West Bengal
West Bengal stretching over an area of 88,752 sq. kms. Has a population of 67, 982, 732 (1991). It covers the bottleneck of India in the East, stretching from the Himalayas in the north to Bay of Bengal in the South. It is bounded on the North by Sikkim and Bhutan on the East by Assam and Bangladesh and on the South Bay of Bengal and on the West by Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar and Nepal. According to the census of 1991, it has the 4th largest population the country after Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Maharastra. It has 8.06% of the total population of the country (1991) and the decadal growth of population during the period of 1991 has been 8.35%. The average density of population according to the 1991 census 766 person’s per 4 sq. kms. as against 267 for the country as a whole. Kolkata is the State Capital Bangla is the main language of its people.
According to Hindu legends, King Bali of the lunar race had five sons, begotten on him and his queen Sudeshna by the Rishi Dirghatamas: namely, Anga, Vanga, Kalinga, Pundra and Suhma. Each of these sons founded a Kingdom that was named after them. Vanga or Banga is said to have occupied the deltaic tracked south of the Padma River lying between the Bhagiriathi and the old course of Bramhaputra. The in habitants of region are described in the Raghubansa as living in boats, as growing transplanted rice for their staple crop. In the time of Ballal Sen the tract immediately to the East of the Bhagirathi was called Bagri and Banga occupied eastern portion of the delta. The tract west of the Bhagirathi was known as Rarh, which in Prakrit was softened to Lala. Possibly Bengal or Bangala is combination of Banga + Lala. During the period of Muslim rule the term was applied specifically to the whole Delta, but after conquests to the East of the Brahmhaputra and North of the Padma was eventually included in it. Under the British the name has at different times bone very significations. All the North Eastern factories of the East India Company from Balsore on the Orissa Coast to Patna in the hart of Bihar belonged to the “Bengal establishment” and, as conquest crept higher up the rivers, the term continued to be the designation of the whole of its possessions in the Northern India. From the time of Warren Hastings to that of Lord William Bentinck to the official style of the Governor General was “Governor General of Fort William in Bengal”. In 1836, when the upper provinces were formed into a separate administration, they were designated the North Western Provinces, contradistinction to the lower provinces, and although they, as well as oudh, the Punjab, the Central Provinces and Burma were sometimes loosely regarded as forming the Bengal Presidency the ward was ordinarily used in this sense only for military purposes, to demote the sphere of the old Bengal army as distinguished from the armies of Bombay and Madras. In its ordinary acceptation, the term now cover the area where Bengal is the dominate language. After Partition of the Subcontinent of India 1947 the so called “Bengal Proper was divided into East Pakistan “Bangladesh and the West Bengal”.
Architecture in considerable flourished under the court patronage of the Pal and Sen Rulers it had its origin, however during the more antiquated time. Yet architecture in its various facets has been fairly established and received in impetus both in its original and oriented form from time to time. The land around in the temples of varied designs which while retaining the common structural background but yet in conforming to the local environs, so some other architectural techniques subsequently the Pyra Medical structure or domes of temples and also the structure of the outer and inner chambers, floors, walls, gateways so some variation from the preceding style of construction after certain deviations occurred in the observance of the temple arts.
Historical documents illustrate that the Sakto cult subsequently received its numerous adherents in Bengal. It made its wide spread influence in the remains relics and Ramparts of brick and stone built temples and other buildings. Another impression is a cave shrine reported at Susonia lying near Bankura built by Maharaja Chandra Varman, son of Maharaja Sinha, the lord of Pushkarana. The other additions to the already rich form of architecture are the remain brick built temple at Vaikram in Dinajpur district and possibly remains of the temple of Maharaja Gobinda swami, the lord of Pushkarana in the copper plate inscription found almost at the same and classed with one of the antiquated systems of architecture.
Evidently the Nagara style of temple architecture made its wide spread influence and ones which barring the other territories, had extended from Punjab to at a least Bengal in the East and on the account which mentions that the ancient temple relics more or less, were confirming to its style; the Nagara School of architecture have made its obvious influence in temple construction in the State; its wave indeed at a later time had permitted into the Mallabhum Kingdom.
This system obviously has shown in combination of local techniques, which add considerable to a varied style of architecture in the system of stone Paneling, block layout and Fabrication, floor, wall and roof coherences and use of other engineering techniques. There are evidently to other models of the Pasthar style of construction which find analogy in temple Number no. 3 at Baraskar in West Bengal. Moreover shrines laid inside them are indicative to the different ages they belong to them we can add Sarnath style of construction which in inspite of local deviations, found to have found room at one time in the State and which the relics this form, is said to have been analogous to a gold plated image of Manjusri in Bronze, reported from Bogra area in North Bengal. We find that Bengal has shown its immense potentiality and genius in sculpture and architecture in the post Gupta period as well.
Most of the temples have come into their exquisite form medieval period; they mark attainment of the Palas and Senas at the height of their power.
The central temple of Paharpur besides exhibiting the great engineering genius, as seen from its layout of rows and chambers, is embedded with many forms of representation, properly ornamented and marked with the clarity of Gods, goddesses and other images.
The famous Karhotager temple at Thakurgram was built by Virat Raja in the principality of Birbhum. The ruins of the palace of Mohesat Raja Hemtabed have initiated a remarkable architectural movement, which continued till the middle of the 18th century. This had bequeathed a complete model of the Bengali temple architecture where several temples later on, were “represent ting the process of degeneration of the regional version of the North Indian Nagara which were built till the 15th Century”. They may be found in Telkupi, Chhota, Balarampur, Banda and Para in Purulia district, Ambika Nagar, Atbaichandi and Deuldhirya in Bankura, Barakar in Burdwan and Katras and Panrra in Dhanbad: Shrines at the Siddneswara in Bolara, Sanreswara and Saileswara in Bankura and Siddheswara in Barakar, where people go there and worship event today.
After the Moslem occupation of Bengal, a cultural resurgence appears to have occurred, on wide scale in Tipperah; in which there was a Brahmanical influx into the state where an adequate protection was given. The remaince of stone fortresses, temples and places scattered in the capital and ancient’s centers can still be seen. The kings were great builder; there is a famous temple in Tripura Sundari lying at Udaipur.
The Mahadeva temple and the Chandra Devatas or Fourteen gods, a temple at Ratnapur built by Dhan Manick at the beginning of the 16th Century which testified to their great accomplishment. Kalyan Manick built the Kali Temple at Kasba at the Gopinath temple at Udipur about 1650. Ratna Manick who became king also built a temple of seventeen jewels at Jagannathpur in 1685 near Camilla.
The temples have their marked characteristic in which sizes and perimeters appear to have been more constrained and smaller. They are mostly structures with single domes, one model made of stone blocks curved round on the base, then elongate upward and pointed on top: the other kind broad, round at the base, contracting upward and narrow on top.
The cultural activities hitherto on intensive scales, which were boosted in the ancient Kingdom of Tipperah, have their important reflections as consulted on the basis of the leading authority.
Bengal has its own culture, although it is basically as well as originally Indian in form and content, the present form of the Bengali culture has a history of thousands of years. Countless natural calamities, historical ups and downs, political upheavals and social revolutions left their deep impact on this culture. Many races intruded in Bengal and also brought in many religious waves and different civilisations. In the land of Australoids came the Aryans, Turks, Mughals, Dutch, Danes, French, Portugese and British in waves one after the other. They brought their own religions and ways of life with them. The contrasting positions, conflicts and assimilations that accompanied or followed these inroads influenced and modified the Bengali culture. One has not to go far to fathom the depth and greatness of Bengali culture heritage. The region that has given the national song (bande –matram by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee), the national anthem (Jana-gana-mana-adhinayaka… by Rabindranath Tagore) and the first Nobel Laureate (Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore) to the nation does not require any evidence about its greatness. Swami Vivekananda who took the world by storm through his philosophical spiritual discourses in the World Conference on religions at Chicago in September 1893 was a great son of the Shas ya Shyamla (agriculturally green and prosperous) soil of Bengal. The third Nobel Prize to an Indian citizen, Mother Teresa (for peace 1979) a Yogoslav born run is again a tribute to the land of West Bengal which she has adopted as hers.
Bengali literature has influenced many forms of Indian literature and in many instances the literatures of some other Indian languages have borrowed some styles and forms from it. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Charatchandra Chatopadhyay and Rabindra Nath Tagore are not only among the top world writers but in some forms the unparallel original writers. Swami Ramakrishna Parmahansa, the preceptor and teacher of Swami Vivekananda though illiterate in the material sense, has been one of the leading world spiritual thinkers. The cult which came to be known after him is rendering yeoman’s service to millions of people world over today. The literature, folklore, music, fairs and festivals of Bengal are so rich and varied that one feels proud of the great Bangla cultural heritage.
West Bengal is known for its inhabitants who have unflinching faiths in gods and goddesses. Thousands of Bengalis go as pilgrims to the places of the gods and goddesses where fair are also held on particular occasions.
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