List of Hindu temples in West Bengal

Hindu temples in West Bengal or Bengal Temples are a special form of the Hindu temple in India. They are mostly from the 17th to the 19th century and are mainly located in the present-day

Kalighat Temple and Dakshineswar Kali Temple

.

Materials

Meghna

. Natural stone deposits are almost unknown, and so the residential houses in the countryside until well into the 20th century were. Century almost exclusively – sometimes mud-plastered Branches, or (more rarely) from air-dried clay bricks and the roofs were made of straw or reeds.

At an early age, Bengal also understood the burning of clay, so that the temple buildings of the 5th/6th century (or the hard-to-date

Deul temples) were built of bricks. At the temples of the 17th to 19th century, figurative and decorative terracotta relief plates were regularly applied. Most of the city houses were built in this period also from bricks and then plastered.^[2]

Consecration

Although early Buddhist and

Jainist traces are also found in Bengal, most temples are dedicated to Hindu deities Shiva, Vishnu and Kali, or their locally and regionally revered aspects, which is why many temples have different names. Also the God Krishna and his beloved Radha

enjoy in Bengal wide popularity.

History

The oldest known temple of Bengal, belonging to the group of the so-called Gupta temples, is the brick temple (mandir) of Balgram (

Malla dynasty, as well as the temple districts of Antpur and Kalna, are to be mentioned in the forefront, but also the temple complex of Puthia, Bangladesh, deserve special mention.^[2]

Architecture

Early temples of the 16th century have rarely been preserved; they consisted only of a Cella (garbhagriha) with a square layout (see Puthia Temple Complex).

Characteristic features of the later temples of Bengal type are the maintenance of the square floor plan-but now with a stronger internal and external structure-and the arched vaulted roofs with their hanging corners (

pancharatna) usually round Tambour-like towers, which differ in their shape significantly from the tower-like structures (shikharas) of North Indian temples of Nagara style. From 17. to 19. In the 19th century, nine-to thirteen-Tower Temple buildings were built, but also a few with flat roofs.^[4]

In contrast, the towerless Rasmancha temple in Bishnupur, which was built around 1600, offers a very unusual architecture: the massive square structure, which occupies about four times the base of a normal Bengal temple, is overestimated by a pyramid-like structure. On the other hand, the roof of the exterior, which is open on each side by ten arcades, consists of a number of smaller, stacked roofs of the Bengal type.

Bengal temples are also characterised by the complete absence of

kalashas are also rare. There are also Toranas (Toranas), which, however, have the appearance of smaller buildings.^[5]

Jagannatha
-Temple
(16. Jh.)
Bishnupur – Shyam Ray-Temple (1643)
Bishnupur – Jor-Bangla-Temple (1655)
Bishnupur – Kalachand-Temple (1656)
Bishnupur – Lalji-Temple (1658)
Bansberia – Ananta Basudeba-Temple (1679)
Bishnupur – Radhyashyam-Temple (um 1758)
Antpur – Radhagovindjiu-Temple (1786)
Kalna – Siddheswari Kali Temple (18. Jh.)
Kalna – Lalji-Temple (1739)
Puthia – Shiva-Temple (19. Jh.)
Bansberia – Hansheshwari-Temple (19. Jh.)

Construction jewellery

The outer skin of most temples is subdivided into fields. These are either dekorlos or included, in individual cases, terracotta Reliefs, in which gods and demons, but also geometrical and vegetable decorative motifs or scenes of courtly life, but also of the rural and peasant life to see. The depictions of the flute playing and surrounded by dancers god Krishna at the Shyamrai temple or one (reeds-?) Boats with seated rowing boats and standing musicians (vina players) at the Jor Bangla temple in Bishnupur are particularly noteworthy; it is worth noting that the far-flung Dragon mouth on the bow of the ship.

Bishnupur – Terracotta-Relief in Shyamrai-Temple (Krishna and Radha)
Bishnupur – Terracotta-Reliefs in Jor-Bangla-Temple
Bishnupur – Terracotta-Reliefs in Jor-Bangla-Temple
Antpur – Terracotta-Reliefs in Radhagovindjiu-Tempel
Kalna
– Terracotta-Figure in Lalji-Temple
Jiaganj Azimganj – Terracotta-Relief in Ganesvar-Temple

Deul temple

The also brick-built Deul temple or Tower Temple form a sub-group with independent traditions. This group is characterised by the almost vertical tower above the Cella (garbhagriha) and the complete absence of other components (mandapas). Outline elements are limited to a Minimum and sculptural jewelry is missing completely. The hypothetical dates for these temples range from the 8th to the 18th century, with the Islamist period (13th century) being the oldest in the world. until the 16th century).