WEST BENGAL
A semi-submerged temple at Telkupi
on its walls. The third temple is much smaller and positioned between local houses.
The deul of Banda is perhaps one of the most attractive historical structures of Purulia. It has a single cell and a pillared stone mandapa in the front. The temple, which is under the protection of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), is 72 feet tall and has beautiful decoration on all four walls.
The villages Cheliama and Achkoda showcase aatchala-style temples with terracotta work on the walls. The temple at Cheliama contains terracotta panels that depict scenes from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Many of the original panels have eroded and been distastefully replaced with modern terracotta ones by local authorities. The local historian Subash Ray shows me some medieval Jain and Hindu statues made of stone near the local Mahamaya temple.
Thankfully, there has been no restoration work attempted on the temple at Achkoda, which seems to be at least five centuries old. Its panels are smaller in size and some of them depict tribal life.
At Chara, there once stood seven deul temples but today only one remains, and, at Shankara and Haraktore, many age-old idols are stored inside modern temples. They have mostly weathered with time, though the idols at Haraktore are in better shape.
It is assumed that Telkupi was the erstwhile kingdom of Tailakampa. It once boasted the largest number of temples in Purulia, and the finest. However, the decision to build a dam across the Damodar near Panchet in 1957 proved catastrophic.
