Bishnupur’s tryst with terracotta
We are in Bishnupur in Bankura district, West Bengal, 200 km from Kolkata, weaving our way through a maze of rickshaws, bicycles, bullock carts and downbeat cars. The town appears frozen in time: a few net cafes and mobile service outlets point to the world of today.
The absence of building materials such as stone in this region did not deter the 7th century Malla kings of Bengal from using potter’s clay to build temples in their capital city.
They are a celebration of Vishnu in the form of Krishna, the name of the town deriving from the devotion that the most notable of Malla sovereigns, Bir Hambir, displayed towards the chosen deity. According to legend, Bir Hambir was a ruthless ruler who indulged in looting. He once relieved some devotees of their bag of possessions believing it to contain jewels when it held sacred Vaishnavite texts. He became a staunch Vaishnavite and introduced the worship of Madan Mohan in Bishnupur.
Sculptures carved on baked clay tiles were plastered to the brick walls. Special adhesive plaster made from natural ingredients including tamarind seed, sticky pulses, ripe bananas and jaggery, was used to buttress the constructions. The themes on the walls are from the Ramayana and Mahabharata besides Krishna in various moods.
It was during Bir Hambir’s reign too that temple construction assumed fever pitch and the region’s oldest and most unique landmark monument, the Ras Mancha, came to be built in 1587. The Ras Mancha, set in the midst of a manicured lawn, is not a typical temple.
While most Bishnupur temples display ornate fronts and simple rears and sides, they adhere to three architectural styles. Depending on the number of canopies on the roofs, these temples are classified as ekratna, pancharatna and navaratna. The Jor Bangla temple is one of the best examples of the Chala style of temple building with triangular roofs that resemble the typical Bengali hut. Yet again, depending on the number of roofs, these are classified as jor or char chala, denoting two and four roofs respectively. The Odisha architectural style or the Deul style with long curvilinear or tapering towers is the third prominent temple pattern.
Most of the surviving temples of Bishnupur were built when the region was witnessing a revival of Hinduism and the Krishna cult was gathering momentum. Nevertheless, the influence of Islamic architectural style is also visible in these monuments.
It is the smell of terracotta that remains as we leave this temple town, a reminder of our glorious past.
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