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NEW DELHI: It may sound surreal, but it is real.
On Friday, India began hunt for hidden gold treasure worth over $45,000,000,000 at a fort temple in a village in Uttar Pradesh.
The village priest saw in his dream that the gold is buried in a mound near his Shiva temple. He wrote to the Indian government which on Friday launched a full-fledged hunt for the hidden treasure of 1,000-ton gold amid an unprecedented media circus.
Suddenly, the sleepy Daundiya Kheda village in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh is under the international glare as the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) began excavation work for the hidden treasure amid tight security.
The treasure is buried at the fort of the late ruler of Unnao, Raja Rao Ram Bux Singh, who was hanged by the British for participating the 1857 Mutiny.
Shobhan Sarkar, a known priest of the area, says the late ruler appeared in his dreams and disclosed the hidden gold to him. The priest wrote to the Indian prime minister and the Reserve Bank of India to dig out the treasure.
Preliminary investigations by the Geological Survey of India (GSI) recently found hints of some metal underneath the earth there, and thus the priest’s dream of the hidden treasure prompted the Indian government to launch the hunt for the yellow treaure.
The excavation work by a 12-member team from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) began after puja and havan (Hindu religious rituals) by the priest Shobhan Sarkar at the crack of the dawn. Village women offered puja for the success of the excavation mission.
As the excavation work began under layers of tight security, the whole area was turned into a sort of circus as the media, curious villagers and government officials descended on the site.
As per the priest’s dream, the excavation work will cover the entire area that falls under the shadow of the Shiva temple throughout the day.
ASI superintending archaeologist Pravin Kumar Misra said his 12-member team will use basic tools, not big drilling machinery, in their hunt for the dream treasure. The excavation work may last for a month.
When the ASI official was asked about the priest’s dream that has triggered this hunt for gold, he was quoted as saying, “We have not come here for gold. We are archaeologists who have a scientific way of working.’’
If the hunt yields the 1,000-ton gold as dreamt by the priest, the treasure will be worth Rs 258976,50,00,000, taking into consideration that the price of one kg of gold today is Rs 25,89,765.
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