WEST BENGAL
At the next stop, Harup, I only find a Shasan Devi idol under a tree. Shasan Devis are considered attending deities of Jain Tirthankars. And at Suissa, finally, I find a huge collection of black stone idols of various Tirthankars inside a modern temple. I realise if I had visited Suissa first it would have worked better, since it is the deity at Deuli that truly steals the show.
My third day starts with a visit to Mahadev Berra (locally known as Anai Jambad), home to five beautiful Jain Tirthankar statues, worshipped inside a well-maintained Jain temple. Usually the religion doesn't allow non-followers to photograph the interiors, but I am lucky. The worshippers insist that I take photographs and record the rituals.
I reach Kroshjuri, a 55-kilometre drive from Mahadev Berra. It is a state protected site, with some decorated doorframes inside the temples, and motifs unlike any other in West Bengal. A four-armed idol similar to Kali, a ten-armed goddess and an idol seated on a lotus are all sights to behold. Though locals consider them Hindu idols, in all probability and as believed by many scholars, they are Jain deities. There is also a huge shivalingam inside one of the temple sanctums dating to the eighth or ninth century.
After a hurried lunch, I reach Budhpur. The premises of its temple complex are closed and I have to climb a nine-foot-tall wall to enter the compound. The shivalingam-style stone object that is worshipped as a deity inside the temple does not actually resemble one. I assume it is a part of a temple pillar. There are several stone idols scattered inside the complex, including two stone Ganesh idols, a Makara idol, and many hero stones. I even find a few shivalingams.
Until recently, Pakbirra, which was my next stop,
The renovated Rasmancha at Begunkodor
