Vol. Me aT 5.] Bengali Temples and their Characteristics. 147 
8. 
What sort of house is referred to by this expression, if not to 
bungalows ? 
Further development took place, firstly in adding on the 
top a hut-roofed structure, and secondly 
in grouping together several jor-banglas. 
The former type has survived, ¢.g., in Visnupur, Krsna Raya’s 
jor-bangla and the broken one, dated respectively 961 and 1040 
Mallabda (1655-6 and 1734-5 A.D.),! and in Bardwan District 
at Kalna. A group of such temples may be also seen at Bara- 
nagar, Mursidabad (opposite Jidganj), 
our jorbanglas, one at each corner of 
a large tank.2 They were built about 1755 A.D. by the famous 
Rani Bhavani of Nator at a cost of twelve lakhs. The jor- 
bangla type ceased to be built in the nineteenth century.® 
The question might naturally be asked, how old is this 
Bengali style, is it pre-Musalman or is 
it much later? No satisfactory answer 
is as yet possible, because no old buildings have yet been brought 
to light intact. There can be no doubt that the huts and 
2. Duplicated. 
3. Group. 
Age of Bengali Style. 
and Jaina sanctuaries existed in old days, having been mentioned 
in pre-Musalman works, while some of their remains might be 
traced from fragments fixed up in the early Moslem mosques and 
tombs of Gaur, Pandua, Tribeni and elsewhere. But these 
religious buildings have disappeared through the ravages of time 
(sun, wind, rains, vegetation, -etc.), the diversion or encroach- 
ment of rivers, iconoclastic zeal of Islamic forces, or the cupidity 
of brick or treasure-hunte In this connection Draupadi’s 
serves notice. This rock-cut temple has a curved four-sided 
roof, somewhat like the Bengali cau-cala roof excepting that 
the eaves are not drawn out, and its date has been put in the 
Pallava reign, or approximately in the seventh century, A.D.* 
Whatever-doubts may be felt as to the period in which the 
Existi : Bengali roofs were adopted in general 
ge a can architecture, none can arise as to the 
Rage pars time of the existing remains. Not one 
of them can be authentically put before the seventeenth century, 
A.D. In fact they are all post-Musalman, and betray unmis. 
takable signs of the influence of the Indo-Saracenic architecture 
in its Bengal style. The pointed arch with its outside cusps, 
the short heavy thick-banded arch pillars, the simulating 
_ 1A.S.R., viii, pp. 204-5, Nos. 3 and 12, For Krsna Raya’s jor- 
bangla temple, see figure 10. 
2 Ar. Sur. East-Cir., 1905-6, p. 12, pa 
para 6, , 
a: 8 Revd. Ward remarked on these * Yorii-bangalas’’ that they 
are not now frequently seen in Bengal,’’ Hindoos, 1817, vol. ii, p- 8. 
+ See figure 11. 
