The Terracotta Temples of Bishnupur

In my continuing quest to see the “seeable” places of South Bengal over idle weekends, I visited Bishnupur last Saturday with my family. But for its beautifully made terracotta temples (approximately 30 in all), Bishnupur town would have been a very insignificant, obscure and impoverished little town in the industrially backward Bankura district.
The Jorbangla temple

The temples were built by various Mallya kings who ruled this part of the country around the 17th century and made Bishnupur their capital. The royalty being Vaishnavites, all the temples are essentially Radha-Krishna temples. Some of the temples still have idols inside that are still worshipped but some don’t.



The intricately carved terracotta panels on the temple walls depict various scenes from Krishna’s life, Ramayana and Mahabharata – not to speak of various deities. There are many social issues as well that find place in the panels.


The temple architecture is also fairly unique and resembles the architecture of thatched huts of Bengal used for residential purpose in rural Bengal. There are various other uniqueness to the architecture of the temples but that being an alien subject for me I would refrain from commenting on those aspects.

There are two routes to Bishnupur. One goes via Singur and Arambagh. The other goes via Durgapur and Bankura town. We chose the second one, as we were told this road was better. It’s a fairly straight forward road. You turn left from Muchipara in Durgapur on NH2. Crossing Durgapur station and then the barrage you cross Barjora town and then turn left before hitting Bankura town.

After this you cross the little town of Onda and then Ramsagar. After Ramsagar turn left towards Bishnupur. The total distance from Kolkata is about 250 km.


In Bishnupur we stayed in the WBTDC hotel which is pretty decent and very strategically located. For seeing the temples we took the help of a government approved guide, who showed us the way around for Rs 100.


Incidentally Bishnupur is also well known among Bengali women for its Baluchari sarees. However, whether they are cheaper than in Kolkata is highly doubtful. It is also foolhardy to believe that we are buying straight from the poor weaver. Whether you buy in Calcutta or Bishnupur, the weaver doesn't benefit in any way. He continues to be sucked.

The Prince of Nalban

Went to Nalban on Saturday, March 14, 2009 to look at the birds where I saw this tranquil sight of a boatman at his job. This landscape might well disappear in the near future, despite all the legal protection that East Calcutta Wetlands enjoy.



The Prince of Nalban was a little shy. His mother was preparing cow dung presumably for making cakes to be used as fuel. I couldn't find enough courage to ask him to look at me for the photograph. Even at this age, he knows precisely how to hold a live hen.


View of Salt Lake's Sector V (Electronics City) from across the Nalban waterbody.
I have nothing against progress but I would prefer a more equitable distribution of the spoils of growth.

Nalban was full of this "weed" in March.

Hill glory bower

Scinetific name - Clerodendrum viscosum Family - Verbenaceae (Verbena family)
English name - Hill Glory Bower
Marathi name - Bhandira
Hindi & Bengali name - Bhant
In bloom all over the place at CKBS on Sunday, March 1, 2009

The trapeze star

Saw this little squirrel running up and down the electric wire that connects our house to Shankarbabu's house across the road. He is quite fearless. I wanted to name the picture "How Green Was My Valley"

Rooftop birding

The latest bug to hit me is bird watching. Every morning I go up to the rooftop with my Bushnel and scan the surrounding rooftops, electric wires and trees and poles for birds. So far I have spotted and identified quite a few. Asian pied starling (kalo shalik), (probably black) drongo (Fingay), red whiskered and red vented bulbuls (bulbuli pakhi), oriental magpie robin (doyel). The purple sunbird (both male and female) (durga tuntuni), common tailorbird (tuntuni) and a warbler have been sighted too. During morning walks we have also sighted the white throated kingfisher and Indian pond herons.
I am excluding from this list the crow, the common mynah and the sparrow because the idea is not to trivialize the subject !!
All these that I have seen so far are very common birds in Kolkata and as such don’t require too much attention because none of them is threatened (though Kolkata as a whole is threatened as a habitat for birds in general). But there is a certain fun and joy in spotting and identifying even the commonest of birds of a certain region. I have decided to learn this new subject as much as possible in the next few years of active life that I still have. I have purchased two books on the subject. One is by Salim Ali “Birds of the Indian Subcontinent”. The other is a pocket guide that doesn’t quite fit my pocket though !!



English Name: Sandpaper Vine; named so for its rough leaves
Also known as Purple Wreath
Scientific name - Petrea volubilis
Family - Verbenaceae (Verbena family)
Native to Central America

There already is an entry level binocular (brought in by Gublai a couple of years ago) Bushnel. I have got a Canon 450di recently (not related to birding) and have acquired a 75-300 lens for the birding project.
The overall and ultimate objective is to get Mampu interested in the subject from an early age so that when she is my age she can be an authority. Or at least not say that no one told her about birds. Already this morning we found her reading Salim Ali’s book fairly intently. I am impressed.
It all started with a recent trip to Purbasthali. On the way from Katwa to Purbasthali we spotted a flock of certain large stork like birds. I had no clue what they were called. In fact I thought they were migratory birds. We watched them intently for quite some time and photographed them on my video. Later I learnt they were resident birds, fairly common and are locally known as Shamuk Khol. The official English name being Asian Open Billed Stork.
After sighting them we went to Purbasthali where we saw a lot of different birds but neither did we have the binoculars nor did we know the names. I could identify only the white throated kingfisher and the common cormorants (afterall I did the calendar of Exide 2008 dedicated to birds).



Once back home I decided to look around from my rooftop. I saw a tiny sparrow sized bird darting towards me. Then it sat on the electric wire outside. It was jet black with a bluish tinge. It had a longish bill. I could sense I had seen this bird’s picture, probably in our calendar but couldn’t remember the name. I looked at the kolkatabirds.com website. But with no idea where to look I was totally confused. It’s slightly better than trying to locate a pin in a haystack.
I shot off a mail to Sumit Sen and he asked me to look up under sunbirds. To my utter shame I realised it was nothing but a purple sunbird – a very common Kolkata bird called Durga Tuntuni. From the next morning I started going up to the roof with my Bushnel. I also ordered for Salim Ali’s book.

A female purple sunbird taking a dew bath in the Kadam tree next to Bishubabu's house, as viewed from my rooftop.

Right now the hobby is in a budding stage. I spot a bird. Observe it as minutely as possible; try to take a snap if possible and then find out its name by flipping through the books. Interesting, to say the least.

A drive to Purbasthali

Last Sunday we went to Purbasthali for a boat ride in the ox bow lake. Sighting of migratory birds was a bonus. The boat ride, costing Rs 250 was worth every single rupee.



To get there you have to turn left (when coming from Katwa) towards Purbasthali railway station from the Katwa Nabadwip main road near a place called Parulia. This road is very pretty and runs through lazy rural Bengal for about 7 km. The last village before the river is Kasthosali.


We had organised a boat in advance through our friend Raja Chatterjee of Junglee. Paresh Pal was ready for us and got the boat ready near the Sing-er ghat from where we boarded.



The final climb down to the boat was steep but everyone managed without much problem or any slippage.



We were a bit late. The boat journey started at around 11 am. The sun was playing with the water droplets and I was ready with my camera.


In the lake we got to see a lot of birds but being totally illeterate about ornythology we didn't know what all we had seen. But even I could recognise the cormorant, white throated kingfisher etc.




This area of Purbasthali is full of flower nurseries and old zamindar style buildings. I will most definitely go more to Purbasthali. The place is worth more than one visit.



The journey was obviously fun filled for all of us.

Deoghar Down Memory Lane

Deoghar is not on the destination list of the yuppy crowd any more. But then who cares? I am not part of the yuppy crowd in any case. Although urban all my life, but at 44 I am neither young nor very professional!!
My connection to Deoghar stretches for more than sixty years and three generations. My grand father had made a house there in the mid 40s to spend his retired life and my father maintained it, against a lot of odds, till the 90s when it was finally sold off. Although it has been close to 20 years now that the house has been sold off, I have yet to come to terms with that sense of loss that still engulfs me when I think about those days.
I spent all my childhood and teenage Puja vacations in Deoghar and have very fond memories of the place.
The Tower of Deoghar


The Deoghar I knew is completely lost. Vast stretches of open land have made way to an entire new township, unplanned and ugly. The cute little hill where we used to run up and down for fun in the afternoons has now become an entertainment park with a large ugly concrete slide and swings and a cafeteria with a huge Coke signage. There is hardly any tourist there.
The greatest shock came when I went looking for the small little river that used to flow behind our house. The dirt track remains the same. The river is also quite the same. I had no problem finding my way there through the now barren paddy fields. But where once the vision used to run free for miles on end we have a brand new railway track coming up there now, complete with a giant bridge over the river!!
On the way to Dharwa behind Pasi para

The Dharwa I was looking for is still there to the left

But to the right this sight greeted my vision

I am not anti-development. Perhaps some of all this is actually good for the locals. But for me it’s a very personal loss that I cannot explain in words.
These boys told me the rail line would be operational by 2010

Funnily enough, the main town has remained more or less intact. But the wilderness that we used to associate with the outskirts of Deoghar is completely lost.
I miss such barren landscape

For the drive I chose a rather unconventional route. I went via Burdwan-Guskara-Bhedia-Sriniketan-Suri-Massanjore-Dumka and while coming back I chose to take Dumka-Massanjore-Suri-Ilambazaar-Panagarh-Burdwan route. If I have to advice anyone, I would say take the second route. Though 30/40 km more, you save about an hour because you avoid driving through the congested town of Suri plus the bad road between Sriniketan and Suri.
The route through Guskara-Bhedia upto Sriniketan is quite good. In fact for going to Shantiniketan I would prefer to take this route now. But I wouldn’t take this route again for going to Deoghar.
In Jharkhand the roads are pretty decent, except for one stretch (Pattabari to Dumka) of around 15 km where it is quite broken. The Massanjore dam is really very pretty. In the space of last four/five months I have been to Panchet, Maithon and now Massanjore. I would give Massanjore the top crown among these three.
The majestic view of Massanjore from the road to Dumka




Here is a link to the team-bhp page where I have uploaded an XL sheet showing the travel log of the trip