Jaimanglagarh was mentioned as an important centre in the Buddhist period, with the whole area still being dotted with mounds. Lamentably,, much at the site had already been destroyed owing to extreme ignorance and carelessness of the villagers, even in 1952. It was suggested that the site could have been the religious centre of the ancient rulers of an adjoining site named as Naulagarh, where numerous antiquities dating from the early Buddhist period to the Muslim periods had been obtained along with two important inscriptions of the Pala period. Jaimanglagarh had retained its religious importance all through the preceding centuries and even in 1952, people assembled in large numbers especially on Tuesdays and Saturdays to worship.

The site on which the temple was situated, was stated as having been mentioned as village Jaimangalpur in the revenue settlement record and was surrounded on all sides by a moat and then by the Kabar Tal (image from report - plan of Jaimanglagarh), which was about 8 miles in length and 2 miles in breadth, and connected in ancient times with the rivers Ganga, Gandak and Kamla. Also known as monkey island, the whole area had been a big jungle, but, by 1952, no jungle had remained and most mounds had already been levelled and were being used for agricultural purposes. Traces of brick structures and stray finds including but not limited to bricks of various dimensions, similar to the ones obtained at Naulagarh, along with a number of clay balls confirmed the belief that it was definitely a fort in ancient time, which tradition asserted as being the fort of king Jaimangal. The temple was located within the fortified area surrounded by the moat, which had a regular supply of water from the surrounding Kabar lake, with probable aim to ward off the enemy. The team learnt that in course of digging the land for agricultural purposes, plinths, roofs and other structures were discovered inside the fort, but, however, could not find any trace of the same during the exploration and thus surmised that either they had been destroyed or probably filled in.

To be continued......