From Elluru it takes about two hours along country roads to reach Ghantasala, a sleepy village where a large stupa was excavated by the British in the 1920s. This has now been rebuilt with modern bricks and fenced off. Across the road is a small, well-kept museum, which opened in 2007. To my surprise it housed numerous pillars, railings and statues made from white marble, many of which are finely carved with decorative motifs. The quality of the materials, the workmanship and scale of the pieces imply that a well-endowed monastic centre once flourished here. Inscriptions in Brahmi suggest that this site dates from the 1st or 2nd century CE but fell into disuse around the 5th. The caretaker explained that Ghantasala was once located near the ocean and benefitted from the prosperity of a now vanished port (today the coast is 16km away). With the shift of the coastline, the monastery was abandoned and became buried beneath earth and the present village. The artefacts in the museum were found either in the houses of local people or unearthed by farmers in the course of their work. A small Buddha head was dug up from a field only a month ago and is displayed in a glass box. Judging by the visitors book, hardly anyone comes here.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 00:16:18 +0000
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