Jor Bangla temple is a gem of the Terracotta temples in West Bengal, India. This 350 year old temple was built by King  Raghunath Singha Dev.

Location: Bishnupur, West Bengal, India

Built in: AD 1655

The Architecture:

It is a mix of do-chala and char-chala architecture. ‘Chala’ means roof in Bengali. The top dome is an example of char-chala(four-sided), and the two huts have do-chala(two-sided) roofs. The hybrid architecture is unique and this makes Jor-Bangla one of the most iconic temples of Bengal.

Fun Facts:

Lets talk about even numbers:

Number 2: do-chala( two-sided )  roof

Number 4: char-chala( four-sided ) roof

Number 6: The Shadabhuja Chaitanya [Shada-bhuja means 6-handed]. Chaitanya was a devotee of Vishnu and the founder of Gaudiya Vaishnavism.

Number 8: Total count of sides of the roof is 8: Two do-chalas and one char-chala.

Number 10: Vishnu had 10 avatars.

Number 12: The base of the temple has a dimension of: 12 meters x 12 meters

– Is not it amazing?

 

This is the Second part of the series “Terracotta Temples of Bengal”. Here is the link to Part 1, Madan Mohan Temple of Bishnupur.