Dinajpur, Rangpur
An eighteenth-century Krishna temple whose every wall is covered in terracotta panels — the finest example of Bengal’s terracotta temple art.
The Rash Mela, held around the Rash Purnima full moon in Kartik, turns Kantanagar into a great fair for weeks, with worship at the temple, stalls of crafts, sweets and household goods, and visitors from across the north.
The Kantajew Temple was begun by Maharaja Pran Nath of Dinajpur in the early 1700s and completed by his son Raja Ramnath in 1752. It is dedicated to Krishna as Kantaji. The temple originally rose in three storeys crowned by nine spires, a navaratna, but the spires fell in the great earthquake of 1897.
What survives is extraordinary. The outer walls, from base to roof, are covered with terracotta panels showing scenes from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, the life of Krishna, and the world of eighteenth-century Bengal — hunts, boats, soldiers, processions and village life. No other temple in Bangladesh carries terracotta of this richness.
Take a bus or CNG up the Thakurgaon road to Kantanagar.
Spend an hour circling the temple and reading its panels.
Continue a few kilometres to the eighteenth-century mosque built in the same era.
Return to Dinajpur for lunch.
Open in Google Maps (opens in a new tab)View larger map (opens in a new tab)
October to February; the Rash Mela around the Kartik full moon (usually November) is lively but crowded
At Kantanagar, about 20 km north of Dinajpur town on the Thakurgaon road, beside the Dhepa river: around 40 minutes by bus, CNG or car.
