Jain Journal 1984 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 51

160
JAIN JOURNAL
The garbhagyha is 5' square. The internal walls above a certain height are corbelled until these meet the roof of the sanctum which is covered with two pieces of stone slabs. The gandi above the sanctum roof has no less than two mudas.
So far as the internal construction is concerned the stone temples of Pakbirra have similarities with the second group of temples at Telkupi. The temples of Pakbirra have mudas above the roof of the sanctum and the sanctum walls are also corbelled like those of the temples of Telkupi. But unlike the temples of Telkupi, the construction and mouldings of the pābhāga and those of the bāda of the Pakbirra temples are completely different. The mouldings of the pābhāga of the Pakbirra temples have close affinity (though in a debased form) with those of the stone temple of Kroshjuri& the date of which has been assigned by scholars to the 7th or 8th Cent. A.D. The entrance openings of the Pakbirra temples unlike those of the Telkupi temples which are rectangular in shape are triangular above and are built of overlapping courses of stones. These doorways are similar to those of the brick temples of Boram or Deulghat (Joypur P.S., Purulia) the dates of which are placed in the 10th Cent. A.D.' Hence the date of the Pakbirra temple may fall somewhere between the 8th Cent. A.D. and 10th Cent. A.D., and not later than the date of the second group of temples of Telkupi i.e. 11th and 12th Cent. A.D. as has been asserted by Smt. Debala Mitra.10 The Bengal List places the Pakbirra temples in the 9th or 10th Cent. A.D.11
(iv) Pañcāyatana Temples of Deoli
In the village Deoli (Baghmundi,P.S. Purulia) there is a pañcāyatana group of temples within an area of 80'/55'. The enclosure wall built of stones has long been destroyed leaving only traces of the same on and above the ground. This group of temples belonged to the Jainas. Of the five temples, the central one has tumbled down and of the four corner shrines two in more or less complete shape stand to this day and the remaining two are completely destroyed.
8 Kroshjurir Siddheswar Shib Mandir'in Bengali), Subhas Chandra Mukhopadhyay,
Yuvamanas (Govt. of West Bengal, Department of Youth Welfare), No. 10, July,
1977, pp. 97-100. • 'Deulghatar Debdeul', (Puruliar Purakirti-5), Subhas Chandra Mukhopadhyay,
Chatrak, pp. 187-199. 10 "Telkupi-a submerged temple-site in West Bengal', Debala Mitra, Memoirs of the
Archaeological Survey of India, No. 76. p. 56. 11 List of Monuments of Bengal, P.W.D., Govt. of Bengal, 1896.