(From top) Amunha Deula, a portion of the temple’s outer wall and the temple seen beyond residential buildings. Pictures by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Jan. 25: Every historical monument that one comes across in the temple city of Bhubaneswar has a different story of neglect to tell. The story of the Lokanatha Shiva temple, better known as Amunha Deula by local people, is not much different. The 11th century monument lies forgotten amidst a spurt of urbanisation.

Located right in front of the grand Lingaraj temple, the Lokanatha Shiva temple stands adjacent to the Lingaraj Temple police station, hidden behind its boundary wall from one side. A marvellous structure with fascinating architecture, this beautiful temple lies closed from the remaining sides too, due to the boundary walls of private buildings and houses.

The temple, that lay half-buried with all doorways concealed with soil, had no entrance to the sanctum sanctorum until 1972. So, local residents named it the Amunha Deula, meaning a temple without an entrance. However, in 1972, archaeologist Debala Mitra conducted an excavation and dug out the northern entrance of the temple, the beam of which can be found built with modern stones. Archaeologists and historians believe it is an important structure due to many aspects.

“The architecture, sculptural decoration and ornamentation of this monument has a striking resemblance with the Lingaraj temple,” states Sadasiba Pradhan, head of department of archaeology, Utkal University in his book ‘Lesser Known Monuments of Bhubaneswar’.

He further mentions: “This temple is a prototype of Lingaraj on a smaller scale and may be was built earlier as a modest experimentation before conceiving the gigantic and grand Lingaraj.”

Archaeologists suggest that the temple was built during the matured phase of temple building. Most of the lower part of the temple still needs excavation. The heritage site, believed to have been built during the Somavamsi Keshari dynasty, has decorative floral motifs all over the exterior walls. Other captivating sculptural designs include animal figures like lions and elephants, images of mystic Saivite divinities like bhiaravas, ardhanariswara, naga-nagis, nayikas and many more. The dwarapalas or ushers, holding tridents also add to the beauty of the structure built of ochre sand stone.

The temple, however, has become an abode for snakes and many portions of it have turned into garbage dumps. Weathering and erosion have eaten away the beauty of many sculptures due to neglect in conservation. Many cracks are visible on the pillars. Growth of vegetation has further added to the woes of the structure.

“We have no idea which temple this is. But there are a lot of snakes inside and no way in for us to take care of it,” said a local resident.

An attempt to renovate the structure was made by the Orissa State Archaeology in 1990. Though the work was discontinued soon, the iron scaffoldings have been left on the dome of the temple.