HOOGHLY: The Archaeological Survey of India has said that the sandstone Vishnu idol is of great value. On January 17, soil was dug up to build a bicycle stand inside the school. That soil was piled up in a corner of a field.

Two students of class nine, Jyoti Mondal and Mohini Sarkar, saw the statue while playing. They took it to the school’s Bhulore teacher Sangamitra Palit and English teacher Karuna Chatterjee. The teachers understood its immense historical importance. The school’s headmaster Saikat Das said, a historical artifact has been recovered from our school. The school’s history teacher Biswarup Dey studies archaeology. He searched Google and found that this statue could be from the Gupta era. As per his advice, we contacted the Archaeological Survey of India. We sent pictures. They said that its historical value is great. It must be protected with great secrecy.

The school authorities could not take the risk of keeping the statue in the school building. It had been stolen twice before. The statue was kept in a safe vault.
Today, Assistant Superintendent of Archaeology (Kolkata Circle) Dr. Sanjay Panda and Pradeep Kar Harnath from the Kolkata office of the Indian Archaeological Department came to the school.
They examined the statue carefully. They visited the place from where the statue was recovered.

The archaeologist said that it could be a statue from about a thousand years ago. It is a standing statue of Vishnu. At one time, the course of the Ganges passed through this area. Many such statues have been found in 24 Parganas. This statue will be taken and compared. Research will be done. Then the period of the statue will be known.
Students and teachers are excited to recover such a historical reference from inside the school.