Durga Temple, the 500-year-old ornate mandir of Banaras
It was believed that the temple originally devoted to Lord Vishnu, but due to reasons, the Brahmins of the court of the king suggested to convert the temple to deity Durga.
NewsBharati 03-May-2022 17:38:16 PM
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Today, let us explore a beautiful Durga temple which as old as 500 years. This Durga temple is situated in Ramnagar area of Banaras. It is believed that it was built 500 years ago & is now under control of the royal family of Banaras State at this moment. This temple is dedicated to the Hindu Goddess Durga.
He built the entire temple exactly the same but failed to reconstruct the top design of the temple. When he realised that he has failed in his promise he jumped off the top of the temple. His genius work can be compared now by detailed visualisation of the sculptures which survived the attack the sculptures which was built by him.
Temple Architecture | The Temple is based on a square shape and also has a square campus. The main building of temple is built of a square shaped stage. The Durga temple, as we mentioned, has great fine stone works, which is a fabulous example of North Indian stone work arts.
The stage of the temple has various rooms in it, that are used for the temple's staff purposes and sometimes for doing Yagna. The campus is a lush green one having various trees. Any visitor can walk around the main temple building in the campus. It proves useful since some of the worshippers walk around the temple building for religious reasons in Hinduism.
As we saw before, The Warren Hasting companies invaded the Ramnagar area, to demolish the Durga temple situated at the boundary of the western side of Ramnagar. The British Army also tried to demolish the temple by canons. Several rounds of canon were fired on the temple and a major portion of the temple was destroyed. A brown patch marked by rounds of canon on the top of the temple evidently tells the story of the attack.
The temple itself is very beautiful, looks ancient and feels exactly like the great temples of South India. There is very detailed texturing and various kind of designs on the temple with stone as the whole temple is made of stones.
The temple also has a large stone-built pond with it. You will find some intricate, fine stone works at the Durga Mandir – a stunning example of the North Indian stone work arts. There is another Durga temple within the city of Varanasi, built in the 18th century which overlooks a pond known as Durga Kund.
History | The Temple was built by the Kashi Naresh Maharaja Balwant Singh in between 1738-1770 A.D. The temple dates back to the era when the East India Company was still existing in India, and when first governor general of British India Warren Hastings, took over the then Banaras state.
The British sepoy company tried to demolish the temple by canons. Several rounds of canon were fired on the temple and a major portion of the temple was destroyed. After a fierce war between the army of Benaras and the British East India company, the army of Benaras lost.
After this, the Benaras state came under the paramountcy of the British Empire and was ruled by successor of Raja Chait Singh under the name of the Queen of the UK. The new rulers of Benaras state wanted to reconstruct the damaged portion of the temple exactly same as the original but due to the intricate design of the temple no one did. The king announced hefty prize for building the temple. One came forward and promised the king to make the temple exactly the same as the original.
He built the entire temple exactly the same but failed to reconstruct the top design of the temple. When he realised that he has failed in his promise he jumped off the top of the temple. His genius work can be compared now by detailed visualisation of the sculptures which survived the attack the sculptures which was built by him.
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It was also believed that the temple originally devoted to Lord Vishnu but due to some paranormal activities in the temple compound, the Brahmins of the court of the king suggested to convert the temple to deity Durga.
Temple Architecture | The Temple is based on a square shape and also has a square campus. The main building of temple is built of a square shaped stage. The Durga temple, as we mentioned, has great fine stone works, which is a fabulous example of North Indian stone work arts.
The stage of the temple has various rooms in it, that are used for the temple's staff purposes and sometimes for doing Yagna. The campus is a lush green one having various trees. Any visitor can walk around the main temple building in the campus. It proves useful since some of the worshippers walk around the temple building for religious reasons in Hinduism.
The temple has a beautiful, huge square pond in front of it. This pond comes with stone stairs on all sides of it, and 4 watch pillars on each of the corners. The stone work done on the walls of the temple building also emphasise the square design of the complex.
As we saw before, The Warren Hasting companies invaded the Ramnagar area, to demolish the Durga temple situated at the boundary of the western side of Ramnagar. The British Army also tried to demolish the temple by canons. Several rounds of canon were fired on the temple and a major portion of the temple was destroyed. A brown patch marked by rounds of canon on the top of the temple evidently tells the story of the attack.
The temple itself is very beautiful, looks ancient and feels exactly like the great temples of South India. There is very detailed texturing and various kind of designs on the temple with stone as the whole temple is made of stones.
Kinjal Dixit
Kinjal Dixit has a degree in bachelors in English and is currently pursuing her Master's in Journalism and Mass Communication. She has a hand at writing about infrastructure, culture and in sharing humanitarian stories.