Kamteswari temple is at
Gosanimari in the
Dinhata I
Dinhata I is a community development block (CD block) that forms an administrative division in the Dinhata subdivision of the Cooch Behar district in the Indian state of West Bengal.
Geography
Petla, one of the constituent panchayats of the block ...
CD block
In India, a Community development block (CD block) or simply Block is a sub-division of Tehsil, administratively earmarked for planning and development. The area is administered by a Block Development Officer (BDO), supported by several technic ...
in the
Dinhata subdivision of the
Cooch Behar district in
West Bengal,
India.
Geography
Location
Kamteswari temple is at .
It is about from Dinhata railway station.
The temple
There have been various opinions about who built the temple, because both the
Khen
The ''khene'' (; spelled "Can" in English; Lao language, Lao: wikt:ແຄນ, ແຄນ; th, wikt:แคน, แคน, , ; km, wikt:គែន, គែន - ''Ken''; Vietnamese language, Vietnamese: ''khèn'') is a Lao mouth organ whose pipes, ...
and the
Koch
Koch may refer to:
People
* Koch (surname), people with this surname
* Koch dynasty, a dynasty in Assam and Bengal, north east India
* Koch family
* Koch people (or Koche), an ethnic group originally from the ancient Koch kingdom in north east ...
dynasties were worshippers of goddess Kamteswari(KārttiKamātakṣenaṃkarī). It is now accepted that the original temple was destroyed and the present temple was built by Maharaja Pran Narayan of the
Cooch Behar State in 1665.
[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 45-47.]
The main temple roof has been built in the Bengal ''char chala'' style having a curved cornish with a circular dome atop. There are two entrances to the temple, the main entrance being on the west and another on the north. There is a ''nahabatkhana'' at the main entrance to the temple. The temple is high and has a square base of .
Deities inside the temple are two
Shiva lingas, an idol of
Brahma, a
Shalagram
A shaligrama shila ( deva, शालिग्राम शिला, Śāligrāma-śilā), also rendered as shaligram, is a particular variety of stone collected from riverbed or banks of the Kali Gandaki, a tributary of the Gandaki River in N ...
/
Narayan shila, an idol of
Gopal made of
ashtadhatu
Ashtadhatu (), also called octo-alloy, is an alloy often used for casting metallic idols for Jain and Hindu temples in India.
The composition is laid down in the ''Shilpa shastras'', a collection of ancient texts that describe arts, crafts, and t ...
(alloy of eight metals) and a bronze idol of
Surya
Surya (; sa, सूर्य, ) is the sun as well as the solar deity in Hinduism. He is traditionally one of the major five deities in the Smarta tradition, all of whom are considered as equivalent deities in the Panchayatana puja and a m ...
. There is another Surya idol of the
Pal-era on the northern wall of the temple and a
Vishnu idol, also of the Pal era, in the south-eastern corner of the temple. Both the latter idols have been brought from somewhere else and placed here. There is another Shiva linga in the south western part of the temple.
The Kamteswari temple is a
state protected monument.
[List of State Protected Monuments as reported by the Archaeological Survey of India](_blank)
.
Kamteswari temple picture gallery
File:Gosanimari Kamteshwari Temple at Cooch Behar District In West Bengal 11.jpg
File:Gosanimari Kamteshwari Temple at Cooch Behar District In West Bengal 06.jpg
File:Kamteswari temple in Gosanimari 08.jpg
File:Kamteswari temple in Gosanimari 07.jpg
File:Kamteswari temple in Gosanimari 09.jpg
References
{{Hindu temples in West Bengal
Temples in West Bengal
Tourist attractions in Cooch Behar district