Temples of Midnapur

Introduction

Midnapur district happens to be the largest in the state of West Bengal, comprising an area of 5274 Sq. miles. The spread is in betwen Latitude 21°36'36” to 22°57'10" and Longitude 86°33'5" to 88°12'4".

The principal rivers are Silai, Kasai, Keleghai mostly originate in the highland of West and flows down in plains to the east making it fertile. Western half of the district is uneven, less fertile and less populated. On the contrary, the eastern half is densely populated with large concentration of temples.

Quite a good number of temples are constructed with stone and the temple building technique of Orissa has been incorporated alongwith style too. Southern part of the district once in 15th century was in control of Orissa Raj and thus might have influenced the style of construction. One come across more Mithuna Sculptures on temple in comparison to other districts of Bengal. "Kamal Kamini" a folk tale is in common depictation in terracotta on many temple decorations.

Terracotta Sculptures in general lacks the vigour and vitality of Bishnupur Birbhum School of art in terracotta. Sublimity is less in comparison to Hooghly - Burdwan Sculpture.

The oldest dated terracotta temple is Singha Vahini (1490) - Ghatan is of Char Chala construction (Map Ref : 44) and the latest is of Sridhara (1931) - Damtor is of 5 Ratna construction (Map Ref : 30).

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• Monuments
• Monument Data
• District Map

The total numbers of Monuments documented are 292 in numbers. The number of Negatives exposed is 4024 in numbers.