The discovery of a royal seal of the Sri Lankan ruler Maharaju Dutthagamani (101-77 BC) at the site in 2003 has taken back the history of the region by several centuries. In the year 2003, a man called Jahanvi Shekhar Rai discovered a seal near the shrine which he sent to the Sampoornanand Sanskrit university at Varanasi for deciphering. The linguistic experts there concluded that the seal belonged to "Maharaju Duthgamini", who according to "Mahavansh Granthawali" in Buddhist literature, belonged to Anuradhapur dynasty and ruled Ceylon between 104-77 BC.


Survival of the ruins


P C Roy Choudhury mentions “It is also remarkable that this temple appears to have been left unmolested when Muslim rule under Sher Shah was set up in this area. The neighbouring Chayanpur fort was one of the citadels of Sher Shah and the Muslim pockets in the neighbouring villages suggest that a much larger Muslim population had lived in the area when Muslim rule was predominant. The ravages to Mundesvari are not man-made but due to the passage of time.”


The temple may already have been in a ruined state owing to disrepair over time, and thus may have escaped the attention of invaders, and thus survived. The popularity of the temple is growing every day. It is worth visiting for every curious tourist.

References :-


1.   An account of the District of Shahabad, 1812-13 by Francis Buchanan

2.   Temple by Mundesvari by K C Panigrahi – Journal of Bihar Research Society 8, Vol, XLIV, Parts 1-2

3.   Ep. Ind. Vol IX, page 289 ff. and the plate

4.   Ind. Ant., Vol XLIX, 1920, page 21 ff

5.   District Gazetteer of Shahabad (1906), pages 146-147

6.   Ibid (1924), page 173

7.   The Antiquarian Remains of Bihar by Dr. D R Patil (Patna), 1963,pages 291-293

8.   Temples and Legends of Bihar by P C Roy Chaudhry (Bombay), 1965