This is not a story of modern times. When in the remote past the people of Ráŕh first received from Lord Sadáshiva an opportunity to fly the colours of victory of humanism far and wide, they thought that they would need to congregate at a particular place to chalk out plans for their constructive religious activities. It was in order to meet together that they conceived the idea of building temples.

The villages and towns of Ráŕh, be they big, medium or small, abound with Shiva temples, most of which have Shiva lingas based on different ideations.

As I have mentioned, this was in the remote past, when Jainism was yet to come to Ráŕh. The people of Ráŕh were faced with the problem of how to build the necessary temples – a question that was both easy and difficult. The people of Ráŕh used to build – and still build even today – thatched huts with bamboo poles and mud walls. Naturally their temples would be in keeping with that same system of building houses. The temples of Ráŕh resemble huts with thatched roofs above the walls. This is the famous Ráŕhiiya style. According to the style of construction of a particular temple, there will sometimes be one roof, sometimes two, or other variations. The four styles basically used in the building of temples in India are: 1) The Rajput style of north-western India, in which the roof tapers upwards to a point. 2) The Dravidian style, in which there is a small roof atop the temple, along with a special type of gopuram [a special kind of decoration]. 3) The Utkal style. 4) The thatched-hut style of Ráŕh. (The Kalighat temple is to be noted here.) It is impossible to fix the exact day and time that saw the beginning of this temple-building in Ráŕh. There is no doubt, however, that it is more than six thousand years old. In this style, the artisans of Ráŕh who built the temples showed their ingenuity and excellence in the dexterity of their construction. All such temple places as Vishnupur, Kalna, Burdwan, Chandrakona, Banshberhe and Guptipara have generally followed this Ráŕhiiya style of roofs with a single roof (or [up to] eight roofs).

It cannot be said, however, that there are no exceptions to the thatched-roof style of one roof or eight-roofs. Generally speaking, we find exceptions in these places: 1) Nerhadeul of Midnapur; 2) Rekhadeul of Ráŕh in the Barakar River basin; 3) the Khargeshvara temple of Birbhum; 4) the Hangsheshwari temple of Banshberhe; 5) the Ekateshvara temple of Bankura; etc. Of all these temples, the Hangsheshwari temple of Banshberhe stands apart and independent as regards the idea therein, though the temple is not so old. This kind of temple is unique and unparalleled. There are many temple towns in India, such as Varanasi, North Varanasi, Jammu, Jamnagar, etc. They are generally built in accordance with the style of north-western India. The temple towns in Ráŕh – 1) Vishnupur, 2) Kalna, 3) Chandrakona, 4) Burdwan, 5) Banshberhe and 6) Guptipara – are chiefly built in accordance with the Ráŕhiiya style. What is more noteworthy is that the most ancient temples of Ráŕh are situated in western Ráŕh and the less ancient temples in eastern Ráŕh, especially in Hooghly and in the Vishnupur Subdivision of Bankura. There are quite a few temples in western Ráŕh that are over two thousand years old. The Pareshnath temple on the bank of the Kangsavati River in Bankura District is one such. It is an ancient Jain temple. The Ekateshvara temple of Bankura is somewhat ancient, though perhaps not very ancient. It is either a Shaeva-influenced Jain temple or a Jain-influenced Shaeva temple. At one time there were many Jain Paiṋcaratna⁽¹⁾ temples in western Ráŕh, but none of them have remained completely intact. Either they faced decay due to the wear and tear of time or they were destroyed in later days by the followers of Paoráńika Dharma. The word páncrá is a distorted form of the word “Paiṋcaratna”. There are many places in Ráŕh which have Páncrá as their name. If searches are undertaken, many Jain temples will be found in or around such places.

Burdwan was one of the many important hubs of Jain culture and Jain civilization. Having been somewhat disappointed in preaching his religion in Magadh, Vardhaman Mahavir came to this town, and with the town as his nucleus, he preached the Jain religion in Ráŕh for eight years. The town is very ancient. Its Sanskrit name was Ástiknagar. Later on it came to be known as Atthinagar in Prákrta. The meaning of the name is “a town whose inhabitants believe in God”. After Mahavir had come to this town, a handful of vaeshyas [capitalists] first accepted him, and with their cooperation, the Jain religion struck its roots in Ráŕh. It was these vaeshyas of the city who renamed that city Vardhaman (Burdwan), after Vardhaman Mahavir. This happened 2500 years ago. Burdwan is the most ancient of all towns not only in Ráŕh, but in the whole of Bengal. It is one of the oldest towns in India also. As the laterite soil of Ráŕh is the oldest soil and as Ráŕhiiya habitations are the most ancient human habitations and the most ancient human civilization, it will not be unjust to assume that Burdwan is the oldest town in the world.

To the far north of Burdwan, there is a town Sainthia, the Sanskrit name of which is Svámiisthána, which was within the territory of the ancient Gopabhum kingdom (now Birbhum District). Vardhaman Mahavir himself came to this town on foot in order to preach Jainism. Hence Sainthia is also an important holy place for the Jains. Situated on the bank of Mayurakshi, this town also is over 2500 years old.

Adyapur was another great centre for Jain culture in eastern Ráŕh. (Ádyápur in Sanskrit → Ájjápur in Prakrit, → Ájápur in modern Bengali.) The name Ádyápur came from the names of the Jain deities Ádyáshakti and Ádyádevii. This big village with well-educated people is situated a stone’s throw from the Masagram railway station on the Howrah-Burdwan cord line under the Jamalpur Police Station of Burdwan District. The historically important relics of this village are now on the way to fast extinction.

Now, the question is, were the Jain temples destroyed by wear and tear only, or was there any other reason? When the Paoráńika Age came to Ráŕh, the initial tendency was to accept the Jain deities as being different forms of the Paoráńika ones and to arrange for their preservation. Wherever this was possible, meaning that these jain deities could become deities of Paoráńika scripture, those temples and the deities in them survived, and the Brahman priests started worshipping them with appropriate mantras. But the deities which could not be accepted as scriptural deities became accepted as non-scriptural deities. Somehow or other, they also survived. They lived on amid people’s mixed feelings of reverence and neglect. The priesthood was carried on by the indigenous Bengalees – the Sadgopes, the Jalik Kaivartas, the Kurmi Mahatos or the láyás of the Siḿ Muńd́as. (The láyás, or náyás, are the priests of the Muńd́a community.) The idols of all the Jain deities that could in no way be accepted were transfigured a little, and thus attempts were made to upgrade their status. Thus in the case of many a male Jain deity with a serpent on the head, breasts were added onto the chest with chisels and hammers, and it began to be worshipped, and is still being worshipped today, as the serpent goddess Manasá. If the researchers cast a searching glance even today, they will find the later marks left by the chisels and hammers. But the temples of those deities which could in no way be made fit for worship became neglected and were destroyed, or are being destroyed; and the deities themselves had to take shelter under trees. This “conversion” of deities in Ráŕh continued for a long time.

[As mentioned earlier,] The idols of the Jain Tiirthauṋkaras were all nude. So there was no means by which they could be considered as Paoráńika deities. So almost all of the Tiirthauṋkaras were left under trees. A great many gods and goddesses from the neglected Jain temples were strewn here and there. Many a person from outside has removed these idols in order to decorate their drawing-rooms. In many cases, villagers have handed the idols over to the outsiders in exchange for a small amount of money. And in some cases, even government officals have shifted such idols to distant museums, the whereabouts of which are unknown even to the local people. This state of affairs calls for a museum in Ráŕh immediately. If the artefacts or archaeological remains of Ráŕh are allowed to remain in neglect any longer, there will be no vestige of such things in the near future. It was in just this way that the Maradu temple village (under Silli Police Station of Ranchi District) on the bank of the Suvarnarekha was destroyed; and Deulghata (Devalayaghata – situated on the bank of the Kansai River of Purulia District), and the temple complex near Pareshnath in the Kansai River basin of Bankura District, and the Jinshahar area on the bank of the Kansai near the city of Midnapore, and Panchra in the basin of the Ajay of Burdwan District, and Panchra in the basin of the Kopai of Birbhum District, were all ruined. Further things cannot be allowed to be ruined in this way. The necessary steps should be taken without delay. The Rupnarayan basin, which comprises Gandheshwari, Dhalkishore, Dwarakeshwar, Shilavati, Jaypanda, etc., is rich in artefacts, yet still lies neglected; still no proper research has been undertaken. The need of the hour is research in these areas. If a museum is set up, it may inspire speedy research work.

Another contribution of Ráŕh, along with its culture and architecture, and which is unique in the world, is its terracotta art fixed on the exteriors of temples. There are no hills in the middle-east of Ráŕh, though hills are numerous in the western region. So temples were by and large built of brick. Where temples were built of stone, there was scope for stone sculpture, but where the temples were built of brick, the need for a special kind of art arose. And that was nothing but terracotta art. The artisans of Ráŕh wrought their work in the soft clay, then fired it, and finally cemented the work to the exterior of the temple with a mixture of lime and sugar or of other ingredients. This is how terracotta was introduced in Ráŕh’s temple architecture. Places such as Kalna, Chandrakona and Vishnupur were witnesses to exquisite examples of this art, and are witness to a few even today. Vishnupur (in Bankura District) was the birthplace of this art. Hence wherever in Ráŕh the temples most richly display this terracotta art, research will reveal that the artisans who created it were all from Bankura.

Inseparably connected with the temple art of Ráŕh were two other arts – flower art, or cork art,⁽²⁾ and the art of making sweets. So famous did the flower art of Ráŕh become at one time that its reputation reached as far as Persia. Every time the Mughal emperors came to Bengal, they were greeted with gifts of floral ornamentation of various kinds. The cork art of Ráŕh is so old that it would be an exercise in futility to trace its date of origin. So beautiful were the works of this cork art that the people of Egypt, China, etc. would buy them with utmost interest. The Málákáravás [a community of artisans with this specialization] of Ráŕh were skilled in both flower art and cork art. Today these artisans are just barely surviving. I am hereby drawing the attention of lovers of beauty in this country to this state of affairs.

Aloktarainjita pitrbhúmi Ráŕh!

[This red-coloured Ráŕh is our fatherland!]

This is a haunt of gods side by side with human beings. So countless temples were built for countless gods. As has been said earlier, the people of Ráŕh were sociable by nature. They were not only sociable in their behaviour and actions; they were also sociable in regard to sweets. Similar arrangements were made for the deities.

The sweets to be offered to the deities as food differed from one temple to another. In this way a temple-centred sweets art developed in every town and in every village that had various temples. The gods also became sociable as regards the enjoyment of sweets. The sweets of Ráŕh were made mostly of condensed milk and cháná [the solid part of curdled milk], but grams (chick-peas), black grams and mung beans were often used. I wonder how many of us know that Patiram Moyra of Janai village (Hooghly) in Ráŕh invented the present-day nimki and siunáŕá [popular salty snacks]. It was in this village that sandesh, manohará and khaecuŕ (all made of condensed milk) were invented.

Footnotes

(1) See second footnote of Ch. 6. –Trans.

(2) The original flower art involved decorations made of actual fresh flowers. However, the flowers were of course short-lived, so artisans began carving flowers out of cork. This cork art then diversified into depictions of other things of beauty besides flowers. –Trans.