File:1873 photograph of Sirpur monuments Chhattisgarh 03.jpg

English: From the source, Photograph of two statues outside the Lakshmana Temple at Sirpur, taken by Joseph David Beglar in 1873-74. At Sirpur there are a number of temples and monasteries which date to the sixth and seventh centuries. The site became the Somavamshi capital at this point and was important to Buddhists and Hindus. The Lakshmana Temple is widely regarded as the finest early Hindu brick temple in central India and dates to the 7th century. The square sanctuary is covered by a curved tower which has preserved its brick mouldings, the corner amalakas and the arched motifs in the central projections. The sanctuary walls have blind doorways on three sides which are raised on a moulded basement. These statues were found outside the temple. The figure on the right, a statue Vishnu lacking the head, is reproduced as a lithograph in A. Cunningham, Report of a tour in the Central Provinces and Lower Gangetic Doab in 1881-82 (A.S.I. vol. XVII, Calcutta, 1884), pl. xvii.