Seven stone slabs containing inscriptions were found by Dr Nrusingha Charan Sahoo, former Principal of Dharmasala College on Monday during his field research work in the Kayema hillock in Jajpur district.
“It’s old and historic. I have found it. Credit of it goes to me. It will give a new dimension to archaeological research in Odisha,” said Dr Sahoo. “The inscriptions, which are believed to be of the 12th century AD, are disfigured and hazy. It needs intense research by linguists to decipher them,” he said.
Dr Sahoo said the Ashokan rock edict at Jaugada in Ganjam district was perhaps the first monument associated with Buddhism in Odisha which was declared as of national importance in 1921. In the third century BC, the Ashokan edicts found at Dhauli and Jaugada were parts of the larger network of royal edicts extending across large parts of the Indian subcontinent. Today, while the edicts are protected by the ASI, their contexts are lost. The stone inscriptions of Kayema are at par with the stone edicts of Jaugada and Dhauli.
Congress leader Biswa Ranjan Mallick congratulated Dr Sahoo for his discovery. “Dr Sahoo is a great historian. The Government should give him money so that he can carry forward his research. He should also be allowed to take home the inscriptions so that he can carry out studies on them,” said Mallick.
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is doing nothing in unearthing the historic treasures in Jajpur district, alleged Mallick. Jajpur district is the treasure trove of archaeological objects, he added. When contacted, ASI Superintendent AK Patel said, “The discovery of Dr Sahoo is a landmark achievement. We will preserve all the unearthed stone inscriptions in the museum. The ASI will also send a team to Kayema to study the inscriptions.”