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/174

150 Bhimeswar, and is enshrined in a small modern temple. All the temples in Pánchpândeswar are modern, and built of brick and stone, without any regularity. Older temples once existed here, but of these, except the materials, there are now no traces. Judging from these, I conclude they were small, plain shrines, somewhat of the style of the Baijnâth temples, and of no great antiquity.

A short distance south of the river Ajaya, and to the east of the road, is a large tank near a village, with the remains of a Muhammadan dargah and of a Hindu temple close to it: they are not very old, but are probably as old as the ruins at Pánchpândeswar.  

Barâkar, which is the terminus of the East Indian Railway, Barâkar Branch, and is situated on the Grand Trunk Road, contains several very interesting ancient remains, in excellent preservation. There are four temples, whose towers at least are in entire preservation; besides some ruins. There are two temples together at the eastern end of the group, and one ruined temple not far off. Some few feet off are two other temples.

Temples Nos. 1 and 2 are precisely like each other. As they stand at present, they consist of a simple cell each, surmounted by a tower roof, but there are traces of a mandapa in front, of which all, but the foundations, have disappeared. So far as can now be ascertained, the temple consisted of a cell, with its doorway; an antarala, formed in the thickness of the back walls of the mahamandapa; a mahamandapa, about 13½ feet square (see plate). That there were chambers in front of the mahamandapa I cannot doubt, but no traces now exist of any.

One of the temples is inscribed. The record is engraved on the right jamb of the entrance or doorway of the sanctum. It is in two distinct pieces—one of 11½ lines, the other of 21 lines, both in a variety of the Bengali character. From the style of the characters, the temples do not appear to date to beyond the Muhammadan conquest, or, at the utmost, to just before. The inscriptions are not dated. One of them mentions the erection of the temple by one Harishchandra (Rájá?) for his beloved; but who Harishchandra was, or when he built the temples, is not mentioned. The temples are particularly interesting, as being the finest existing examples of their type.

