Report of a Tour through the Bengal Provinces/Pachet
PACHET.
The four sets of artificially built walls of the fort are all of earth, and are each defended by deep and wide moats, now filled up in many places; the moats were so connected with the streams descending the sides of the hill, as to keep them always wet, and to this day they always contain some water; in most places the walls, or earthen ramparts, were also ingeniously led so as to form continuations of natural spurs of the hill itself, thus securing the maximum of defensive power with the minimum of labor in throwing them up. In the walls were numerous gates, now mostly gone, and represented by mere gaps in the walls; four gateways, however, of cut stone, in various stages of decay, still exist, and have names; they are named Ánkh Duár, Bâzâr Mahal Duár, or Desbándh Duár, Khoribári Duár, and Duár Bándh; the last is in the best state of preservation; all of them were built in much the same style, viz., the usual Muhammadan style and with true arches, though overlapping arches were also used: some of these gateways served the double purpose of gateways proper and openings for water, and the Duár Bándh still serves the purpose of allowing water to be taken in from the moat outside, when necessary for irrigating the fields within; the fort is very large, the outermost ramparts having a total length of more than five miles, while the traditional outermost defences, viz., the ridge lines round the fort, inclose a space of about 12 square miles, exclusive of the hill itself.
There are several brick remains within the fort, generally inaccessible, either from being surrounded by water or by dense jangal; they are evidently post-Muhammadan, and of no special interest. Moulded and cut brick and terra cotta sculptured tiles have been used in almost every one of them, which are all of the Lower Bengal type of architecture, viz., with curved instead of straight top lines; the curved top lines appear to me more elegant than the straight ones, and are evidently copied from the curved ridge and eave lines of thatched huts. In the Upper Provinces, where the rainfall is scanty compared to Lower Bengal, curved ridge and eaves are not so necessary as in Lower Bengal; here the rainfall is so heavy that, unless an extraordinary thickness of thatch is put on, water invariably leaks through, especially along the corner beams of a chauchálá (four-thatched). It must be clear that when an oblong or a square room is covered by four thatches meeting either in a ridge or in a point, and the thatches (cháls) have all the same inclination, the slope of the roof at the lines of junction of the four thatches is much gentler than elsewhere, and, as a consequence, leaks are more frequent at these than elsewhere; to give to these lines the same, or nearly the same, inclination as the other portions of the roof, the corners have to be lowered; hence the curved outline of the ridge and cave lines.
Upon the side of the hill, and overlooking the fort below, are a number of temples; they are all massively built, and the occurrence of the true dome and the true arch in them stamps them as of the post-Muhammadan period; the great dome of the mahamandapa of the large temple is of an early date, as it is without bulge, and is crowned, not by a foliated cap, but by a small top knot; I ascribe it, therefore, to the period of Mân Singh; the temple is known as Raghunâth’s mandir, having been built by a Rájá of that name; an annual fair, lasting one day, is held here.
The gates of the fort had inscribed slabs let in, which would have fixed the date of their erection and the name of the Rájá that reigned then; they are much injured, but enough remains to fix the date of two of the gates,—the Duár Bándh and the Khoribári gate; each slab consists of 6 lines of Bengali characters, and they appear to be duplicates of each other; there is mention of a Sri Vira Hámira, who, we know from other sources, reigned over a large tract of country, extending in the south-west as far as Chátná near Bánkurá; the date is either Samvat 1657 or 1659, the figure in the units place being alone doubtful through wear, which would bring it to about 1600 A. D., when we know Mân Singh, Akbar's General, was Viceroy of Bengal. The fort having thus been proved to date only to Mân Singh, the temples, both on the hill and at the foot, cannot date earlier, and that on the hill cannot, from its style, be of later date.
The legendary accounts of the origin and establishment of Pachet may be thus related.
Anot Lal, Rájá of Kâsipur, was going, with his wife, on a pilgrimage to Jagannath, when the Ráni gave birth to a child in Aruna Vana (the present Pachet). The Rájá and Ráni, unwilbng to delay on account of the child, determined to abandon it, thinking that they could easily get other children, while the fruits of the pilgrimage could not be so easily got, so they proceeded on to Thákurdwárá; the fabulous cow, Kapilá Gai, who used to live in Arunban, seeing the child abandoned, took upon herself to feed it with her milk, mid thus the child lived on and grew up, and remained in the jangal. One day a party of hunters, who were looking for game in the forest, saw the child, and carried him off, notwithstanding the resistance of Kapilá Gai, to Páwápur; when he grew up, the people made him Májhi (chief of a clan or village), and finally, when in want of a king, determined to elect him, and he was accordingly elected king of Pargana Chaurasi (Sikhar bhum); they built him the Pachet fort, and named him Jatá Rájá: on the death of the miraculous cow, her tail was found and carried to the Rájá, who used it as an ensign, tying it to his horse; hence he was also called Chánwar bándhá, and the Rájás of Pachet are said to this day to use the cow's tail, or chánwar, as one of their emblems.
Anot Lal had two other sons by another wife; they were named Nayán and Asmán; they invaded Jatá Rájá's domains, and he was forced to fly, but his conquerors, in seeking for him in the jangal, lost their way and perished, and Jatá Rájá returned and reigned peaceably.
Another version says, the child was not deliberately abandoned, but falling accidentally from the elephant on which he was being carried, the Rájá and Ráni left him for dead; then Kapilá Gai came and fed him; she used to live in Kapilá Páhár (the range of hills south of Puralya), and would come daily to feed the child; when the child grew up, he used to wander in the jangal with the cow, and, eventually, he became king, and built Pancha Kot; as he was made king through election by five Rájás, his fort was named Pancha Kot; he was known as the Gaumukhi Rájá. The Rájá had a cowherd, who one day saw a large snake issue from a hole in the hillside, and the snake vomited forth a brilliant gem that illuminated the whole forest by its light; it fed and then swallowed the gem; then bands of celestial nymphs and musicians came and performed for some time, and finally all vanished. The cowherd related the particulars to the Rájá, who went to see the wonder, and so great an effect had the sight on him, that he returned bereft of speech, and died in two or three years. During his son's reign, the Rájá of Murshidabad invaded the country, and exterminated the entire race of the Rájás of Pachet, except one child, who was saved by the headman of the village of Suri Lachhiá, hiding him in a drum; the child grew up and regained his kingdom, and he is the ancestor of the present Rájás. The cow, turned into stone, still exists at Jhaldia on the Ayodhya hill. As there are remains of Saivic temples in Jhaldia, the petrified cow is most probably a statue of Nandi. Strange enough, the people of Jhaldia itself know nothing about the wonderful petrified cow, which the people in the vicinity of Pachet insist exists there.
Lithographed at the Surveyor General's Office, Calcutta, February 1878.