Two Buddha’s images have been discovered in Ganiapali. The local people worship one such image with the hooded serpent as a deity (Senapati and Mahanti, 1971:524).
From the Buddhist text Vinayapitaka, it is recognized that the serpent king Muchalinda protected Lord Buddha by raising its hood over his head forming an umbrella during the second week following his enlightenment while Buddha was troubled by rain and storm. Such an image of Lord Buddha seated on the coils of the serpent king Muchalinda, which shaped a hooded canopy over the head of Lord Buddha, has been discovered in Ganiapali. The local people worship this image as Naga-Muni (the serpent sage).
The above-mentioned Muchalinda image of Ganiapali was located for the first time by the celebrated art historian Charles Fabri in 1961 during his exploration. Fabri has correctly remarked that Muchalinda Buddha images are very rarely found in India. He has dated this image to the 5th to 6th century A.D. The name of the village Melchhamunda might have been a local twist of Muchalinda (Fabri, 1974:31-36; Panda, 2004:27). When precisely this place was abandoned is difficult to substantiate due to paucity of facts. However, systematic exploration and excavation in this area will positively throw new light on the history and culture of this area.
On a stone-slab is carved a Yoni-Patta having an eight-angled design and a pair of footprints. It is found close to the Pancha-Pandava-Ghat in Narsinghnath. It is said that such footprints are found to be carved on stone slabs at Ghudar and Ranipur-Jharial in the district of Bolangir and at Samaleswari temple and nearby Rampad in Sambalpur. It is widely believed that worship of footprints of Siddhacharyas was very familiar to the Tantrik School (Panda, 1996:37; 2003:62). The footprint emblem noticed in the site of Ranipur-Jharial may corroborate this. It is believed to be the reminiscent of early Buddhist worship of anoconic diction (Patel, 2004:42). So, in the present state of our knowledge and information, this much can be remarked here that the Narsinghnath area bears the testimony of Buddhist site of pilgrimage, worship and learning with international reputation in between second and eighth century A.D. In view of this, it may be suggested that in ancient and medieval period, religion and learning were very intimately intermingled and each Tirtha or holy place was also a centre of learning and culture.
From the accounts of the eminent art historian Donaldson (1985:200- 201), it is known that the temple site of Narsinghnath is an ancient one and the survival of four pillars within the Jagamohana suggests that there was in the beginning a pillared Mandapa erected here. Stylistically, these four existing pillars appear to date from the ninth century and are probably the earliest extant examples in Orissa of this transplanted style. This original structure has undergone many changes, however, with two ornate doorframes being added in the eleventh century.
Chitrasen Pasayat is an OAS and comments on culture
