Bishnupur - Town of Terracotta

A small town which i m sure many of you havent heard about this, its just 97 kilometres from kharagpur.  Best way to reach bishnupur is Rupasi Bangla Express which departs around 0600 hours at Kolkata and reach around 1000 hours.  I heard a lot about this town about the famous Baluchuri saree about those terracota temple. Trip to bishnupur came out to be a complete bundle of surprise.  Main attraction of Bishnupur is Terracotta temples, all these temples are dedicated to lord Krishna and Radha.  one s is not enough to describe the pluralness of this town it should be templessssssssssss.....many terracotta temples are spread across the town peeping out of every corner of town.  Many temples were like place of ADDA for the adults.

(Thanks to the ticket examiner Bamdev Dutta Da at ShaymRai Temple, he told us everything he know about this town) 
Bishnupur was the capital of Malla kings of Mallabhum, or the warrior kings, which was an important dynasty that ruled Bengal for a long time with its beginnings in late 7th century that lasted till early 19th century.  This is more than 1100 years and 55 generations. Most temples belong to the 17-18th century. It is said that the dynasty was originally a Shaivik i.e. they used to follow the lord Shiva but king Bir Hambir who ruled in 16th century converted to Vaishnava (who follow Lord Vishnu) and that lead to construction of all these temples dedicated to incarnations of Vishnu and most prominently Krishna.

These temples are not carved out of stones or something, these were constructed from the clay that is locally available.  All these temples are made of bricks and were decorated with terracotta work tiles.  From Bishnupur station you can hire a cab or a cycle rickshaw to visit all the temples of bishnupur.  It would be better to hire a cab you can save lot of time.  The cab will cost you around 400 to 500 rupees.  It depends on the cab driver which direction he is going to show you the town.

We started from Rasmancha which is towards east, one has to buy tickets there for entrance to Rasmancha, Jorbangla and Shyamrai temple. Rasmancha is a unique structure combination of 3 architecture in a single building.  Pyramid roof, then typical indian Bengal Roof structure - do chal char chal roof and the corridor architecture is very much mughal style.  Main purpose of this Rasmancha was for housing idols of Krishna from all other temples during the Rash Utsav.

Ras Mancha Temple

 Madan Mohan temple, built by Malla King Durjan Singha in the AD 1694

Madan Mohan Temple

Shaym Rai Temple, built by Raghunath singha in 1643 AD.  Five shikhara temple.  The terracotta art on the body of the temple expresses the activity of God Krishna and the Rash Utsav.  Even the architecture of Dakshineswar kali mandir is also inspired from this temple only.

Shyam Rai Temple

Rash Utsav expressed on the wall of Shyam Rai temple

Radha Laljiu temple, built by Bir Singha 1658 AD, is one of the best examples in laterite of this type with a single sikhara on a curved bangla chala roof.

Radha Laljiu Temple, Image courtesy Jaydharclix

Main Gateway of Bishnupur also known as Pathar Darwaja is built by dressed laterite blocks.  This was the northern entrance to the royal residence, and was built by Maharaja Bir Singha.  There are narrow slits for the archer and gunman.

Main Gateway of Bishnupur, Photography Venkat Sridhar

 Radha Shayam temple, built by chaitanya singh in 1758 AD

Radha Shyam Temple, Photography Venkat Sridhar

 Jor Bangla Temple, built by Raghunath singha in 1655 AD,  also known as Krishna Rai Temple.

Jor Bangla Temple, Photography Venkat Sridhar

Just opposite to Radha shyam temple, there is a temple one should say oldest temple in Bishnupur.  People say that Maharaja Jagat Malla established this temple and the image of the goddesss Mrinmoyee in 997 AD after getting diving command from the Goddess.  The statue of the goddess is made up of Ganga Mati (mud from ganga river)  One can see abandoned royal residence adjacent to the temple.  And all these Radha Laljiu, Jorbangla, gateway are in the same cluster.
      There is another temple Chinnamasta temple of goddess kali.  Chinnamasta means beheaded, the statue of goddess is beheaded. photography is prohibited at both the mrinmoyee and chinnamasta temple.  Near the Chinnamasta temple you can see Dalmadal cannon was used by Malla King Gopal Singh to defend himself against the Maratha commander Bhaskar Rao in 1742 AD.  But people say that the Lord Krishna himself came as a boy of 18 years  and used this cannon to protect Malla Dynasty.

Dal Madal Cannon, Photography Venkat Sridhar

Terracotta handicrafts for sale, Image courtesy Jaydharclix

Terracotta handicrafts for sale, Image courtesy Jaydharclix

 There are few other places like LalBandh, LalGarh,  GumGarh which you can visit.  It will take 3 to 4 hours to visit all the places.  You can buy terracotta handicraft items near Madan Mohan temple and chinna masta temple.  The handicrafts are sold at fixed price but very reasonable.  One more thing for which Bishnupur is famous is Baluchuri saree.  If you travel in town you can find many shops and showrooms of Baluchuri sarees. While coming back i saw few on LalBandh road.

The terracotta temples have made Bishnupur a remarkable place in the history of Bengal as well as of India.


 Image Courtesy By Venkat Sridhar