BENGALURU: Last Ugadi Day, April 6, Begur Lake became the centre of attraction. The excitement was over a rare find — a 1,000-year-old stone idol pulled out of the depth of the muddy lake. As the news spread, curiosity brought in hordes of people from nearby areas — they prostrated before the new unearthed ‘Goddess’. When area corporator M Anjanappa and others offered puja, they too joined in.
They chorused that the idol should not be shifted out of there as it would bring them luck. The corporator agreed. Now they are leaving no stone unturned to achieve this goal of having the statue back where it was found.
The idol had surfaced when the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) workers began desilting the lake. Since its finding a few days ago, the idol, said to be belonging to the era of the Ganga dynasty which ruled the region from 350 AD to 1000 AD, has raised much excitement among experts as well as the locals.
Initially, while desilting the lake, the BBMP workers thought that it was just a stone. When they dug deeper, the idol emerged. They placed the eight-foot-tall idol near the lake bed, after which the Temple Commission Authority in Begur was informed. The officials took the idol, cleaned it and immersed it in a tank. They decided to have the goddess placed near the upcoming Shiva idol, planned to be set up near the lake.
That the idol belongs to Ganga period was confirmed by Dr SK Aruni, Deputy director, Southern regional centre of Indian Council of Historical Research. He visited Begur to check on the idol and confirmed that it was the idol of Gangamma Devi belonging to the Ganga period.
Dr SK Aruni, archaeologist and deputy director of Southern regional centre of Indian Council of Historical Research, said, “Such idols are better left where they are found. It is not required that they should be in a museum. It is believed that female goddesses are found mostly in water, same is the case with this idol.”
He added: “Suppose unique sculptures are found, then the State archaeological department has a look and preserves them. But mostly, we decide to leave them where they are found. The Panchayat can preserve the idol. Begur is a place where older inscriptions and sculptures have been found. We already have seven sculptures in the museum and about 20 inscriptions in old Kannada have been found by the locals.” Interestingly, a member of Inscription Stones of Bangalore, pointed out that the idol was actually discovered by a local named Harsha RA on the lake bed in September 2018.
Harsha told The New Indian Express: “While I was cycling in September, I found the idol on the lake bed. The bottom part was covered with mud. I informed the Inscription Stones of Bangalore group. But they couldn’t find out anything about the stone. However,later the archaeological department was informed and when they checked, they said they would move it but it was not moved.”