Until the end of the 17th century, Baidyapur was just another nondescript village in Bengal, with the only heritage building of note being the 16th century Jora Deul. The fortunes of the village dramatically changed in the 1680s, when a gentleman named Haradhan Nandi settled here from East Burdwan’s Memari region, and started a small business dealing with food grains.
The family business prospered, enabling a descendant of the Nandi clan to purchase large tracts of land in Malda in 1795 and establish a zamindari. By the mid-1900s, the family had amassed a wealth of Rs 5,00,000 from their estate. The now large extended family lived in Baidyapur, with various members constructing buildings such as the Brindavan Chandra Temple.
Established between 1832 and 1835 CE, the Pujabari is quite a large complex built in the Indo-Anglo style of architecture. At the heart of the building is a central courtyard flanked by twenty-two pillars supporting a two-floored verandah, with a temple at the northern end (one of many in the complex).
The actual name of this place is Rajbari, named after the Nandi family deity Rajrajeshwari (Narayan Shila), which confusingly results in some thinking this is a palace for the Zamindar family. To locals it is known as Pujabari, where all significant rituals of the Nandi family were organised. A dried out pond on the opposite side of the road in front of Pujabari is where all puja rituals started. Even today, this building is at the center of village festivals such as Durgotsava, Janmashtami, Lakshmi Puja, and Kali Puja.
The Pujabari is a very well maintained place, and is seemingly open to visitors throughout the day. Although there is no signage outside, the front door is open for anyone to walk inside. It is just inside this main entrance that one can find a truly remarkable and unexpected thing, something that could be easily missed as you pass by to enter the main courtyard. Immediately to the left of a hanging bell is a doorway, through which you will find a small room containing terracotta temple !
It’s quite a confusing sight, the juxtaposition of seeing an outside building actually inside another building. As an archaeologist I am always interested in the sequence of things, what came first, how did this happen ? Here it seems very clear, with the walls of the Pujabari built around the terracotta temple structure, this is an earlier temple incorporated into the Pujabari.
This terracotta temple housing a Shiva linga is not elaborately decorated, but the preservation is excellent as it has not received any weathering for the last 190 years. Dating it is difficult with no foundation stone and looking so new – I imagine it was originally built by one of the early Nandi family members (circa 1800?) and was incorporated into the Pujabari a few decades later.
Photographing it is nearly impossible as there is not much space in front of the temple entrance. It was however a wonderful thing to see, and not to be missed if you visit the Pujabari in Baidyapur.
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Categories: Baidyapur, India, Pujabari - Baidyapur, West Bengal
Kevin Standage 