Pancha Ratna Shiva Temple, also known as Bhubaneswar Shiva Mandir, is a

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

temple of the

Puthia Temple Complex The Puthia Temple Complex consists of a cluster of notable old Hindu temples in Puthia Upazila, Rajshahi District, Bangladesh. Located 23 km to the east of Rajshahi city, it has the largest number of historic temples in Bangladesh.McAdam, Ma ...

Puthia Upazila Puthia ( bn, পুঠিয়া) is an Upazila of Rajshahi District in the Division of Rajshahi, Bangladesh. Geography Puthia is located at . It has 30484 households and total area 192.64 km2. This is a historical & traditional place in Ba ...

Rajshahi Division Rajshahi Division ( bn, রাজশাহী বিভাগ) is one of the eight first-level administrative divisions of Bangladesh. It has an area of and a population at the 2011 Census of 18,484,858. Rajshahi Division consists of 8 district ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

. It is the largest

Shiva Shiva (; sa, शिव, lit=The Auspicious One, Śiva ), also known as Mahadeva (; ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐ, or Hara, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions within Hindu ...

temple in Bangladesh. The shrine overlooks the Shiv Sagar (Shiva's lake) to its left. The temple is well decorated in ''pancharatna'' (five spires) architectural style and is located at the entrance of the

Puthia Rajbari } Puthia Rajbari is a palace in Puthia Upazilla, Rajshahi in Bangladesh, built in 1895, for Rani Hemanta Kumari Debi, it is an example of Indo-Saracenic Revival architecture. The palace is sited on the Rajshahi Natore highway 30 km from the ...

. Among the surviving Hindu temples, this shrine is said to be "an exceptional and more attractive for its architectural beauty" in Bangladesh. The temple is in

Puthia The Puthia Temple Complex consists of a cluster of notable old Hindu temples in Puthia Upazila, Rajshahi District, Bangladesh. Located 23 km to the east of Rajshahi city, it has the largest number of historic temples in Bangladesh.McAdam, Ma ...

town which is away by road from

Rajshahi Rajshahi ( bn, রাজশাহী, ) is a metropolitan city and a major urban, commercial and educational centre of Bangladesh. It is also the administrative seat of the eponymous division and district. Located on the north bank of the P ...

city; the city is also a rail head and is on the Dhaka-Rajashahi Highway.

History

The temple's construction is attributed to Rani Bhuban Mayi Devi, the widow of Raja Jagat Narayan Ray of the five-anna estate. It was built between 1823 and 1830 at an estimated cost of three million

taka The Bangladeshi taka ( bn, টাকা, sign: , code: BDT, short form: Tk) is the currency of the People's Republic of Bangladesh. In Unicode, it is encoded at . Issuance of bank notes 10 and larger is controlled by Bangladesh Bank, whil ...

Features

The lofty temple is unlike the

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

plaster style decorations of the Govinda temple as it has a plaster finish. It is built over a raised platform of height, and its towers have beehive type design. Built in brick masonry, in plan it is square, with "north Indian type turrets and plastered finish". The central sanctum is the only chamber of the temple which is square. A

Shiva Linga A lingam ( sa, लिङ्ग , lit. "sign, symbol or mark"), sometimes referred to as linga or Shiva linga, is an abstract or aniconic representation of the Hindu god Shiva in Shaivism. It is typically the primary ''murti'' or devotional im ...

, carved from black

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...

stone is deified in the sanctum; it is the largest in the country. The central chamber is enclosed within a passage that runs on all four sides. The passage has cusp arched entrances from four sides. The temple tower consists of five decorated spires. The internal and external plastered walls of the temple are decorated with panels with themes from Hindu mythology. The raised platform of the temple is accessed through two brick built stairways, one from the north and the other from the southern direction. It is decorated with stone carvings and sculptural works, which were disfigured during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. The invading Pakistani army attempted to displace and break the Shiva Linga, but were unable to move it from its position. The temple is now a protected monument.McAdam, Marika. (2004
''Lonely Planet's Bangladesh''.
pp. 114-115. The corridors have a touch of Jaipuri architecture.

References

{{coord, 24.3638, N, 88.8371, E, source:wikidata, display=title Puthia Temple Complex Religious buildings and structures completed in 1823 Archaeological sites in Rajshahi District Hindu temples in Rajshahi Division

History

Features

See also

References