7th Century , Orissa, Kalinga, Utkala
Dungi is situated at a distance of nearly forty-five kms from Phulbani town, the district head-quarters of the present Kandhamal District. Dungi is situated about fifteen kms from Kalinga Ghat. Temple ruins at the site include huge stone blocks, carved temple panels with floral motifs, kirtimukha and other carvings, broken amalakas, bhumi-amalakas, a carved pillar with jumping yaksa or gana etc. The scattered stone panels and blocks denote the existence of a temple there in the remote past.
The study of the temple art and sculptures of Dungi at this site indicate that it was built around the 7th century A.D. during the time of the Sailodbhava kings of Kangoda Mandala. Their kingdom existed geographically from the present Bhubaneswar up to Paralakhemundi, and also up to Bhanjanagar and beyond. Dungi might had been considered a resting place for wandering mendicants, caravan traders and others, being situated on a trade route running from Daksina Kosala to Kangoda.
Two sculptures, one of a four-armed Ardhanarisvara and the other a four-armed Karttikeya, are now fitted as Dvarapalas of the Garbhagriha of the Siva temple, and are quite astounding. In the Shiva portion of Ardhanarisvara, Urdhvalinga of the Lord is depicted (urdhvareta), the perfect blissful state of Lord Siva.
In the top of the roof of the Siva temple there is one loose and heavy temple panel, depicting a scene from the great epic Ramayana. On the left side of the panel, the twenty-armed Ravana is depicted, forward facing, carrying weapons like dhanu, parasu, khadga and gada. Next to Ravana, the monkey-god Hanuman is seated in profile and below Hanuman, in the lower portion,a Sivalinga is depicted.
The central portion of the panel has a forward looking seated figure of a lady, probably Sita. On the far right, Rama is seen carrying Dhanu, seated on a chariot driven by two horses, and operated by the charioteer. Below the chariot, the figures of two warriors (one frontally-looking and other seated) are carved.
Scenes from Ramayana are very rarely found in the temple art of the upper Mahanadi Valley, except at Mohangiri, which is situated on the border of Kandhamal and Kalahandi district, around thirty miles in crow's fly from Dungi.
Another important sculpture found at Dungi is the figure of a nayika having big chignon in her hair. The heaviness of her body points to temple art of the 6th-7th Century A.D, the post-Gupta period. This panel is fitted to the outer wall of the Siva temple. Another attractive panel, having a seated figure of four-armed Siva holding sula (short-trident) is situated inside a chaitya-window medallion that's fitted in the front portion of the temple roof, at the entrance to the Jagamohona.
In the Souvenir of Kandhamal Utsav are photos of some other sculptures, like the chaitya-window medallion having a three-headed Mahesvara figure, and another panel having the figure of the great Pasupata Saivacharya Lakulisa, worshipped by his disciples, now missing from this site. A Lakulisa panel is found amidst temple ruins of the Dhavalesvara Siva temple at Mohangiri also.
There is a site called the Ranis Pinda, at a distance of around one furlong from Dungi with some loose sculptures situated in a thick grove of tall trees with dense foliage. One is a six-armed Mahisamardini Durga and the other the figure of a king, flanked by his two queens. These sculptures might have been shifted from Dungi site in the remote past for worship of Goddess Durga by the local people.
Priests of the Siva temple at Dungi report that a few years ago, an image of Ganesa had been shifted from this place to Tikabali village, a Panchayat Samiti headquarters, where it is worshipped on the top of a small hillock.
The study of the temple art and sculptures of Dungi put these to the Sailodbhava period due to their likeness and affinities to those of the Laksmanesvara and Bharatesvara temples at Bhubaneswar. Phulbani district, which was earlier known for explorations by archaeologists searching for stone tools of the pre-historic period, also has early temple ruins of the 6th-7th Century A.D, simply unbelievable.
About this site and sculptures like Ardhanarisvara, the historian, sociologist and anthropologist Shri Raghunath Rath of Baliguda has mentioned them in his Odia articles in the souvenirs, Ghumusar in 2000 and Giri Jhankar in 2004. But the discovery of Dungi sculptures of the jumping yaksa, heavy-bodied nayika with big chignon, seated Siva in the chaitya-medallion, Lakulisa panel, three-headed Mahesvara, four-armed standing Karttikeya and especially the long panel with Ramayana scene, along with the Mahisamarddini Durga and king with his two queens, surveyed by this scholar during his visit in 2006, has placed Kandhamal district on the map of temple sites of the upper Mahanadi Valley.
The Dungi site is also situated near the origin of Bruttanga River, a tributary of the mighty river Mahanadi, the life line of Orissa from the ancient time.
Source: Sasanka Sekhar Panda, Bhubaneswar - Orissa Review, excerpted and paraphrased
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