Tours & Travels : Welcome to Bishnupur

Saturday 18 January 2014

Welcome to Bishnupur

Welcome to Bishnupur

Bishnupur of Bankura District is a place of art & culture. Bankura is one of the districts of West Bengal.

Bishnupur is famous for terracotta temples and also its Baluchari sarees. Bishnupur has its magnificent past history and also has glorious architecture. Music & handicrafts are like pottery and weaving. It was flourished in the early 18th century. It was ruled by Hindu kings like Malla dynasty. The terracotta works were developed at that time as an art form. This terracotta works are famous in Easter India.

Raghunath, the founder king of Mall dynasty in 694 AD and since then the history of Bishnupur are tracked.
Latter 994 AD, the name Bishnupur of this place was tracked; because the major people of this place were the worshiper of Lord Vishnu. From the name of Lord Vishnu, this place was called Bishnupur.

Bishnupur is about 132 km distance from Kolkata. We can reach there by bus, train or any other private vehicle. From Dharmatala bus stand busses are available for Bishnupur. Train is available from Howrah station and also from Santragachi station.

There are so many lodges and hotels to stay. Out of them some are Bishnupur Tourist Hotel, Meghmallar Hotel, Hotel Bishnupur, Monalisa Lodge, etc.

Rashmancha was built by bricks and Veer Hambir, the king was built this pavilion in 1600 AD. This is oldest brick built temple in Bishnupur. The shape of this temple like pyramid tower. To make the decorative images of this temple used terracotta plates and good clay which was available in plenty.

The joint Bangla temple was built by Raghunath, the king of Malla dynasty in the year 1655. Here also we can see the decoration of terracotta plates.

The Pancha Ratna (five gems) temple was built by Raghunath, the king of Malla dynasty during 1643 AD. This is a most difficult sculpture among the Bishnupur temples.

The Madanmohan temple was built by the king Durjana Singh in the year 1694 AD. It is richly decorated and designed than other temples of Bishnupur.

In between 17th & 18th century, the Malla kings were built large ponds which attract visitors still now. The names of these ponds are Lalband, Krishnaband etc. These ponds were dug for storing water and supply to villages and town.

The famous Poush Mela ( winter exhibition) is generally called as Bishnupur Mela. This mela is generally held at the last week of the month December of every year and it continued more than four days. People of the near villages and also from the other parts of the country are come to this mela. Few years back, started a new chapter as festival of classical music and dance according to the Bishnupur culture.

There are various shops for selling terracotta Pottery & Artefacts and terracotta jewellery at Bishnupur. Moreover, worthwhile craft and gift items made on dokra metal are also famous.

Bshinipu Silk Sharee

Another attract item of Bishnupur is Baluchari Sarees. This kind of sarees is famous in India. Most of the Indian ladies are like to ware sarees in different style. This kind of sarees is creating by the best tantis of Bishnupur on their looms. This is cottage industries of Bishnupur. Huge tanties are engaged to make this kind of sarees. The border of this saree is display the part of the epic like Ramayana or Mahabharata.

The music gharana of Bishnupur is very old. Raghunath Sing the king of Malla dynasty, requested to Bahadur Khan to come and stay at Bishnupur and enriched the Bishnupur gharana of music. Bahadur Khan was a great singer of that time and he was also successor of grate singer Tansen Bahadur. This gharana is still alive and carried by the new generation.