India and Central India (Daksina Kosala Region) as a whole.

About the Author Sasanka Sekhar Panda graduated from Sambalpur University with a 1st class Honors Degree in History in the year 1974. Thereafter he received M.A. Degree in History and M.Phil. Degree in Buddhist Studies from the University of Delhi in 1977 and 1978 respectively. In pursuit of higher studies he went to the United States of America and did research for two years commencing from January 1996 in the University of Virginia. He has the experience of teaching "Ancient Indian Temple Art" to the American students in the university. Being adjudged as the best Doctoral Scholar for the year 1997-98 he was awarded with the most prestigious Du Pont Fellowship. He has contributed substantially to the field of temple art of Odisha and has published sixty-two research articles in various national and international journals. At present he is working as the Joint Director in the Information & Public Relations Department of the Government of Odisha, Bhubaneswar.

He is the life member of the Institute of Historical Studies, Kolkata and the Founder Convener of the Upper Mahanadi Chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art & Cultural Heritage (INTACH) New Delhi since 1986. He has been honored as the Best Historian by the P.C. Rath Foundation in 2010 and begged Best Poet Award by the Hirakhand Trust in 1987, besides many other awards and felicitations.

Preface I was returning to New Delhi in October 1975 after enjoying my Puja Vacation at Sambalpur to resume my study at the University of Delhi. It was a pleasant surprise that I met Professor Dr. Nabin Kumar Sahu, the then Head of the P.G. Department of History at Sambalpur University, who was traveling in the same train compartment of Utkal Express. He was on his way to Moscow, being invited by the U.S.S.R Government to visit ancient Buddhist sites in the Soviet Republics and to give his lectures in Universities across the U.S.s.R. After reaching New Delhi he was my guest in the Ramjas College Hostel, where I was staying then. I accompanied him to all places like the University Grants Commission; Ministry of Finance, Government of India and the U.S.s.R Embassy and rendered all possible help to obtain his Visa and Foreign Currency etc in a short span of two days. He was so much impressed by my service that he established a long-term relationship with me during the later years to come till his untimely death in 1985. I remember very fondly when all of a sudden, one day he reached my office at Bhawanipatna in March, 1983 and invited me to visit Maraguda Valley in Nuapara district where he was conducting excavations in the capacity of the Archaeological Advisor to Orissa State Government of an urban settlement flourishing in between the 6th century A.D. and 14th century A.D. When I visited the excavated site then and there only he suggested me to do research on the Temple Art of the Upper Mahanadi Valley. That ushered in a decade of explorations, which took almost ten years to be accomplished by me in between 1984- 1993. In the process of my searching for hitherto unknown archaeological sites and collapsed temples of the hoary past, many unknown and lesser known temple sites belonging to the period from the 6th century A.D. to the 14th century A.D were brought to lime light by me, adding many new facts and throwing new light on the temple architecture and sculptural art which once upon a time flourished in the remote and inaccessible area of western Orissa. Then I started writing research articles and few of my writings impressed the internationally reputed art historian Prof. Pramod Chandra, the-then Professor of Indian and South Asian Art at Harvard University, U.S.A. While commenting on my research work he expressed his views in December, 1993 in the following manner - "During my frequent visits to India, I have always kept my eyes open for bright Indian students who were seriously studying Indian art and I have met none who have impressed me more than Mr. Panda, both by his learning and his intelligence and his total devotion to the subject. As advisor to the Government of Madhya Pradesh I had conducted exploration and excavation in the eastern part of the state and was naturally concerned with the art of western Orissa, just across the border, still largely terra incognita to archaeologists and art historians. In the course of my work I came across several articles in obscure Orissa journals by Mr. Panda and though these were hardly finished scholarly studies they contained a great deal of valuable information and sharp insights on remains at the most remote sites. Contact being made we undertook a joint tour of exploration into interior Orissa during which I got to know him very well. He is a kind of one-man archaeological survey, working incessantly, discovering, recording and photographing all kinds of remains so that he has built up, at great cost and sacrifice, a large and unique collection of photographs of western Orissa art. He has also spent much time thinking and analyzing these, and somewhat to my surprise he has developed some very significant ideas in his own home-grown way. Thus, for example, he has realized that the key to understanding the famous art of coastal Orissa lays in the monuments of western Orissa, or rather the Mahanadi valley. I had myself begun to suspect this and it was fascinating to see how he had come to these conclusions by a rough and ready reasoning."

This work of mine gives a comprehensive approach to the study of sculptures and temples of the Upper Mahanadi Valley of Orissa State, which may be helpful to students and scholars doing research on this subject. I hope that my sincere efforts and Endeavour, which is the outcome of ten years of research, will be fruitful. However, this is an effort to record almost all early temple sites of western Orissa, but an attempt to broaden and refine upon, the work of my predecessors, art historians late Purna Chandra Rath, late Kedar Nath Mahapatra, late Shiva Prasad Dash, late Nabin Kumar Sahu, late Charles Louis Fabri and Prof. Thomas E. Donaldson. This book will certainly allure researchers to do further research in the field of Art History of Western Orissa.

My work was initiated by funding of a small amount from the Indian Council of Historical Research, New Delhi and subsequently by Du Pont Fellowship (U.S.A) to conduct field research. I also got help from the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, New Delhi indirectly, as I was moving from place to place in western Orissa while organizing enthusiasts and intellectuals as the Convener of the Upper Mahanadi Chapter of INTACH since 1986. I am indebted to these organizations.

I fondly remember the affection of late Prof. Nabin Kumar Sahu and also the help I got during my exploratory tours from the reputed historian Jitamitra Prasad Singh Deo, the present Rajasaheb of Khariar. I am grateful to Prof. Daniel James Ehnbom for his kind advice from time to time. This book is the outcome of the exploration and research I undertook and also the experience of my extensive field work, which may be helpful to students and researchers studying the Indian sculptural art in the broader perspective.

Introduction South Asia comprises of seven countries, namely India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives, spreading over an extensive area of 1.7 million square miles approximately. India is one of the world's oldest surviving civilizations. This country is having an area of 1,222,243 square miles (3,165,596 square kms).

South Asia is made up of three topographic regions: the Himalayas, Karakorum, and Hindukush mountain ranges and their southern slopes; the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Deccan Plateau.

The Himalayas Karakorum and Hindukush mountain ranges separate the South Asia Subcontinent from the rest of Asia. The Himalayas, the highest mountain range in the world, extend 1,500 miles west from the Brahmaputra River to the Karakorum, a mountain range that extends 300 miles and lies between the Indus River to its east and the Yarkand River to its west. To the south of these mountain ranges is the 200 mile- wide Indo-Gangetic Plain, which is a broad strip of low, relatively flat land lying between the Himalaya Mountains to the north and the Narmada and Mahanadi Rivers to the south. This alluvial Plain has been created by the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers and their many tributaries as they flow from the Himalayas to the sea. The Indus and its tributaries flow south and west to empty into the Arabian Sea; the Ganges and Brahmaputra and their tributaries flow south and east to enter the Bay of Bengal.

To the south of the Plain is the Deccan Plateau, a relatively flat highland area that lies between the Western Ghat Mountains ranging from northeast to southeast and the Eastern Ghat Mountains ranging from northwest to southeast. The mountains separate the Plateau from the coastline and meet in the south at the tip of the triangular-shaped peninsula known as Peninsular India.

Peninsular India just out into the India Ocean. The Narmada and Mahanadi Rivers form the northern border of Peninsular India and separate it from the Indo-Gangetic Plain. This Plain extends in a southeasterly direction from the Gulf of Khambhat to the southern tip of India.

A somewhat wider coastal Plain extends in a southwesterly direction from the mouth of the Mahanadi River to the southernmost tip of India. This coastal Plain lies between the Bay of Bengal and the Eastern Ghat Mountains.

Peninsular India is drained by five major river systems Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna, Pennar and Kaveri, While the rivers in the Himalayan mountain ranges are snow-fed these rivers are rain-fed and hence the volume of these rivers fluctuates from season to season.

I~ is one of the east-flowing rivers of India, the others being Godavari, Krishna and Kaveri.

It is also the sixth major river of India, having a length of 885 kms, the others in sequence being Brahmaputra (2900 kms), Ganga (2510 kms), Godavari (1450 kms), Narmada (1290 kms) and Krishna (1290 kms). River Kaveri has the 7th position, running 760 kms. A great river of the Deccan Peninsula, it is one of the longest rivers in India.

River Mahanadi (meaning the Great: Mahan, River: Nadi), 550 miles (885 kms) long, rises at a place called Sihawa, in 20.10 N., 82 E., 88 miles (140 kms) south east of Raipur city, the state headquarter of Chhattisgarh State of India, in the wild mountains of Bastar.

At first an insignificant stream, taking a northerly direction, it drains the eastern portion of the Chhattisgarh Plain for around 200 miles, then a little above Seorinarayan, it receives the water which its first great affluent, the Seonath has collected from the western portion of the Plain; thence flowing for some distance of around 50 miles due East, its stream is augmented by the drainage of the hills of Uprora, Korba and the ranges that separate Sambalpur from Chhota Nagpur. At Padampur in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh State it turns towards the south, and struggling through masses of rocks, flows past the town of Sambalpur to Sonepur. From Sonepur it persues a torturous course among ridges and rocky crags towards the range of the Eastern Ghats. This mountain line it pierces by a gorge about 40 miles in length, overlooked by forest-clad hills with elevations of 1500 to 3000 feet at places. It pours down upon the Orissa delta at Naraj, about 7 miles west of Cuttack town and after traversing Cuttack district of Orissa from west to east, and-throwing off numerous branches like Katjori, Paika, Birupa, Chitrotpala etc. it falls into the Bay of . Bengal at False Point through several channels.

The Mahanadi has an estimated drainage area of 43,800 square miles, and its rapid flow renders its maximum discharge in time of flood second to that of no other river in India. During unusual high floods 15, 00,000 cubic feet of water pour every second through the Naraj Gorge. In the dry weather the discharge of Mahanadi dwindles to 1125 cubic feet per second.

Mahanadi River is considered as the lifeline of Orissa and Chhattisgarh States of India. It originates in the south-eastern Chhattisgarh near Raipur, in the upper drainage basin of the Mahanadi, which is centered on the Chhattisgarh Plain. The river flows NE to Hirakud Dam and then SE through Orissa State to the Bay of Bengal.

The Hirakud Dam is constructed in the middle reaches of the Mahanadi. The total catchment area of the river is 1, 41,589 sq kms which is nearly 4.3% of the geographical area of the country.

The upper Mahanadi valley in Orissa, comprising of 13 districts out of 30 districts of the State, is spreading over 70,537 sq kms. approximately. The districts are Nawarangpur, Kalahandi, Nawapara, Balangir, Sonepur, Boudh, Kandhamal, Bargarh, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Deogarh, Sundargarh and Angul.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages