The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has come up with a plan for the conservation of Kanaganahalli (forming part of Sannati site) in Kalaburagi district at a cost of Rs. 3.5 crore and work has just begun.
- This ancient Buddhist site on the bank of Bhima river came to light through the excavation by the ASI between 1994 and 2001, the ancient.
About Sannati and Kanaganahalli
- Sannati and Kanaganahalli were small and ordinary villages on the bank of the Bhima till 1986 when the Kali temple at the Chandralamba temple complex in Sannati collapsed.
- In the process of clearing the debris, they discovered an Ashokan edict which put the villages on the world map and opened new avenues of historical research on Mauryan Emperor Ashoka and Buddhism in its early years.
- It prompted the ASI excavations at Sannati and nearby Kanaganahalli and attracted historians across India and beyond.
- The Kanaganahalli excavation opened up many marvels – an ‘abandoned well’ in the eyes of local villagers turned out to be the magnificent Maha Stupa, which was referred to as Adholoka Maha Chaitya (the Great Stupa of the netherworlds) in the inscriptions.
- While the Stupa is believed to be one of the largest of its time, the stone-portrait is considered to be the only surviving image of the Mauryan Emperor which had the inscription ‘Raya Asoko’ in Brahmi on it.
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