Report of a Tour through the Bengal Provinces/Chechgaongarh

by Joseph David Freedone Melik Beglar

CHECHGAONGARH.

There are the ruins of a few temples on the north banks of the river also, one faced south, and was built exactly facing a corresponding one on the south, or right bank of the Damuda; the ruins contain several stones, evidently the mouldings of the basement; they are fine, and boldly cut; opposite to this temple, on the right bank of the river and to the south-east and east of it, are other temples, which must have been profusely ornamented; some of the fragments of stones of the basement mouldings resemble the basement mouldings of the superb temple at Udipur in Central India in profusion and delicacy of sculpture; the forms of the mouldings, also, were apparently very beautiful; some of the curves appear to have been parabolic or elliptic—not circular; a remarkably fine one reduced from a facsimile impression is shown in plate.

The temples were certainly adorned internally with pilasters, sculptured as in the examples of Central India; and from the mutilated remains of an elephant statue lying among the ruins, I infer that, like the superb temples of Khajurâha, these temples were also adorned with elephant statues projecting from corners and salient points of the tower; there are also several fragments sculptured with the horseshoe pattern, as in the main body of the towers of the main temples at Khajurâha; of pillars not one exists. Such convenient articles cannot be expected to be left lying about when close to them stands a large flourishing village (one stands within two miles of the ruins on the north side of the river, and has several pakka houses in it, and one on the same side of the river two miles off, also with pakka houses in it); but of statues a few mutilated ones still exist; one is an eight-armed female slaying the buffalo-demon; another is a lingam and its argha; a third, curiously enough, is the architrave of a doorway, with a seated figure, like Buddha, with a halo sculptured round his head; this last is evidently Buddhist, and being on the architrave, proves the existence of a Buddhist temple, side by side with Brahmanical Saivic temples.

The largest temple of the group here was clearly a Saivic temple; the lingam and argha are still in situ; the argha is cut on a square large stone, ornamented with mouldings on its vertical faces: this temple faced east, as the spout of the argha, which is usually on the right hand side, points north; to the west of the great temple, about 100 feet off, are the ruins of a small temple, with the mutilated figure of a large nandi, and of others to the north and south of the large temple, as well as to the north-east and north-west, and to the east; of these all appear to have been small ones, and probably subordinate to the great central Saivic one; there ought properly to have been temples to the south-east and south-west also, but I noticed no ruins in those parts; possibly they have been quite removed.

The temple to the north appears to have been larger than the others; among its ruins is a slab, the spandrel apparently of a false arch representing a horse or a donkey saddled; this is probably meant to represent the Kâlkiavatâr; the existence of an arched spandrel does not bring down the age of the temple to post-Muhammadan times, as the temples at Khajurâha and at Pathari and elsewhere have false arch-ribs to give apparent support to the centre of the great entrance architrave. The mouldings of this temple were particularly old, judging from the fragments; for there is literally in the whole place not one single stone left standing on another in situ, and most of the squared blocks have got carried off long ago.

About 200 feet east of the great temple are the ruins of the second largest temple in the place. All the temples here appear to have been profusely ornamented with sculpture, and the number of amalakas and half-amalakas lying about, with their variety of sizes, shews that each tower rose up majestically out of a cluster of attached fiat towers, as at Khajurâha and elsewhere; the large temple had also mahamandapas and antaralas and porticos; in short, were complete temples, as at Khajurâha. There were altogether 16 mounds, large and small, all within a space of about quarter of a mile wide by half-mile in length.

To the east and west of the great collection of temples, and half a mile off on either side, on the banks of the river, are other mounds of ruins of temples; further east, are some few more; further west, immediately on the edge of the river, a long line of bare rocks juts out; on these are sculptured numerous arghas, lingams, and figures. The river eddies have cut the rocks here into curious holes.

Near to, and east of, the largest temple on the vertical face of a ledge of rock on the west bank of the little rivulet that murmurs down, are cut two lines of inscription, mediæval nagiri; in the first line mention is made of Chichitagara, which I take to be the original of modern Chechgaongarh, or Chichinga, and in the second line is mention of Srayaki Rachhabansidra, shewing clearly that there were Jain or Srâwaki temples here; the carved architrave representing seated a figure with the halo is therefore probably a relic of the Jain temple. On the flat rock alone are cut numerous arghas, lingams, charanas, and figures, male, female, &c., all rather rudely.

Tradition ascribes the temples here, and indeed in the vicinity generally, to one Maheswar Raja. This Raja is said to have been of the same caste as the Ghatwâls of this day of Katrás.