Sacred Bengal: Retracing David McCutchion's journey

It took an English man to show us the sublime beauty of our temples in Bengal. Armed with a tripos in modern languages from Cambridge, David McCutchion came to India in the 1950s. While teaching English in Viswa-Bharati in Santiniketan he visited some local terracotta temples and this led to his life long passion about the late medieval temples of Bengal. He travelled extensively in both bengals sometimes on foot and sometimes on cycle and tirelessly documented thousands of beautiful terracotta temples that dot the landscape. He was responsible for helping an entire generation of Bengalis rediscover their heritage. I was intrigued by this story of a Cambridge educated gent scouring the West Bengal and Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) rural landscape through the 1950s/60s till the Naxal unrest and the Bangladesh civil war stopped his ramblings.

Photo Courtesy Prosenjit Koley (c) 

Egged on by a close friend – my engineering college buddy Amit, I decided to trace a part of his journey during this trip to Kolkata From Kolkata the nearest bunch of these late medieval temples are in Hooghly district. We set off one balmy Saturday evening from Kolkata to Chandannagar which would be the base location from where to start our perambulation. It had been raining for the past few days and we were almost on the verge of cancelling our trip but buoyed for encouraging weather forecasts persisted. Sunday morning was crisp with clear azure skies and clear sunlight- ideal for viewing the temples. Our expert –Prasenjit, created a route which factored in the orientation of these temples. We would visit the east and north facing temples in the morning and the west and south facing temples in the second half so the temples are always bathed in light


The route
Chandannagar-->Dwarhatta-->Aatpur-->Kotulpur-->Rajbolhat-->Dasghora-->Senet-->Hooghly town-->Chandanagar The proposed route would take us from the historical French enclave of Chandannagar towards Haripal.


Our first stop would be the village of Dwarhatta. Well known in medieval Bengal as a prosperous village its slide into obscurity began with the influx of European settlements of Serampore, Chandannagar and Bandel. The European towns acted as a magnet for traders and artisans and the ancient village of Dwarhatta scaled back to being a village. On the way we passed through one of largest wholesale banana market of Nasipur which was abuzz with activity with "Chhat" pujo

Banana Market: Nasipur

From Dwarhatta we would go to “Aatpur” another prosperous Hooghly village which has a rich and well documented history going back few centuries. Known for Its later association with Swami Vivekananda’s renunciation along with his 8 Guru Bhai’s have added a further spiritual dimension to Aatpur

Aatpur Village

From Aatpur we would move towards Sitapur to reach the hamlet of Kotulpur. A relatively less prosperous and obscure village Kotulpur is reached through some muslim majority villages. Its temple is in a dilapidated state


From Kotulpur we would travel to Rajbolhat. Its famous for the local “kali” like deity of Rajballavi and also for its association with Dulal Chandra Bhor well known to most Bengalis for his patented “Dulal er Tal michri”

Idol of local deity Rajballavi, Rajbolhat

From Rajbolhat we return through a visit to Dosghora village and Senet. The intention was to conclude our day trip by visiting the magnificient Imambara of Hooghly


1. Raj Rajeswar Temple, Dwarhatta

Raj Rajeswar Temple, Dwarhatta

Built by the Singha Rays in 1728 this temple is dedicated to Vishnu ( Raj Rajeswara)
The Singha Rays trace their ancestry to Rajasthan. They are Rajput Kshatriyas who moved to Bengal in the 1600s most possibly at the same time as the Rathod exodus after the defeat at the battle of Haldighati


The temple is one of the best preserved examples of the "Aatchala" style. The terracotta carvings on the façade are mostly beautifully preserved. The carvings are mostly scenes from the Ramayana, scenes from daily life, Goddess Durga among others. The carvings under the lintel over the triple entrance arch is intricate and beautiful

Raj Rajeswar Temple, Carvings on top of Arch

2. Radha Gobindo Temple, Aatpur


Built by Krishna Ram Mitra, Diwan to Maharaja Tekchand of Burdwan in 1786, this temple is one the largest built in the "Aatchala" temple with an Orissa style "Jagmohan" in front.

Radhagobindo Temple, Aatpur

The whole temple compound has 5 "char chala" shiva temples, a "Ras Mancha" and a "Dol Mancha" in addition to the main temple


Entrance to the main temple compound with a 500+ year old "Bakul" tree on the right of the picture

Entrance to main temple compound, Shiva Temples on the right, foreground



Ras Mancha, Aatpur

The temple carvings are unique as they draw from world history and all religions reflecting "Sarva Dharma Samanyay"

Temple carving showing Anubis on left, Guru Nanak and Kabira

Terracotta carving of Samudragupta playing the veena

"Barsha" work on the edges of the temple walls

Ponkho Polestara


Ponkho polestara work on the ceiling of the Jagmohan is very well preserved, This was an ancient mosaic technique indigenous to Bengal and neighbouring states. The technique used crushed sea shell paste mixed with other items. The patterns were decorated using knives

Ponkho Polestara work on the ceiling of the Jagamohan

3. Jackfruit Wood Temple, Aatpur

Jackfruit Wood temple, Aatpur

This is the oldest surviving medieval wood carved temple, The wood used is that of the jackfruit tree with a traditional thatched Roof




4. Baburam Ghosh's ( Premananda Swamy) House, Aatpur


Baburam Ghosh-better known with his monastic name of Premananda Swamy was one of the nine disciples of Ramakrishna along with Swami Vivekananda.

Baburam Ghosh's house, Aatpur

Baburam Ghosh's house where Swami Vivekananda and his eight Guru Bhai's renounced the material world and became monks

Plaque commemorating the renunciation of Vivekananda and the eight disciples of Ramakrishna

5. Raj Rajeswara Temple, Kotulpur


This was the oldest temple of the day. Built in 1694 by the hazari and Bakulis, the temple is overgrown with weeds and the ceiling has caved in. However the terracotta work and the structural integrity of the façade is miraculously preserved

Raj Rajeswar Temple, Kotulpur

6. Radhagobindo Temple, Rajbolhat


This temple was built in 1738 by the Ghataks

Radhagobindo Temple, Rajbolhat

7. Gopinath Temple, Dasghora


Built in 1703 by the Biswas family this is a great example of the Indo-Islamic Pancharatna style

Gopinath Pancharatna Temple, Dosghora

The Biswas Bari in Dosghora


The Biswas family built a stately home in Dosghora village in the 1700s. It is one of the best preserved old houses in Bengal.

Biswas Bari, Dosghora Village with Dol Mancha

When we reached senet it was dark so we don't have any photos. We also had to drop Hooghly Imambara. Our day trip was complete. The temples had opened up an unknown element of Bengal's architectural heritage


We hope to continue our quest in the near future.


Risks


These temples are faced by three different risks/dangers


1. No repair/restoration causing a slow death


Some of the temples like the beautiful temple at Kotulpur have fallen into disrepair and if no repairs are undertaken it will be lost forever like many other temples which were recorded by David but do not exist anymore.


2. Amateur preservation Efforts


We also saw the damage caused by amateur preservation efforts. For example at the Aatpur temple complex scotchbrite was used to clean some of the terracotta carvings


3. Illegal Plaster casting and stealing


Illegal effort of creating plaster casts of the terracotta carvings have some times irreparably damaged the carvings, In some cases entire carving panels have been removed