Report of a Tour through the Bengal Provinces/Pákbirrá
PÁKBIRRÁ.
Twenty miles north-east of Barâ Bâzâr, and a mile east of Ponchá, is the small village of Pákbirrá; here are numerous temples and sculptures, principally Jain; the principal ones are collected within a long shed, which occupies the site of a large temple, of which the foundations still exist; the principal object of attention here is a colossal naked figure, with the lotus as symbol on the pedestal; the figure is 7½ feet high; near it, and along the walls, are ranged numerous others, two small ones with the bull symbol, one smaller with the lotus, a votive chaitya sculptured on four sides, the symbols of the figures on the four sides being a lion, an antelope, a bull, and what appears to be a lamb; over each principal human figure on the chaitya is represented a duck or a goose, holding a garland; there is, besides this, a second votive chaitya, and there may be others within that I could not see; the temple, which enshrined the colossal figure, must have faced west; it was very large, containing the full complement of preliminary chambers and hall in front of the sanctum.
The colossal figure has a natural crack or flaw diagonally across the thighs and feet, said to have been inflicted by the swords of Muhammadan conquerors of the country when it was first taken! Close to it, I excavated a mound of ruins; the yield consisted of five Buddhist sculptures of a late age; the most remarkable of these is a male and a female figure seated under a tree, which may be meant for a date palm; it has been photographed; the temple where these statues were, was of brick; it faced north; it had a mandapa in front, and must, therefore, have been of a larger size than any that are now standing there.
A large brick temple, the only one now standing, of brick; faces east, and has its doorway of the usual overlapping type, and without the stone sill cutting up its height into a doorway proper and an illuminating window; the temple, externally and internally, is remarkably plain, the only ornamental projections, &c., being at the corners; the bricks are all set in mud; the interior was once plastered, but it is now bare; probably the exterior was also plastered; there is no interior roof to the cell, the pyramidal hollow of the tower being open to the sanctum; there is no object of worship inside.
To the north of this stands a line of four stone temples, three still standing, one broken; these are of the usual single cell-pattern, and the doorway is not cut up into two portions; these then, as well as the brick oue just noticed, were single-cell temples, but at some subsequent period mandapas were added to them; they have, however, all got broken, leaving the façades of the temples complete, so that not only is it evident that they were simply added on afterwards, but it is further evident that they were not even bonded into the walls of the original temples; the junctions, where any exist, are quite plain; all these temples face north.
North of this is another, but irregular, line of temples, five in number; of these, two are of stone and three of brick, the latter all ruined; of the stone ones, one is standing.
North of this is another line of four temples, three of stone and one of brick, all in ruins.
Due east of the brick temple, which has been noticed as still standing, are two mounds, evidently the remains of two other brick temples. To the south of this line of temples is another line of three stone temples, all in ruins.
The ornamentation of the stone temples is confined to plain mouldings in the lower part; the façade is quite plain, but entire, showing that they were originally intended for single-cell temples without mandapas in front. A photograph, showing the façade, has been taken; it is probable the temples all stood on a large stone-paved platform, as on excavating near the foot of one I came upon a stone pavement; the whole group occupies the surface of a piece of rising ground 300 to 350 feet square.
There are some tanks close to the temples; one, a large one, had stone ghats and revetments once, now in ruins; there are in the vicinity some few mounds of no special interest.The material of all the stone temples noticed is a moderately fine sandstone, carefully cut and set without cement; the workmanship is plain, but good; the pillars, that were afterwards added to support the roofs of the mahamandapa, are plain, with square ends and octagonal shafts.
On a low hill or rise named Láthondongri (dongri means small hill) between Pákbirrá and Báramásiá, near Kharkiágarh, is a place known as Khalbir’s sthana; here are numerous votive chaityas and round and oblong cut-stone blocks; the place is clearly a cemetery of the Bhumiyas, but why they should have fixed upon a rocky eminence for a site I do not understand; nor am I certain whether the votive chaityas and cut stone lying there, and marking the sites of tombs, were brought from a distance, or were found on the spot; in the latter case, a large temple must have stood on the eminence, of which, however, no traces but these scattered stones remain The supposition that the stones were brought from the ruins of temples in some other spot is, however, not very probable, as from the known penchant of Hindu architects, and of architects in general, for eminences as sites for their structures, it is extremely probable the eminence here was once crowned by a temple. The hill is densely covered with scrub, and ruins of a temple or temples may exist, unknown to those who acted as my guides.
Tradition calls the votive chaityas, which in form are conoidal frusta, and resemble the native dhole or drums, petrified dhols, and relates that, on a certain occasion, musicians and their instruments, while celebrating a wedding, were converted into stone; what has become of the musicians no one pretends to be able to say.
Half a mile to the east are the ruins of two temples in the sâl jangal; one was Saivic from the lingam in situ. Most of the stone has, however, been carried off elsewhere, and only a few remain; the mouldings, judging from the fragments that remain, appear to have been somewhat shallow.