Report of a Tour through the Bengal Provinces/Páli
A few miles east of Konch on the road to Gaya is the small village of Páli. There are, to the east of the village, the remains of two or three temples; but all that now remains are the ruins level with the ground of a large Saivic temple, of which a few pillars alone are standing. The pillars are plain tall shafts with corbelled cruciform capitals; details are given in the plate.
The temple appears to have been a very large one, consisting of a sanctum enshrining a large lingam, an antarala, a maha manctapa, and probably also a mandapa and portico. The temple was built of bricks picked with stone. It stood at the north-west corner of a tank. The lingam measures 5 feet 7 inches in circumference, and is 2 feet high at the apex; the argha extends 1 foot 10 inches beyond it all round; there is on the mound a fourteen-armed statue in black basalt, and a second similar one mutilated.
On the other side of the village are two statues of Devi (Parvati). There is also a mound said to have been once larger, and the remains of a temple near the road, which was dedicated to Mahâdeva; but a tree has completely enveloped the argha and lingam, and has split the stone of the pedestal.
There are a few other nondescript fragments lying about; the existing remains, except the statues, are all modern.