| Temples & Legends of Bengal |
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| Temples & Legends Of India |
THE TEMPLES IN BURDWAN |
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| From the style
of the characters the temples do not appear to date beyond the Mohammedan conquest, or at
the utmost to just before. The inscriptions are not dated.1One of them mentions the
erection of the temple by oneHarischandra for his beloved: but who Harischandra was or
when he built the temple is not mentioned. The temples are particularly interesting being
the finest existing examples of their type. They face east. In the cell of the inscribed one is a Ganesa on a pedestal in front of, which is an oblong argha with three lingam holes cut into it. A peculiarity of these temples, and not of these alone but of the entire series of temples of this type to be found in Manbhum, is the sunk position of the floor of the sanctum.Temple No. 3 stands by itself. Its features are much like those of the temples already described but unlike them it faces west. The object of worship inside is the figure of a fish lying flat; serving as an argha to five lingam holes cut in it. This sculpture is especially interesting as proving that the fish is essentially a representation of the female powers of nature, a character which it bears in the mythology of other nations, but which appears to have been overlooked or forgotten in Indian mythology, where it, and a similar symbol, the tortoise, are dissociated from the lingam. 1.This is wrong as discussed later. |
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| About Temples In Burdwan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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