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| Kantaji Hindu Temple Dinajpur |
The most ornate amongst the late medieval Hindu temples of Bangladesh Kantaji temple is located near Dinajpur town. It was built by Maharaja Pran Nath in 1752. Every inch of the temple floor is superbly embellished with excellent terracotta plaques, representing vegetation and fauna, geometric motifs, mythological scenes and an impressive array of modern-day social scenes and favored pasttime. The Maharaja's palace with relics of the past and the local museum are well really worth a visit.
This nava-ratna or 'nine spired' Hindu temple, now stripped off its authentic 9 spires atop its corners throughout the devastating earthquake of 1897.
The fifty two ft square temple is situated in an rectangular court, 240 × 120 ft (73 × 37 m), blanketed via a shed with a roof of corrugated tin. Its fundamental material pivots around a nuclear square cell (10 ft three in (3.12 m)), attaining a peak of about 50 ft (15 m) above its three toes 3 in (0.99 m) high slab of stone, notion to have been mined from the ancient ruins of Bannagar close to Gangarampur in Dinajpur.
Three extra rectangular outer shells in graded heights have been introduced to it, to variegate the diagram as nicely as to fortify the central sanctuary on pinnacle of the massive tower.
The curved cornice from the ground floor, which sharply drops at the corners, rises in the middle to a height of 25 feet 0 in (7.62 m) from the plinth, whilst the first flooring cornice rises to 15' and the 2d flooring to 6 feet 6 in (1.98 m). Small rectangular cells are located at the 4 corners of the floor and first floors.
They serve the purpose of aiding the weight of the octagonal nook towers above. The temple contains four rectangular alleys on the floor flooring circling the prayer corridor which measure 30 ft eight in (9.35 m) by means of 5 toes zero in (1.52 m) and 15 feet 6 in (4.72 m) by 4 feet 4 in (1.32 m). On the ground floor. Three multi cusped arched entrances on each aspect are present, which are separated by two ornate brick pillars. The number of arched doorways in the floor flooring in its 4 shells is 21; on the first flooring it is 27. The 2d floor, decreased in size, has only three entrance doorways and three windows. A narrow staircase, only 2 ft three in (0.69 m) wide, is built into the western 2nd corridor. It winds up via the darkish passage to the first two stories.
