MISSING LINK? Excavations at Langudi could fill the gaps in Orissa's history

The sleepy hamlets and rolling hills of Langudi hardly look like Alladin's cave, yet contractors, businessmen, politicians and labourers flock to the area. It is Langudi's rich red soil that draws sundry wealth seekers. But were they to dig deep, they would find bigger treasures because Langudi, 45 km from Bhubaneswar, is the site of a series of archaeological findings. In fact, the discoveries could well prove that Langudi has the largest concentration of Buddhist relics in any region. That is, of course, if the artefacts get to see the light of day.

It's not as if the relics are being stolen. It's just that the possibility of their being lost is a real one. For many people Langudi's red soil-used extensively for laying roads-is the real treasure. Lately, the demand for the red soil has skyrocketed. With work on National Highway No. 5, which criss-crosses the region, in brisk progress, entire chunks of the hills are being gouged out and carted away. leaving the area pockmarked with ugly, red gashes.

The reported involvement of influential politicians and businessmen in the lucrative quarrying and soil trade is making the archaeologists' treasure hunt increasingly difficult. For six years now, the earth has regularly yielded unexpected harvests: four Buddhist stupas, some monasteries, 28 rock-cut caves, and more recently, two stone carvings of Emperor Ashoka. Yet the hills are still to be declared a protected site. It is only after such a declaration that they can be covered by the Orissa Ancient Monument Protection Act of 1956 and the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act of 1958. In 1996, the state Culture Department asked the collector of Jajpur, in which Langudi lies, for the district's land schedule so that the process of declaring the area a protected site could be set in motion. The collector is yet to comply. Several public-interest petitions have been filed in the courts but the quarrying goes on unchecked.

Worried by the indiscriminate digging, archaeologists are now dubbing Langudi the Bamiyan of Orissa. "The only difference," laments Ramchandra Roy, an archaeological enthusiast, "is that while the destruction of the Buddhist statues in Afghanistan shook the entire world, the menace in Langudi has not even caused a faint flutter in the state."

Much of the exasperation stems from the belief that Langudi could have the largest cluster of Buddhist relics in any area, putting in shade even the celebrated sites of neighbouring Lalitgiri and Ratnagiri. "What has been found in and around Langudi has little parallel," confirms Debraj Pradhan, secretary, the Orissan Institute of Maritime and South-East Asian Studies, who is credited with having excavated two limbless figurines of Ashoka recently.

Archaeologists believe that these findings could fill the gaps in Orissa history, particularly the period between the 1st and 6th century a.d., of which little or nothing is known. The excavations could also unearth the physical evidence to authenticate events mentioned in ancient literature. Historian Karuna Sagar Behera's chance discovery of a monastery in 1996 had established it to be the holy Buddhist shrine of Pushpagiri described in Hieun Tsang's Sy-U-Ki. The Chinese traveller/chronicler had also written about the 10 stupas of Odora (modern day Orissa) built by Ashoka where Buddha preached. Although historians are yet to find proof of Buddha having visited Orissa, hints of other stupas in the adjoining hills of Dhubri and Kayama, yet to be dug up however, confirm their belief that the 10 ancient stupas may have existed in the Langudi hills.

There is also a growing perception that the outlines of an ancient city straddling the hills of Langudi and Kayama could be the capital city of Dantapura, believed to be the place from where Buddha's tooth relic made its way to its present abode in Kandy, Sri Lanka. The ruins, which match descriptions in ancient literature, have left archaeologists excited. "History's case has not been fully cracked," says archaeologist Gopal Chandra Pradhan. The russet soil of Langudi promises clues to unravel the mystery. But the quarrying has to stop. "We understand the significance of the region and will do our best to protect it," says Director of Culture Nalini Mohan Mohanty. But with little being actually done, history's roadmap may well end up beneath the asphalt of a national highway.