Page:Report of a Tour Through the Bengal Provinces of Patna, Gaya, Mongir and Bhagalpur; The Santal Parganas, Manbhum, Singhbhum and Birbhum; Bankura, Raniganj, Bardwan and Hughli in 1872-73.djvu/164

140 the vertical portion of the tower, and if on the semicircle so described a triangle, whose base is less in width than the diameter of the semicircle, be slipped till the lower extremities of its sides rest on the curve of the semicircle, we shall get a form that nearly approaches that of these towers.

Judging, therefore, from the form of the towers, they cannot be ascribed to a period anterior to the Muhammadan conquest, and this inference of their late age is confirmed by the painful want of relief and variety both in plan and in elevation. The insipid flatness of design of these temples, whether we regard the plan or the profile, is indeed their most essential characteristic, and this want of relief is a strong argument against any great antiquity being ascribed to them. For these reasons, combined with the evident want of proportion and beauty, I ascribe the first erection of these temples to the earlier periods of the Muhammadan conquest.

But as intolerance was a characteristic of the early Muhammadan conquerors, and as we have no record of any event which could render it probable that Hindu temples had been built at any time after the Muhammadan conquest and before the reign of Akbar, and as, lastly, we have distinct record of a Hindu General, Mân Singh, exercising supreme authority in these parts during Akbar’s reign, I consider it most probable that to Mân Singh’s period these temples owe their construction.

The inference thus arrived at becomes a certainty when we examine the inscriptions; there are altogether thirteen of these, distributed as follows:—

1. Inscription on the outer entrance to the great temple S; it consists of thirteen long lines, and two small ones written sideways; it is in Bengali, and is divided into slokas; it records the erection, or rather I consider the repair, of a temple by one Sri Bydyanatha Mahamyáma. This name and also the name of one Raghunatha recurs in the last line.

2. Inscription from the inner entrance or the real entrance of the original temple, divested of its verandah and vestibule, which are evident after-additions; this consists of five lines in modern Nâgari; it mentions the name of some king with the title of Nripati. Raghunatha’s name also occurs in the last line.

3. One from outside of the great temple; this is in seven lines, and is in Bengali; it records the name of some local Raja in the second line.