Report of a Tour through the Bengal Provinces/Deoli
DEOLI.
Close to it, about two miles north-east, is the small village of Deoli, so named from a group of temples still standing under a superb karan tree. The temples appear to have been Jain, as in the sanctum of the largest still exists, in situ, a fine Jain figure, now known as Áruánath, and to which offerings are made and pilgrimages performed by Brahmans and other Hindus of the neighbourhood; the deity is especially invoked by females wishing to have children, and offerings are chiefly made to it by them, the conditions of the success of their prayers being that the woman is to visit the spot and creep into the sanctum to make her offerings alone at night. The temple was once a very fine and large one, and had four subordinate temples near the four corners, of which two still exist; the main temple is too far buried in, and surrounded by, rubbish for its plan to be made out without excavation, but it consisted of a sanctum, an antarala, a mahamandapa, an arddhamandapa, and probably a portico; the ruins of the tower have now so shut up the entrance, that the only means of access is by crawling through, much in the manner of snakes; the ornamentation consisted of plain straight lines of mouldings, sparingly used, and the execution, as also the material, is coarse, the last being a coarse-grained sandstone. The statue in the sanctum is three feet high; it is, as usual, on a pedestal, on which the antelope is sculptured, thus clearly indicating the particular Jain hierarch the figure represents; over the trefoil ornament round the head are cut on each side two rows of three naked figures each.
Five hundred feet off are two tanks, touching each other, known as the Jorá-Pokhar; on the banks lies a mutilated bas-relief representing a man on an elephant, possibly meant for Indra on Airâvata; near it lies some stones and the amalaka of a temple, showing that the figure once belonged to a temple on the spot. This figure appears to point to the existence of Brahmanical temples also in the place. In the bed of the small tank to the south of the village lies the side part of a doorway adorned with plain lines.
Some other temples appear to have existed close to the Jain temple, noticed above; these were probably under a large bar tree close to the karan tree; nondescript fragments are collected at its roots and daubed with vermilion.
To south-east of this village at Atma are said to be two pieces of sculpture, one of a lion.
The village and the neighbourhood generally are said to have been covered with jangal till lately.