6th century stone image found

KENDRAPARA: A sixth century-old stone image of Heruka was unearthed from an agricultural field in Nathuabar village, 20 km from here on Monday.Sources said a villager Kelu Charna Panda stumbled across the four-foot high Heruka image of Buddhist period while digging the earth for making bricks.Two elephants with the image of Goddess Laxmi, dancing girls and the images of seven Buddhist monks and Lord Buddha are engraved on the unearthed stone. On the other side, it has the image of a man resting  along with that of a monkey.  The village is situated near the famous Buddhist sites of Lalitgiri, Ratnagiri, Kaima and Langudi where the ASI had unearthed many Buddha images,  potteries and other artefacts.