SALEPUR: Ruins of a Buddhist structure built of bricks was found during recent excavation, which is being undertaken for construction of a boundary wall of modern bullet-proof museum at Lalitgiri. The boundary wall at the Buddhist site in Cuttack district is being built to preserve the historic sacred relic caskets.
The ruins of the brick built structure were found when a construction agency was engaged in digging the rocky hill surface, about 10 feet away from the eastern side of the under-construction museum. After finding the ruins of the Buddhist monument, the agency has stopped digging work.
The newly-discovered Buddhist structure is ruins of the guard wall which was built around the excavated Monastery No.2 for protection from future erosion of soil due to heavy rain, said Buddhist Researcher Prof Dr Harish Chandra Prutsy.
A similar type of guard wall is found constructed around the excavated Circum Ambulatory Path (Pradakhina Patha) of the excavated Apsidal Chaitagriha of Lalitgiri, Prusty said.
Ruling out possibility of discovery of third monastery in Lalitgiri, Prusty confirmed that the discovered guard wall was also used as the entrance path way to Monastery No.2.