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/198

174 No 13 resembles Nos. 11 and 12; has Ganeça over the doorway, which faces west.

This is the last temple, still in tolerable order. Besides these, which may fairly be considered as standing, there are numerous ones, more or less ruined, some being broken down to the level of the roof of the sanctum, others still more, while of many a confused heap of cut stone is all that remains. There were still others whose only remains are a number of lingams, arghas, and cut stone in the bed of the river. One temple disappeared into the river in the interval between my first and my present visit to the place—a period of little over five years only.

It appears that the banks of the river extended up to, and beyond, a long line of rocks that now jut out in the bed of the river parallel to the line of bank, and a hundred yards off. The builders that chose the site of the temple appear evidently to have done their best in selecting what appeared a safe spot on the river banks, as the line of rocks must then have formed an indestructible natural revetment of the river face, but they did not reckon on the river cutting its way behind the invincible revetment, and rushing through their temples; they erred in not ascertaining, with all possible care, the highest flood-level of the river—an error but too common among the engineers even at this day. In ordinary years, the flood seldom reaches the top of the high banks, and inquiry, unless very carefully made, would fail to show that in certain years the flood rushes with mad fury, four feet deep, through the very court-yards, and into the cells of the temples on the highest spots, while the temples lower down are buried the whole depth of the entrance doorways.

Temple No. 10 is traditionally said to have been thus buried in sand almost up to the eaves of the tower roof, and the heaps now lying outside are pointed out as the identical sand dug out of the mandapa, the cell, and the courtyard of the temple. I made enquiries regarding the flood-level, but found only one man in the village that was of sufficient age when it occurred, to remember it, and willing to inform me. I have heard engineers make disparaging comments on what they consider the excessive waterway given to the bridge over the Barâkar, a tributary of the Damuda, but let them enquire of old people regarding the flood of that year on which the calculations of the waterway of the bridge are based, and they will find that the bridge is none too large.