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.
