The Sitabhinji site is a collection of 4th to 6th-century monuments in Kendujhar (Keonjhar) district of Odisha. These contain an early tempera painting and many inscriptions.
The painted mural (4th or 5th century) here is one of the earliest tempera painting known in India. It is found on a rock cut ledge, is faded yet preserved enough to attest to the artist's exceptional attention to details. It uses five colors, and portray's a king's procession. It include horses, an elephant and walking attendants.There is a Sanskrit inscription under the painting near the horse. The context of this painting and the associated Shaiva artwork here suggests that colorful murals were part of decorations at Hindu monuments by mid-1st millennium CE.
The inscriptions are found here on many rocks and are relatively short. Those which have been deciphered are in Sanskrit and early Odiya, in a script that is pre-6th century. They contain Shiva-related phrases, mention a Shaiva monastery (now lost) and school, names of the guru and one of his student, and a temple. One of the inscriptions mentions the name of a king, but little is known about him. Some fragments of inscriptions remain untranslated. Late 20th-century excavations have unearthed parts of a late Gupta era temple, a small stone elephant and a Shiva Linga with faces on its sides (mukhalinga). Other artworks found at this site are likely from about the 6th-century.
Location: 21.51253° N, 85.77673° E
- Southeast of Kendujhar (Keonjhar)
- near National Highway 20,
Site is also known as / synonyms:
- Ravanachhaya Mural Rocks
- Rabanchaya site
- Sitabhinji archaeological site
- Sitabinji painting
- Sitabinji mural
Nearby historic sites:
- Kichakeswari temple, Khiching (60 kilometers)
Sources and Further Reading:
- T. N. Ramachandran (1951), Find of Tempera Painting in Sītābhiñji, District Keoñjhār, Orissa, Artibus Asiae, Volume 14, Number 1/2, pp. 4-25
- A Joshi (1965), Antiquities of Sitabhinji, The Orissa Historical Research Journal. XIII (2), pp. 21–27
- M. Somathilake (2007), Further Analysis on Fresco and Tempera: An Analysis of the Technique of Murals in South Asia, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka New Series, Vol. 53, pp. 109-132
 Road to Sitabinji |
 Sitabinji site |
 Sitabinji fresco |
 Inscription |
 Mukhalinga and stone elephant |
 Inscription |
