A Survey on the Unique & Composite Temples of Cooch Behar from (17th to 19th century)

Abstract

Temple in India is considered as an abode of God Almighty, a centre of reverence. The Hindu temple, in more than one sense, epitomises the numerous sides and complex processes of the cultural development of Hinduism through its architecture. The major temple styles listed and described in the “Vāstuśāstra” texts are the Nāgara, Drāvida and Vesara. All the available texts are agreed on the point that the Nāgara style was prevalent in the region between Himalayas and Vindhyas. So, geographically Bengal belongs to the school of Nāgara style and Bengal temple architecture in its initial phase chiefly followed the Nāgara style though the process of the consequent development of Nāgara style can be traced through various regional schools, of which the major ones were Orissa (Kalinga style) & Central India (Mahoba style). But from the 17th Century, the history of Indian temple architecture witnessed the beginning of a distinct Bengal school which consisted of a series of parallel unique temple styles by which Bengal hold an important status in the architectural atlas in India. From the 17th to 19th Centuries Bengal may be categorised as a province that behold several innovative architectural styles. In this connection a noticeable point may also to be noted here that though Cooch Behar is a part of Bengal, stylistically this part also shows its architectural uniqueness by consuming and admixing various local and also general attributes. By undertaking field survey at Cooch Behar district the author tried to trace these distinguishable features of these temples.