Report of a Tour through the Bengal Provinces/Mangalpur and Bhimgarh
MANGALPUR.
At Mangalpur, about two miles west of Dubrâjpur, and nine miles south of Bakeswar or Tantipâra, is a tank known as Dántiwara,—so called, legend says, after the teeth of Parvati, of which one fell into it. Close to it, Khágra is said to have been so named after Khagâditya Muni.
BHIMGARH.
The road from Raniganj to Seuri crosses the Ajaya river near Bhimgarh. This is an old fort, with low earthen ramparts, now beaten by the weather into low gentle mounds. The place is attributed to the five Pândus, who, during their exile, are said to have stayed here some time. Some hollows in the vicinity,—the remains, no doubt, of old tanks,—are said to have been caused by the daily pouring out at those spots of the water from boiled rice, and the surplus ghi and sugarcane juice. A tank in the vicinity is named Sona Chál Dighi, and is said to have yielded gold, which the Pândus washed here: hence the name. The interior of the fort is now cultivated, and people say they occasionally come upon sál timber buried underground. I accept this statement as correct, and as an indication of the comparatively small age of the fort.
On the south banks of the river, opposite the fort, are a number of small, uninteresting temples, which are ascribed to the Pândus. The five brothers are said to have established five lingams there, which they worshipped; whence the name of the place Pánchpândeswar. Bhim, however, is said to have set up another lingam on the other side of the river, close to, and west of, the old fort: this is now known as 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.