Raipur-Chhattisgarh:  Ancient idol of Lord Buddha from the 'Panduvanshi' period and other statues of archaeological significane were recovered on Friday, March 10 from village Sondra on Raipur-Bilaspur road during construction of a house.

The statues were  reportedly recovered during the construction of Dilendra Banchor's house at village Sondra.
Following a directive from Director of Archaeology, Archive and Museum Department Vivek Acharya, a team from the archaeological department arrived at the site to conduct an assessment of the region after learning about the recovery of ancient idols.

Officials from the archaeological department claim that "The settlement is located 2 kilometres from Raipur's Sankra area and 16 kilometres from the Raipur-Bilaspur route. The Buddha image was found while digging was being done to make room for columns to be built for a house."

A stone statue of Buddha that was found to have a "tilak" mark on its forehead makes it more distinctive and suggests that it is more likely to be the meditating Buddha, according to officials.

The officer stated that the recovered Buddha idol is incomplete and that the three-tier technique was used to create the upper portion of the idol.

He said, "The idols of Lord Buddha created with this technology are available in Bodhgaya of Bihar as well as Sirpur and Rajim of Chhattisgarh.

The officer further added that the antiquities collected from the site appear to be from the Panduvanshi period and that information on the presence of other idols in various shapes was gathered while conducting inspection at the site (6th to 9th century AD).

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