May 9th, 2023 | 1192
The Archaeological Survey of India (Jabalpur Circle) has misidentified two temples near the Matsya Avatara temple as “enormous Buddhist stupas” due to their cylindrical crowning portions. However, Amarendra Kumar Singh correctly identified them as Kalachuri temples over 20 years ago, dividing them into three circular tiers with niches on the exterior. Stupas are generally solid, whereas these temples are hollow and one even has an intact image area. The tendency to describe a particular architectural shape as embedded in a particular religion, as colonial historians did, should not be perpetuated by ASI, nor should it take credit for the discovery or disregard past researchers. Nayanjot Lahiri writes on the issue.
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