1885.] 
F. S. Growse —Notes on the Fat eh,pur District. 
147 
photograph. (Plate VI); the other at Bahua, a few miles from the Chilla 
Tara Ghat across the Jamuna, on the road from Fatehpnr to BandaA 
The wonder that both these temples should have survived the rough 
treatment of so many centuries is increased by the fact that they have 
been simply set flat upon the plain without any foundations, and that 
no mortar has been used in any part of the construction, but only clay. 
The bricks, however, are not only of excellent quality, but are so clean 
cut and so well joined, that—but for actual violence—it is probable that 
the building would have stood uninjured to the present day. The mould¬ 
ed devices that form the surface decoration of the tower are of a simple 
and perfectly inoffensive character ; but the porch, which was of stone, 
was covered with figure sculptures. This would seem to have provoked 
the wrath of some Muhammadan iconoclast; and, in a style of con¬ 
struction where the mutual interdependence of all the parts is so 
close, its destruction involved much damage to the remainder of the 
fabric. 
About 100 years ago, the Tinduli temple was patched up by a Brah¬ 
man from the next village, who added the present porch and also 
restored with plain unmoulded bricks a considerable portion of the tower. 
Some of this new work has again given way ; the plinth was also much 
broken, and unless the progress of decay had been quickly arrested, in 
the course of another year or two the whole building would have become 
a complete wreck. A small grant has therefore been made me by the 
Local Government, and out of this I have had the terrace re-made and 
on the east side strengthened with a masonry wall, in the centre of 
which I have introduced a recessed flight of 9 steps leading up to the 
level of the temple floor. The whole of the plinth also has been 
carefully restored all round up to the height where the ornamental work 
begins. This, it is hoped, will so secure the building as to prevent 
any further fall of the superstructure. The two or three fragments that 
remain of the sculptured doorway have been let into the front of the 
modern porch ; which, if not ornamental, is at least useful as a but¬ 
tress. As a necessary precaution against the future criticism of any 
anti-restoration fanatic, I have had two photos taken as unimpeach¬ 
able evidence of the actual condition of the temple before the repairs 
were commenced. The shrine is at present occupied by a statue of 
Chatur-bhuj, after whom it is named ; and it is possible that this may 
have been its original dedication. The village is inhabited by a compa¬ 
ratively recent colony of Kacliliwaha Thakurs, and there is no local 
tradition as to the founder. 
* Neither of these temples receives the slightest mention in the new Gazetteer 
of the Fatehpnr District. 
