Friday, February 24, 2012

Stone temples of Barakar, West Bengal, India

Barakar stone temple
Barakar is in the neighbourhood of Asansol in the Burdhawan district of West Bengal. It is at the border of West Bengal and Jharkhand. Barakar houses some very beautiful stone temples dating back to the 8th century and 14th, and 15th century. And not many people know about it!

From Kolkata it is at a distance of 250 km. You can go by road but I am not certain about the road conditions. The best way would be to board a train from Howrah to Dhanbad. You can hire a car to take you to Barakar. Or, you may fly from Kolkata to Durgapur (30 min) and hire a car from there. It would take you around 1 and a half hours to reach Barakar.

These temples are known as begunia temples because they are shaped like Eggplants (the Bengali name for eggplant is Begun). This place definitely deserves a visit. If you like old temples, Barakar is one pleasant surprise.

An update on Barakar: I am adding some more facts about Barakar, thanks to a very valuable comment by someone who visited this site. He lives in Barakar and had some suggestions:

One can easily travel to Barakar from Howrah by  direct trains like Coal field Express and Black Diamond Express. There is no need to go to Dhanbad if you are traveling from Kolkata.
The road condition is good. You will need to take the National highway NH2.

Work on the
external walls

Barakar temple 3



Intricate work on the temple wall
at Barakar, West Bengal
India

A well preserved temple
with beautiful carvings
at Barakar




Stone temple 4,
Barakar
West Bengal

Temples no 1 and 2
in Barakar



Work on the wall of a temple

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey,Ranjana!

I live at Barakar, west Bengal.
I would like to suggest you some corrections in your article above.

Firstly it is the border of west bengal and jharkhand. It is the last rail station of west Bengal and one can reach jharkhand easily by crossing the barakar bridge situated over the barakar river Which is the border.

2ndly, there is no need for taking a train from howrah to dhanbad as there are direct trains between howrah and barakar like coal field express and black diamond express.
And journey by road is also fine as there is highway NH2.

Ranjana Jha said...

Hi,

Thanks so much for your valuable comment.Really appreciate that. I have updated the post with the changes.

Unknown said...

Hi Ranjana,

Barakar is no more a census town as it is now under Asansol Municipal Corporation and a ward of it. Thus it is now proper Asansol and called a neighborhood of Asansol.

Ranjana Jha said...

Thanks so much Prosenjit.
Much appreciated. I will update the information provided here accordingly.

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