February 24 was a Sunday, the Indian weekend day, so Rani had arranged for us to visit sites in the East Godavari District, south of Visakhapatnam. The goal of our trip was to visit some more early Buddhist sites that a local school teacher had found in the course of the past year. He was the school teacher who had taken us to the site of Kumari Lova last year.
A driver with a rented car picked us up from the school and took us to Visakhapatnam, where we met Rani, her sister and Sudhakar, a heritage enthusiast who had come from Hyderabad. We then headed south to the town of Tuni, stopping for breakfast along the way.
In Tuni we were joined by the school teacher and some other heritage enthusiasts, including Venkateshwara Rao, who had been with us last year at Pedda Uppalam, and Mohammed Silar, the head of the INTACH chapter in Machelipatnam, along with an entourage of newspaper and TV reporters, forming a group of a couple dozen people in all.
We first went to the hillside site of Pedda Metta near the village of Ayyapuraju Kothapalli, which was a large early Buddhist site with scattered bricks spread over several agricultural fields. Some sculpture fragments were of special interest.
After the site visit the members of the press left to file their reports. The next day there were four articles about us in the local Telugu newspapers
The newspaper articles
We then went to the second site of Gangadhara Metta, which had been bulldozed just a few months ago, leaving only a small remnant mound with a headless statue and an exceptionally large quantity of pottery.
We then went to a restaurant for lunch; I spoke with Mohammed Silar about the possibility of my coming to Machilipatnam for a visit after the project ends.
The restaurant was near a railroad crossing at Annavaram where a memorial has been erected for Geoffrey Edward Temple and George Victor Tavernor, two employees of the Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway Company who died in an accident on 21 October 1928 while constructing a bridge on the Pampa River.
After lunch we all went to Kummari Lova, to see an additional site a few hundred meters from the ones we had visited last year. This year’s site was little more than some scattered brick fragments and a few sherds.
A new contingent of the press joined us and we gave repeated short interviews about how wonderful it is to look at scattered brick fragments in agricultural fields.
At 5:15 around sunset we headed back to Visakhapatnam, where we took the opportunity to pick up some grocery supplies, which are not easily found in Bhimunipatnam, and we arrived back at the school at 8:30.
A driver with a rented car picked us up from the school and took us to Visakhapatnam, where we met Rani, her sister and Sudhakar, a heritage enthusiast who had come from Hyderabad. We then headed south to the town of Tuni, stopping for breakfast along the way.
Ilse and me having breakfast (Anja is often the person taking the photographs)
In Tuni we were joined by the school teacher and some other heritage enthusiasts, including Venkateshwara Rao, who had been with us last year at Pedda Uppalam, and Mohammed Silar, the head of the INTACH chapter in Machelipatnam, along with an entourage of newspaper and TV reporters, forming a group of a couple dozen people in all.
We first went to the hillside site of Pedda Metta near the village of Ayyapuraju Kothapalli, which was a large early Buddhist site with scattered bricks spread over several agricultural fields. Some sculpture fragments were of special interest.
The site of Pedda Metta with brick fragments scattered across an agricultural field
The school teacher holding a worked stone
The school teacher holding a worked stone
The group (Venkateshwara Rao is to the left of Ilse)
Mohammad Silar speaking about an architectural element
The group around some sculpture fragments
Me giving an interview (the school teacher is holding the microphone)
After the site visit the members of the press left to file their reports. The next day there were four articles about us in the local Telugu newspapers
The newspaper articles
We then went to the second site of Gangadhara Metta, which had been bulldozed just a few months ago, leaving only a small remnant mound with a headless statue and an exceptionally large quantity of pottery.
The bulldozed site of Gangadhara Metta
The headless statue and me
We then went to a restaurant for lunch; I spoke with Mohammed Silar about the possibility of my coming to Machilipatnam for a visit after the project ends.
The restaurant was near a railroad crossing at Annavaram where a memorial has been erected for Geoffrey Edward Temple and George Victor Tavernor, two employees of the Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway Company who died in an accident on 21 October 1928 while constructing a bridge on the Pampa River.
The memorial for Geoffrey Edward Temple and George Victor Tavernor
After lunch we all went to Kummari Lova, to see an additional site a few hundred meters from the ones we had visited last year. This year’s site was little more than some scattered brick fragments and a few sherds.
A cut through the site with a few sherds and brick fragments in the soil.
A new contingent of the press joined us and we gave repeated short interviews about how wonderful it is to look at scattered brick fragments in agricultural fields.
Rani and me giving interviews
At 5:15 around sunset we headed back to Visakhapatnam, where we took the opportunity to pick up some grocery supplies, which are not easily found in Bhimunipatnam, and we arrived back at the school at 8:30.
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