Around 10 sculptures have been retrieved from the site, says official

The staff of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) at Halebid recently found ruins of an ancient Jain structure near Parshvanath Basadi, while digging the ground for a compound wall.

K. Murtheshwari, Superintendent Archaeologist of Bengaluru Circle, visited the spot recently and ordered the closure of the civil work to avoid any damage to the old structure.

Now, the ASI has taken up conservation of the structure. The staff has noticed a base structure of a ruined basadi.

“Around 10 sculptures have been retrieved from the site. Among them, six have carvings on either side. We have shifted them to the museum,” the officer told The Hindu on Saturday.

The ASI had taken up construction of a compound wall around the temple. “We had one compound wall, but we wanted to have a stronger one. As we found the sculptures, the work has been suspended temporarily,” she said.

Sources in the department said certain sculptures were damaged as heavy machinery was hired for digging, ignoring the department’s guidelines. When this was brought to the notice of Ms. Murtheshwari, she said: “Earthmovers were hired for heavy work like digging the ground. We should be thankful to the workers, who noticed the sculptures while doing their job. But when it comes scientific clearance, we do manually,” she said.

The officer said the ASI has planned an open museum in Halebid to display the sculptures collected in the area. “There are about 1,000 sculptures. It is difficult to take up construction work in the monument site to display all of them. We are planning a big open air museum,” she added.