Haripur is a village in the

Cooch Behar II Cooch Behar II is a community development block (CD block) that forms an administrative division in the Cooch Behar Sadar subdivision of the Cooch Behar district in the Indian state of West Bengal. Geography Khagrabari, one of the constituent pan ...

CD block in the

Cooch Behar Sadar subdivision Cooch Behar Sadar subdivision is a subdivision of the Cooch Behar district in the state of West Bengal, India. Subdivisions Cooch Behar district is divided into the following administrative subdivisions: Administrative units Cooch Behar Sa ...

of the

Cooch Behar district Cooch Behar district () is a district of Indian state of West Bengal. Formerly part of the Kamarupa kingdom, the area became the heart of the Kamata Kingdom in the 12th century. During the British Raj, the district was known as Cooch Behar st ...

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Geography

Location

Haripur is located at . Haripur is west of

Madhupur Satra Madhupur Satra is a religious institutional center associated with the Ekasarana tradition of Vaishnavism, situated in Cooch Behar, the Indian state of West Bengal.It is established by Assamese Vaishnavite monasteries for religious practices in 1 ...

and is on the banks of the Torsha River.Koch Bihar Jelar Purakirti (in Bengali), Data compilation and writing by Dr. Shyamachand Mukhopadhayay, published by the Department of Archaeology, Government of West Bengal, Second edition 1974, Pages 61-62.

Area overview

The map alongside shows the north-central part of the district. It has the highest level of urbanisation in an overwhelming rural district. 22.08% of the population of the Cooch Behar Sadar subdivision lives in the urban areas and 77.92% lives in the rural areas. The entire district forms the flat

alluvial Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. All ...

flood plains of mighty rivers. Note: The map alongside presents some of the notable locations in the subdivision. All places marked in the map are linked in the larger full screen map.

Demographics

As per the

2011 Census of India The 2011 Census of India or the 15th Indian Census was conducted in two phases, house listing and population enumeration. The House listing phase began on 1 April 2010 and involved the collection of information about all buildings. Information ...

, Haripur had a total population of 995. There were 523 (53%) males and 472 (47%) females. There were 119 persons in the age range of 0 to 6 years. The total number of literate people in Haripur was 667 (76.14% of the population over 6 years).

Culture

The Harihar Mahadev temple is a squarish brick-built structure, that has sunk considerably because of an earthquake. Devotees have to descend 8 ft, stepping over 8 stairs to reach the

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 ...

in the

garbhagriha A ''garbhagriha'' or ''sannidhanam'' is the ''sanctum sanctorum'', the innermost sanctuary of a Hindu and Jain temples where resides the '' murti'' (idol or icon) of the primary deity of the temple. In Jainism, the main deity is known as the ' ...

or the

sanctum sanctorum The Latin phrase ''sanctum sanctorum'' is a translation of the Hebrew term ''קֹדֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִׁים'' (Qṓḏeš HaQŏḏāšîm), literally meaning Holy of Holies, which generally refers in Latin texts to the holiest place of th ...

of the temple. A tin shed has been built over the entrance door to prevent rainwater from entering the temple. The temple now measures in height. The original height must have been around . The temple is a square. The temple is estimated to have been built in the 18th century by the

Cooch Behar State Cooch Behar, also known as Koch Bihar, was a princely state in India during the British Raj. The state was placed under the Bengal States Agency, part of the Eastern States Agency of the Bengal Presidency. It is located south of the Him ...

rulers. There are some stone decorations in the walls, which seem to be of an earlier period, but these may have been brought from other temples.

References

{{Cooch Behar District Villages in Cooch Behar district