01A temple built as a body
Raja Nrisinghadeb Roy of Bansberia, a scholar of the Tantras, wanted a temple that showed the yogic body. Its five storeys stand for the five nadis and chakras along the spine, and the stairs inside climb like the path of kundalini from the base to the crown. The thirteen spires are lotus buds about to open. He laid the foundation in 1799 and died in 1802 with only two storeys built; his widow Rani Shankari finished the temple in 1814. Inside, a blue Hangseshwari sits on a lotus that rises from Shiva’s navel.
02Ananta Basudeba
In the same compound is the older temple of Ananta Basudeba, a Vishnu shrine with walls covered in terracotta panels of the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and Krishna’s leelas, built by the Bansberia rajas in the 17th century. The two together show both faces of Bengal’s temple art, the brick-and-terracotta tradition and the later experiments in form. Kali Puja night brings the town to the temple.
The life of this place
- 1799Raja Nrisinghadeb Roy lays the foundation.
- 1802The raja dies with two storeys complete.
- 1814Rani Shankari completes the temple.
Bansberia is between Bandel and Tribeni on the Howrah–Katwa line; the temple is a short rickshaw ride from Bansberia station.
