ICHAGARH

The site lchagarh has been discovered during the exploration of the area under submergence of Subernarekha multi-purpose project in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand state.

The village Ichagarh is located about 18 km from the town Chandil and well connected by the pucca metalled road with Ranchi-Jamshedpur road up to river Karkari on its right bank. The river Subernarekha flows to its east and thus encircled the village with water from both the east and west.

The local people called this place as Chaturmukha Mahadeo temple. The presence of architectural fragments like amalakas and sculptural fragments depicting goose carrying  manimala, lady in adoration etc. indicates that a Hindu temple might have been buried here.
The excavation work has been done in a limited area which exposed the remains of a rectangular temple covering an area of approximately 11.70 mts. (east-west) and 7.90 mts. (north-south) with a projected entrance in the east measuring 2.501.85mts.made of stone blocks. The entire plan of the temple is resting upon concrete flooring.

The remains of two square subsidiary shrines have also been noticed on the southern and south eastern end of the temple at a distance of 2.15 mts. and 1.15 mts. respectively. They are completely ruined and only two courses on plan are survived. Four faced Shivalinga is a unique antiquity (Chaturmukha Mahadeo) enshrined presently in a nearby modern temple, amalaka stone, parnali, doorjambs, door lintels etc. also recovered during the excavation.

RTI