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II.-Note on the Ancient Monuments of Mayurbhanj

By Rai Bahadur Ramaprasad Chanda, B.A., F.A.S.B. The ancients monuments of Mayurbhanj are practically centred in one single locality, Khiching, now a small village near the western frontier of the state. The name Khiching is a corruption (apabhraṁsa) of Khijjinga or Khijjinga-Kotta, the capital of the early Bhañja chiefs according to their copper-plate grants, and the existing monuments support the identification. The ruins of the ancient city extend far beyond the limits of the modern village from the bank of the Khairbhandan on the north to that of the Kanṭāk hair on the south. These two hill streams meet below the site and their combined stream discharges its waters into the Baitarini three miles below. About five miles to the north of Khiching lies Kolhan in the Singhbhum district and to the right of the Baitarini stretches the Keonjhar State. From the geographi cal position it appears that Khiching was at one time the capital of a principality comparising the western half of the Mayurbhanj State, Keonjhar and Kolhan.

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As a visitor approaches Khiching from the east the first monument that arrests his attention is a small stone temple popularly known as Kutai Tunḍi and the phallic emblem of Siva installed in it is called Sarvesvara (Plate 1). It is a temple of the style of architecture named Nagara in the Sanskrit manuals and Indo-Aryan by Fergusson. The distinguishing feature of the Indo-Aryan temple is its sikhara or the curvilinear spire on the perpendicular garbhagriha or cella.

The plinth of the Kutai Tundi is now buried in the small mound that has formed around it. A very large proportion of the carved stones forming the façades of the outer walls of the cella and the sikhara have fallen down and the south-eastern corner of the sikhara has already collapsed. Still it is possible to form an idea of the beautiful outline of the sikhara when the temple was complete. The fine proportion of the perpendicular lower part to the sikhara is recognisable. Though the decorative sculptures are not of high order of merit and the decoration was not elaborate, the grace of proportion and line must have rendered it a very lovely little shrine. One peculiar feature of the Kutai Tuṇḍi, as of other old temples of Khiching that are no longer in existence, is the absence of the mukhamandapa or porch. A porch is mainly intended for the convenience of the worshippers, A richly ornamented temple without porch appears a more pious structure than one with a porch; for in the former the lamp of sacrifice burns with greater brilliance.

About 400 yards to the west of the Kutai Tuṇḍi is situated the Thākurāní sālā or the compound of the Goddess which contains the ruins of the principal group of ancient teruples at Khiching. The Thakurāņi or the Goddess is represented by an image of Chamuṇḍā, known as Kiñchakeśvari, and is still recognised as the patron goddess of the ruling house of Mayurbhanj. There is a shrine of Kiñchakeśvarī within the palace of Baripada and another at Bahalda. In the sanads or land-grants issued by the Maharajas of Mayurbhanj in the eighteenth and the early nineteenth centuries, the goddess who is invariably invoked in the preamble along with Jagannatha is named Khijingeśvari or the Lady of Khijing or Khiching, and Kiñchakeśvarī is only a corrupt form of that name. Short accounts of the monuments in the Thakurāṇi's compound and of excavations carried therein have already been included in Archæological Survey of India, Annual Report for 1922-23 (pages 124-128), 1923-24 (pages 85-87) and 1924-25. These excavations have disclosed the remains of a group of old temples

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of which two were very elaborately ornamented. The bigger one of these two temples that occupied the central position in the group had a base 35 feet square and may be designated the bada deul or the great temple of Khiching. When I visited Khiching in 1922, the site of this great temple was represented by a mound on which stood the small brick shrine of Khijingeśvarī (Kiñchakesvarī) and the Khanḍiya Deul. The Khaṇḍiya Deul, as its name indicates, was an unfinished temple of which the cella only was built and the sikhara was never added. Behind the Khandiya Deul there was impenetrable jungle and on other sides against the walls were placed some very beautiful fragmentary sculptures. The magnificent carved door frame fixed in the Khandiya Deul undoubtedly belonged to the great temple that once stood on the site (Plate 2). The images of the Ganga and the Yamuna at the lower part of the door jambs are very nicely modelled. The worshipper, passing through the doorway bearing these images evidently reaped the benefit of purification by bathing in the waters of the two holy rivers before worship. In the working season of 1923-24 we undertook the excavation of the mound and finished the work in 1925. These excavations yielded a large number of carved architectural pieces and more or less mutilated sculptures that once decorated the great temple. The pieces so far recovered do not amount to much more than half the materials. As none of these pieces bear any inscription, we have no direct evidence relating to the time when and the people by whom this temple was built. But there is no dearth of indirect evidence. From a mound cutside the Thakurāṇi's compound has been recovered the lower half of an inscribed image of the Bodhisatva Avalokitesvara. The inscription on the base of this image reads:

ॐ राज्ञः श्रीरायभच्ञ्जस्य लोकेशो भगवानयम् ।

Nucatcaıga agaidu fafafda: 11

"This (image) of the Lord Lokeśa has been made by SriDharaṇīvaraha assisted by Kirtti for Raja Śrī-Rayabhañja.”

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