A team of researchers discovered a headless statue of Buddha at Manalur village in Thanjavur district recently. The granite statue is said to belong to Chola period of 10th or 11th Century.

Buddhist scholar B. Jambulingam and Tamil Pandit at the Raja Serfoji Sarasvati Mahal Library Manimaran identified the statue during their field study on a field at Manalur village, based on the information provided by a schoolteacher Sethuraman of the village situated in Papanasam taluk of Thanjavur district.

The right hand of the statue, rising to a height of 80 centimetres, was found broken.

The statue depicts Buddha draped in a long cloth over its broad chest which extended up to the left hand.

This statue, having the iconographical features of other Buddha statues of the Chola country, might have been sculpted in the tenth or eleventh century AD, the researchers said.

The headless statue bears resemblance to the head found at Vayyacheri