The year was 1986. A natural calamity hit Sannati village in Kalaburagi district and partially destroyed the Chandralamba temple complex. While clearing the debris, the villagers found that the idol of Kali, their deity, was damaged in the calamity. They decided to replace the damaged idol with a new one. While removing the idol, they found some words etched on the Panipeetha, the base slab, of the idol. The curious villagers contacted historians who deciphered inscriptions written in the Prakrit language using the Brahmi script.
It turned out to be a 2000-year-old Ashokan edict. The inscription led the historians and archaeologists to an abandoned well at Kanaganahalli village on the bank of Bhima River located about 3 km from Chandralamba temple.
