Trip To Bishnupur

Tucked away in a corner of West Bengal is the quaint and charming town of Bishnupur. It's well known in the world for its Terracota Temples dedicated to various Gods and Goddesses. Indian Railways makes it an easily accessible place for tourists and history lovers with daily connections between Kolkata and Bishnupur.

The tour kicked of with a visit to Rasmancha. Unique in its architecture and said to be one of a kind in India, this pyramidal structure consists of concentric galleries which used to be full of images of Gods during olden times.



Here are more pictures of the Terracota temples at Bishnupur.





The picture below is one of my favorite. Have a look at the detailing of the images and engravings which have gone into the sculpting. Scenes from Indian Mythology have been depicted in a vivid fashion. A special thanks is in order to our friends at the Archaelogical Survey of India (ASI) who have done an incredible job in helping us relive our glorious heritage.



Dalmadal Cannon (as shown below) was used by the Malla Kings of Bishnupur on the Maratha Invaders. It's 3.8 Metres long and has a muzzle of 29.2 cm. Imagine a Wrought Iron ball of 30 cm in diameter coming at you. Deadly !!



The most endearing part of the trip was the visit to a Baluchari Sari making centre. Baluchari is the most well known Bengali Silk Sari and along with its more Illustrious cousin, Swarnachari (made using golden threads) are the two important weaving techniques of Bengal.
The effort which goes into the design and production of a Baluchari can be well understood by the fact that it takes close to 112 hours to produce one Sari.



The final output turns out something like this, simply exquisite.



A nice piece of history to end this post. We Indians love romanticizing things :)