West Mednipur-2

West Medinipur- view-2

Chandra Kona-This town is situated between Ghatal and Garbeta. The main attraction of this town is forts namely Ramgard, Lalgard. These forts were constructed at the time of Chauhan kings. The image of Raghunathji is setup at Ramgard fort in 1522. The image of Girdharji was set up at Lalgard fort in 1655. Other than these two forts, there are other forts like Raghunathgarh and another fort was also found in ruined condition, namely Dwasdash Dwari  Dwadash Dwari is Bengali term, it means is 12 doors ; the ruined fort had 12 entrances or doors.

There are different temples at Chandrakona town. All these different temples were dedicated to the various god and goddess name, like Malleswar Mahadev, Jagannath Mahadev, Raghunath Jiu, La Jiu, etc. The other important temple of Chandrakona are Navaratna Temple. This is situated at the lalbazar area. This temple is richly decorated with terracotta art.

Garbeta- According to the history, in 15th century, one Rajput, Gajapati Singha defeated the non-Aryan ruler of this place and set-up one new dynasty in Bagri area. He had also built one fort at the eastern side of Shilavati River at his time; but that fort is massively ruined in the long run. At the north side of this fort have a well structural temple called Ma Sarbamangalla as the same was dedicated to Devi Durga. There is also having other temples with attractive sculptures. The famous fair of this place are usually arranged at the time of Holi the festive of colors which generally come once in a year at the time of spring seasons.

Karnagarh-This is the name of a fort which is situated probably 10 km distance from the Medinipur town. This ancient fort is still the center of attraction of the tourists. This stone-made fort is almost ruined as the time passed. Still the remaining portion of this fort is attractive for all and according to the history; this fort and its temples, water tanks, etc. ware made at the time of Keshri dynasty.

Medinipur Town-This is very old town. Nearly 500 years ago it was set-up by the Mughal dynasty and then it was under the Jaleswar Sarkar. Probably, in 1783, it was declared as the headquarters of this district. In other opinion, Medinikar, the local lord was discovered this place as the name of Madhukosh and thereafter according to these names together came Medinipur after his expiry i.e.13th century most probably.

Partha-This place is situated at the north bank of Cossye River and it is 8 k.m. distances from Medinipur town. This place is famous for 32 approximate temples that was made of Terracotta arts. Few years ago, one Lord Vishnu idol was discovered at the time of digging  the earth and according to archeological point of view this idol is nearly 1000 years old. The idol is now in the Ashutosh Museum.

West Medinipur-1

West Medinipur

Medinipur is one of the most important districts of West Bengal in India. Earlier it was one single big district. In the long run,after many years, this district was divided into two parts, East Medinipur and West Medinipur. This division was done for smooth functioning of administrative works.

This district is important as the first swadeshi self-declared government was setup at Tamluk at that time when entire India was under the rule of British Government. The name of that swadeshi government was Tamralipta government. Medinipur is also Bengal-Orissa border district.

Following places of West Medinipur are famous for the visit;

Khirpai- In earlier, i.e. in 18th and also in 19th centuries, this town was famous as trading center. Cotton and handicrafts of this area were very famous at that time and these items were exported to foreign countries. Khirpai was also famous for indigo plantations by the British businessmen. They forcibly compelled Indian farmers to cultivate this indigo, because this kind of indigo plantation damage the soil and after cultivation of indigo, the particular land are not eligible for cultivation of any other crops like rice. Now this town has not enough impotency in trading with such cotton and crafts. It is small town and its area is now 12 sqrs. Kilometers approximately and number of dwellers is not much. The main attraction of this place is the Pancharatna temple, this temple is very ancient. The architectural of this temple are very memorable and the images of Krishnalila, Dasavatars of Lord Krishna and also the battle between Ram and Ravana, all these ideas were collected from famous Hindu epics like Ramayana, Mahavarat.Many other famous ancient temples are also existing here and these are also the center of attraction of tourists of whole over the world.

Khargeswar Shiv Mandir- this temple was built in the year of 1861. This Khargeswar Shiv Mandir is located on the north side of Radhamadhab Mandir. This Shiv Mandir is made of Tin roof of atchala style. Atchala means assembling of eight tin roofs and designed as hut.

Umapati Shiv Mandir- This mandir (temple) is also built as atchala style and in the century 19th, this temple was built. The image of Sun is set-up here. This image most probably were made of black stone and the age of 10th or 11th century.

Dalan Mandir- This temple was most probably built in 1746 and this oldest temple of Khirpai. This temple is devoted to Singhabhini (Goddess Durga).

Kankrajhor- This place is near by the north-west part of Jhargram sub-division. This place is mostly covered with various trees like Sal, Teak, Mahua, Kendua, etc. some animals like deer, bear, rabbits, etc. are commonly seen here. The famous temple of goddess Kali is seen here. It is also myth that Kapalkundala, the famous novel by the author Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay was written here. This place Kankrajhor is famous for its full moonlight view. In winter and spring seasons, the beauty of this place in full moon light is really amazing and memorable.

Many other places are in west-Medinipur to be visit. I will write in brief about those places in my coming episode of the part of this blog.