TIRUCHY: As many as 13 panchaloha idols were unearthed in Thanjavur during the construction work for laying the foundation for a house on Friday and sent to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) for an assessment.

Mohammed Faizal (43), a resident of Madavilagam near Papanasam in Thanjavur has undertaken the construction work for laying the foundation of a new house in his field.

The workers were engaged in digging up the ground on Friday morning.

They found a few idols at five feet of depth. Following this, they passed on the information to Mohammed Faizal who stopped the digging process and informed it to the Papanasam Tahsildar Manikandan.

The Tahsildar rushed to the spot and instructed the workers to dig the ground further.

As the workers continued digging, they found as many as 13 panchaloha idols of Amman, Somaskanthar, Pradosha Nayakar, Thirugnanasambandar, Manickavasagar, Vinayakar, Sivakami Amman, Chandikeshwarar and Abirami Amman.

In addition, a few puja utensils were also unearthed. Later, they took the idols and other articles and placed them at Tahsildar’s office for further inspection.

“Though the design of the idols of Nalvar, Somaskandar, and Amman idols resemble the Chola-era idols, still they should be assessed by the ASI for proper identification”, said Manimaran, the Historian at Thanjavur Saraswathi Mahal library.