Cunningham (1880) says nothing of the Siva temple and the lingas; for, of the two temples, he noticed, the smaller one was seen by him in “a complete ruin”.

Garrick (1881) in a detailed description mentions about reaching Danwar from Arrah by a steamer in 10 hours, form where the site is only 7 miles. One can imagine the pains one had to take in order to visit the site in the nineteenth century. Presently the site is fully accessible by road, and one can reach from Arrah within three hours. He mentions about the fabulous age of 217,780 years given by the local Brahmins and Puranias, which is the middle of the yuga in which the sage Markandeya lived. He places the smaller temple towards the south western corner of the mound and calls it the Sun temple which he says “is obviously a much later structure” and has already lost its roof at the time. Regarding the origin of the Suraj Temple, Garrick mentions about the local legend that some children of cow herds from the adjacent village were accustomed to assemble within the chandravali of the great temple for recreation, and that on one occasion during the seasonal rains, one of the lads discovered an image of Suraj Narain on digging what he felt like a mere stone. The local zamindar then built a proper enclosure for it , along with the great temple, where it stood. He thus concludes that the shrine was originally meant for the worship of Surya. He further mentions about other legends current in the area which make interesting reading. He also discovered an ancient Kadam Tree and well during the excavations.

To be continued...