Historic 'Choubis Avtar temple' transplanted

Bhopal, Nov 15: The 11th-12th century 'Choubis Avtar temple', a centrally-protected monument located at Mandhata in Omkareshwar, has been transplanted near Khandwa's Siddhakut temple five km away from its original location.

The exercise was carried out by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in view of threat of submergence due to proposal of construction of a dam at Omkareshwar under the Narmada Sagar Pariyojana.

The process of transplanting the temple -- which had idols of 24 avtars of Lord Vishnu -- was completed over a period of one-and-a-half years at a cost of Rs 13 lakh and was carried out under the direction of ASI (Bhopal circle) superintendent K K Mohammed.

''This was the third such effort of transplanting a historic monument in the country. Earlier, the Sangmeshwar temple -- under Shree Shailam project -- in Andhra Pradesh and the Mahadev temple in Goa were transplanted,'' Mr Mohammed said.

''The first transplantation of a historic monument was of a monument in Abu Simbel of Egypt,'' he said.

For the re-erection of the temple, a foundation trench of 11 X 15 X 2 metre was dug up and raft foundation was provided so that it could sustain the load of entire temple structure.

The temple was constructed over the raft foundation and 95 per cent of old stones were used in its original form. However, damaged stones were replaced with new ones.

Mr Mohammed pointed out besides retaining original form of the structure, sanctity of a place and sentiments of people had to be kept in mind while transplanting a temple.

Before undertaking transplantation, complete monument documentation (drawing and photography) was carried out. Later, the temple was dismantled and all the temple components were shifted to the Siddhakut Jain temple complex.

UNI