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/190

166 sculpture in the brick face itself; the plaster, therefore, is a later addition, and I would attribute it to the same period as the repairs of the stone temple, i.e., to the time of Mân Singh, Akbar’s General.

The forms of the towers, both of this and of the adjacent stone one, are very graceful; the upper portion of the tower of this one is broken, and it appears likely to be soon destroyed through the growth of trees, which are allowed to take root and flourish without hindrance.

Close to, and to the south-west of, this temple is a large mound, on which, and about which, lie several tapering plain pillars; this mound was clearly once the site of a large temple, larger than the existing ones. At the east end of the mound still stand two pilasters, with plain square mouldings; they measure 28 inches in width by 16 inches in thickness. Tradition says they are the side supports on which the trunnions of a dhenki used to work, the said dhenki having been set up by an evil Rankini, who was fond of human flesh, which she used to pound in this dhenki; and one of the long stone pillars, lying at the foot of the mound, is pointed out as the dhenki beam; it is said that, by agreement with the Raja, she was allowed one human victim daily. One day a poor cowherd, on returning with his cows to his master's house, saw his master and mistress crying bitterly; and ascertaining on inquiry the cause to be that one of them was to be made over to the ogress, he volunteered to go instead, stipulating only that be should be immediately furnished with some gram made of iron and some ordinary gram: armed with these, the man and his two dogs went to the temple and waited; presently in came the Rankini, and was about to seize him, when he said—"Hold, before you eat me, or I eat you, let us make a trial of strength: here is a handful of gram for you, and here is one for me, whichever of us two finishes eating the gram first, shall also eat the other." The Rankini agreed, but vainly tried to masticate the iron gram she had received, while the cowherd soon got through his share, and made as if he would begin on her next: terrified, the Rankini rent the temple and ran out, pursued by the cowherd and his two dogs; the Rankini fled to Dhalbhum, where, seeing a washerman washing at the river, she begged him to hide her, promising him the Ráj as recompense; the man hid her under his "pat" (the piece of wood they beat the cloth on), and the cowherd, after a fruitless search, was returning with his two dogs, when, in passing through the