About the Place & what to see:

It is situated a few kilometers south of Keonjhar -Anandpur road, about 32 km from Keonjhar and 22.5 km from Dhenkikote.
Located in the Ghatagan Police station the twin villages Sitabhinji and Dengaposi stand on the river Sita which contain ancient fresco paintings on a number of natural rock shelters in the hills. The chief antiquities of these places are a tempera painting on the ceiling of two huge boulders famous as "Ravanchhaya",(which takes after a half open umbrella providing sun shade) a Mukhalingam and a number of short rock inscriptions. The tempera painting stands far a Royal Procession which depicts a royal figure seated on an elephant with a sword in his hand. A band of footmen lead the procession followed by a horseman and a dancing woman. The royal figure is depicted as being followed by an attendant woman too. A line of painted writing is inscribed below the scene which reads the name of the king as Maharaja Sri Disabhanja.


These rock shelters of Sitabhinji date back to the 4th and 5th century AD. Several rock inscriptions testify that they once attracted the Shiva ascetics. Historical records evidence that Maharaja Sri Disabhanja of Sitabinji may be the earliest Bhanja king who flourished in the 4th and 5th century AD. It may well be believed that the Bhanjas were ruling in Orissa almost continuously since the fourth or fifth century AD. The territory called Bhanjabhumi or Bhanjabhum, which includes the persent Mayurbhanj was evidently named after the Bhanjas.

The antiquity of the area is established by a large number of microliths and some neoliths. In a subsequent period the place was undoubtedly a flourishing Saiva centre. Near Ravanachhaya are a number of half buried boudlers with short inscriptions on them. The inscriptions are characters, a few of them ornamental, which can be assigned to the 5th and the 6th centuries A.D. Five of these inscriptions refer to Saiva followers. Near these records are a number of ruined brick structures, the historicity of which are yet to be established by excavation. The deity worshipped here and referred to in these inscriptions might be the character of Mukha Linga(or the linga with the four faces of Siva) now enshrined in a temple. Fragments of old pottery and large-sized bricks are found scattered all over the place. A few Kushan coins are also said to have been recovered here.

To the further south is a cave with a linga inside. The local people associate the cave with Sita and her sons, Lava and Kusa. The inscribed boulders are also connected with many stories and traditions.The name Sitabinji may have originated from Sita, now worshipped in the cave, or from the name of the rivulet flowing close-by which is also called Sita.