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It was thus in March, 2016, that I planned another exploratory visit to the site in order to re-examine its past remains, and this time I wanted to go with some authoritative background information. Accordingly, I scanned through several annual reports of the Archaeological Survey of India to gather any or all details available, but, however, was disappointed when I observed that not much had been written about the site in the exhaustive reports, even as a mention was made of Dr. K C Panigrahi’s visit to the site, in the season of 1958-59, and his notice of the ruins of mud-brick stupas, similar to the ones at Lauriya-Nandangarh in West Champaran. In “The Antiquarian Remains in Bihar” published in 1963, D. R. Patil had briefly mentioned the site as Kabar Tal with the “Monkey Island” in the centre, on which were noticed traces of a fort with badly burnt bricks and a number of cannon balls scattered about.
It mentioned that the fort was locally known as Jaimanglagarh, due to temple of Goddess Jaimangla, and referred to the Bengal List’s description of the temple as “a small square edifice, about 15’ by 15’, with a semi-domed roof” having “a low door in the front, which when opened, discloses the painted figure of the Goddess in a niche in the wall opposite.” Patil also referred to the non-existence of any local tradition or legend about the ruins and quoted Panigrahi for the notice of Northern Black Polished (NBP) potsherds, usually assigned to about 200 B.C., at the site.
In the Bengal List of 1896, I found the site mentioned as “Monkey Island”, on which existed the temple of Jaimangla, which was repaired by one Noonos Babu of Shakarpura in 1894, who also got erected a pucca house for pilgrims. It was mentioned that the temple was reputed to be very ancient and attracted pilgrims from other districts as well. No other structures then existed on the island which had traces remaining of brick walls, which seemed to have been a part of earlier fortification.
To be continued.....