Sirajganj, Rajshahi
An 18th-century brick temple with nine pinnacles, decorated with terracotta, standing in a village just off the busy Hatikumrul highway junction.
The Navaratna temple at Hatikumrul was built in the early 18th century. Navaratna means “nine jewels”: the temple rises in tiers, with four pinnacles at the corners of each of two lower storeys and a ninth crowning the top — a grand form used for important temples in Bengal.
Its walls were once covered with terracotta panels of flowers, figures and scenes; much has worn away, but enough remains to show the craftsmanship. A few smaller temples stand nearby, making the site a small cluster of village temple architecture.
The temple is a protected monument of the Department of Archaeology and one of the largest of its kind in Bangladesh. Though thousands of buses pass the junction every day, few travellers stop — making it an easy and rewarding break on the road north.
Leave your bus at Hatikumrul junction, or come from Sirajganj town by bus or CNG.
Take a rickshaw or auto-rickshaw the short way to the temple.
Walk round the temple and look for the surviving terracotta, then see the smaller temples nearby.
Have tea at the junction and catch the next bus onward.
October to March, in the morning or late afternoon
From Sirajganj town, take a bus or CNG to Hatikumrul junction (under an hour), then an auto-rickshaw or rickshaw a short way into the village. Buses between Dhaka and the north stop at Hatikumrul.
