SHIVA TRILOGY - Part 3: Baneshwar Shiva Temple, Kumortuli

The title might sound familiar but this post has nothing to do with the Amish Tripathi's Shiva Trilogy, the best-selling mythological fiction series in India. 

The article is about three, century old Shiva Temples of Calcutta, surviving through years of ignorance and atmospheric erosion while serving hundreds of devotees everyday. In fact though I named this post a Trilogy and planned three consecutive articles but in future it can easily and certainly be extended to form either a tetralogy or a pentalogy or even a decalogy, considering the number of significant shrines in the City !!

Hindu Temples in the City are a common sight now-a-days but an inevitable question is: How old are they? Various sources suggest that few of the City shrines dates back to Job Charnock or probably before that. Prosperity of a religious shrine always depends upon the people surrounding it and Calcutta was no exception. People used to inhabit Calcutta (or more specifically Sutanuti, Kolikata and Gobindapur) since the early seventeenth century, long before Job Charnock settled here. Lord Shiva and various forms of his consort Parvati, were the most worshipped divine entities. It was almost customary that the ancient rich and aristrocratic families of the City establish temples of Lord Shiva, either in their residences or in the locality or on the bank of river Ganges. In the year 1856, there were 24 Shiva temples in Calcutta compared to only 5 temples of goddess Kali, a popular form of Parvati.

This trilogy is an attempt to uncover the past of three ancient Shiva Temples of North Calcutta, situated within a radius of 1 km but almost unknown beyond its daily visitors.

Part 3: BANESHWAR SHIVA TEMPLE, KUMORTULI

Among the three shrines we visited in our Temple Trilogy Expedition, Baneshwar Shiva Temple of 2/5 Banamali Sarkar Street is on the verge of extinction. The temple being a not-so-frequented one, remains under lock and key for most of the time. Devotees used to catch a glimpse of their Lord from outside. Callously covered by a public toilet and naturally strangled by the roots of a banyan tree, the temple is a beautiful example of terracotta art in Calcutta. But there is no definite information anywhere about the founder of the temple or the year of construction !! 

Temple and its Architecture -   

The temple, measuring 22 ft by 19.5 ft and rising to a height of 35 ft, built in Aatchala style (eight sloped-roof) of Bengal Temple Architecture, the structure is already swallowed up by tree roots to a large extent. The miniature four-roof part ('Aatchala' temple is - a miniature four roof version of a temple above the principal four-roof structure) on the top, completely shrouded by the tree, is almost gone and hard to spot or shoot.    

It seems that the temple originally has three entrances - on each of its North, East and South side but later the north and the east entrance were blocked by the walls leaving only the south for use. Now, municipality built a public toilet, damaging the lower part of terracotta works on the eastern wall and north and west part are covered by the adjoining residential houses. The east entrance was certainly the main one. It is a matter of surprise that most of the art works of the upper eastern wall are still intact.  

The curved cornice has three rows of terracotta plaques, though in dilapidated condition. The decorations include geometric and floral motifs of exquisite workmanship. Remnants of Pankha Art can also be seen in the walls. 'Pankha' is a type of lime plaster, applied to cover the laterite walls so that the ornamentation can be figured on it. 

The sanctum sanctorum has nothing great to offer except the Shiva Linga installed in the middle. Unlike the other two temples of our trilogy, this stone phallus is made of Touchstone, which in Bengali is called as 'Kostipathor', the stone used to judge the purity of gold. Small piece of Touchstones used by the goldsmiths are very expensive, so naturally this stone phallus is supposed to be priceless adding the antique value therein. The idol is about 3 and a 1/2 ft. tall and supported by a concrete structure, possibly preventing the stone from collapsing !!

The room is lit by a sodium vapor lamp at a corner. Damp walls, lime painted long ago, are now under distressed condition. As the shrine is not much popular in the usual times, the idol's daily ritual seems to be kept to minimum. In spite of the massive size of the temple, the height is proportional to the area coverage.

David McCutchion, in his book Temples of Calcutta - Bengal Past and Present, mentioned that the Shiva Temple of 2/5 Banamali Sarkar Street, Kumartuli is "perhaps the oldest temple in Calcutta to have survived more or less in its original form".

Founder & Year of Construction - Is it by Banamali Sarkar but When? -

Banamali Sarkar, after whom the street is named, was an wealthy man of 18th century Calcutta. Sarkar's ancestral house was in Bhadreshwar, Hooghly. His father Atmaram Sarkar first came down to Calcutta and settled in the then Kumortuli area. Banamali was first appointed as the Dewan of Commercial Resident at Patna. Later, he was appointed as the Deputy Trader of the Company. By virtue of this administrative connection, he earned huge wealth through Government assignments and purchased vast land and properties in Calcutta, Hooghly and 24 Parganas. The Kumortuli area as we see today was once the property of Banamali Sarkar. His palatial residence at Kumortuli was a landmark of British Calcutta. The construction of the house, extended from Chitpur Road (now Rabindra sarani) to the banks of Hooghly river, was started in 1742 and completed in 1751. Once a doggerel was very famous among the Calcuttans -

বনমালী সরকারের বাড়ী,

(Banamali Sarkar's Palace)

গোবিন্দরাম মিত্রের ছড়ি,

(Gobindaram Mitra's Whip)

উমিচাঁদের দাড়ি,

(Umichand's Beard)

আর হুজুরিমলের কড়ি,

(And Huzurimal's Wealth)

Even the last Governor of old Fort William, John Zephaniah Holwell too appreciated it in company papers.

Atmaram Sarkar had three sons - Banamali, Radhakristo and Harakristo. As the former two died without any male heir the property passed on to Krishtomohan, son of Harakristo. Krishtomohan too died without any male heir and the property passed on to his daughter Anandamoyee Dasi who died without any children.The property was inherited by her nephew Janardan Neogi who ultimately left it in the hands of his son and son-in-law. 

The Baneshwar temple's current owner, the Biswas Family live in a house behind the temple. We talked with a senior member of the Biswas family about the temple. Unwilling to divulge much details (on the ground of family confidentiality!), the sexagenarian gentleman told us that they are the sole heir of the Banamali Sarkar's properties and this temple was founded by the Banamali Sarkar himself although he is not sure about the foundation year. The Baneshwar Shiva is worshipped by a priest of the adjoining Radha-Krishna temple which was founded by the son-in-law of Banamali Sarkar.

Locals informed us that the local councilor had already announced that the renovation work will start soon and masons also came to estimate their work. 

God Save the Shiva !!  

Why Baneshwar?   

Shiva and his consort Parvati are known by various names through the regions and temples of India. The legend of Baneshwar (Ban + Iswar) according to Hindu mythology is that Ban, the King of Asura, once tried to bring Lord Shiva to his kingdom and carried the Shiva Linga. But the stone got fixed in the land midway and known as 'Baneshwar' thereafter. Bengali dictionary Samsad offers an alternate view though. According to it, Baneswar refers to a Shiva-Lingam obtained from the Narmada river. Now they is no way to be sure whether the Shiva Lingam of Baneswar Temple also comes from the Narmada river. 

There are various Baneshwar Shiva Lingas in India. A famous one is in Cooch Behar district.

Location -   

In spite of providing a left-right-left type of direction in the serpentine lanes of North Calcutta, you better check out the location in the Google map here.


So our Temple Trilogy Expedition comes to an end here. I wish to explore the other forgotten, hidden, dilapidated shrines of Calcutta in future and expand the trilogy to an infinite number.

If you have missed the earlier parts of the trilogy then the links are here:

1. Part 1: Durgeshwar Temple, Nimtalla
2. Part 2: Rameshwar Temple, Shovabazar

Special Thanks:

• My fellow blogger Deepanjan Ghosh for accompanying me on this trip and sharing with me various anecdotes. His article on Baneswar Shiva Temple can be found in his blog here.
• My friend Abhijit Das for accompanying me on this trip.

Acknowledgement:

• Temples in Calcutta by Piyush Kanti Roy.
• Kolikata - Sekaler O Ekaler by Harisadhan Mukhopadhyay.
• Calcutta - Old & New by H.E.A. Cotton.
• Blog of Santanu Roy - Astounding Bengal.
• Blog of Asim Kumar - Kolkata Blog
• www.aishee.org