Structural conservation of a dilapidated 9th-century shrine in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region has led to the discovery of previously unrecorded Sanskrit inscriptions on the temple’s inner sanctum walls. The inscriptions, written in a regional variant of the Nagari script, detail the donation of a village to the temple by a subordinate chieftain of the Rashtrakuta emperor Krishna I. The text provides rare insights into the administrative autonomy granted to local guilds in the medieval period.
The restoration team also uncovered intact basalt sculptures of celestial musicians and a unique depiction of Ganesha in a rare meditative posture. Archaeological Survey of India officials state that the temple serves as a missing architectural link between the rock-cut traditions of Ellora and the structural stone temples of the later Yadava period.