Buddhavanam project treasure trove of Buddhist relics

Hyderabad: The Buddhavanam project coming up on the banks of Krishna River is a treasure trove of Buddhist and pre-historic man relics. With numerous Buddhist cultural remains dating back to 3rd century AD, the project site has all the potential to place Telangana on the centre stage of global culture tourism. While Nagarjuna Sagar and […]

Hyderabad: The Buddhavanam project coming up on the banks of Krishna River is a treasure trove of Buddhist and pre-historic man relics. With numerous Buddhist cultural remains dating back to 3rd century AD, the project site has all the potential to place Telangana on the centre stage of global culture tourism.

While Nagarjuna Sagar and its surrounding areas have been known for Buddhist heritage as old as 6th century BC, not many archaeologists were aware that deep in this project site, there is a Buddhist pillar dating back to the Ikshvaku dynasty (3rd century AD) and other Buddhist remains. Also known as Andhra Ikshvakus, the rulers were Shaivites, but Buddhism also flourished during their reign and their contribution for construction of Buddhist monuments near Nagarjuna Sagar was immense.

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“Currently, the remains of Buddhist pillar can be seen on a ‘Panavatta’ of the Kakatiya period and worshipped as Sivalinga by the locals. The pillar is located on a platform inside a natural cave, once a habitat of the pre-historic man, as is evident from the occurrence of Palaeolithic tools and Neolithic grooves noticed on the terrace of the cave at Devarachala,” archaeologist E Sivanagi Reddy, who is also Buddhist expert and consultant of Buddhavanam project, told Telangana Today.

The project site also has several Mesolithic and Neolithic age grooves hidden in the vast greenery and mountains. It boasts of a good number of Neolithic (new Stone Age) grooves on the surface of laterite rocks located along the left bank of River Krishna. The grooves measure between 5 to 10 cm in length and 3 to 19 cm in width with an average depth of 2.5 cm. They reveal the factory site during the Neolithic age (4000 -1750 BC).

Similarly, the Mesolithic stone tools including blades, burins, borers and flakes made of local material like chert, were also noticed indicating the Mesolithic habitation dating back to 8500 BC.

Also read: Buddhavanam to revive Buddhist glory in Telangana

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