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sambya
02 February 2010, 02:05 PM
Madanamohana was originally installed as a singular krishna deity in a village in Bengal where the Chaitanya Mahaprabhu personally came to visit him . slowly the fame of the deity spread beyonf its own local frontiers . while raiding the village , he was carried away by the Malla dynasty king , who ruled over upper bengal to his capital at Vana-Vishnupur . There a richly carved terracotta temple was constructed in his honor .

it had been the custom in bengal to construct temples out of terracotta or baked clay . this was due to difficulty in obatining suitable stones in the fertile gangetic delta filled with alluvial silt . use of terracotta as a building material gave rise to distinct traditions . it meant that no temple could be constructed huge , as terracotta cannot support larger weights . this gave rise to shaping temples in imitation of clay walled and curved thatched roofed dwelling huts of the region . the distinctive curvilenear bend of the roof can still be seen in many terracotta temples .therefore in bengal god came to reside with humans in a human residence rather than big opulent temples as elsewhere . thus began the second episode in madanmohan's lila .he became the patron god of the capital city of vana-vishnupur.

after many years during the early 1700's the 'bargi' or Maratha raiders attacked Bengal and the Malla kings was on the verge of defeat . Just then a strong man of fine features was seen in the battlefield who lifted up the huge "Dalmadal" cannon in one hand and fired it to drive the enemy away . Folklore attribute this heroic task to none other than Madanmohan himself who is said to have defended the king . slowly such divine plays spread the fame of madanmohan far and wide .

With the begining of 19th century there was a change in the time and circumstances . the british had a strong foothold over the nation and calcutta was its capital city . the malla dynasty was no longer wealthy or influential . meanwhile british allegiance and trade created a new class of multimillionairs in calcutta , the chief among whom was Gokul Mitra . one day a descendent of malla dynasty was in terrible financial crisis and mortgaged the deity of madanmohan himself to the Gokul Mitra of Calcutta for the required sum . When the king was unable to repay back the money , the deity of Madanmohan had to be left with Gokul Mitra . He built a new deity of Radha and got it installed beside lonely Madanmohan in his newly constructed temple . And the malla king had no choice but to order for a replica of the original deity to be built and have it installed in his original terracotta temple in his capital Vana-Vishnupur where it remains to this day .
the new temple of madanmohan at calcutta was constructed in early 19th century and hence bear strong european architectural influences like corinthian columms . one can even see a custom made imported stainedglass window with krishna's picture in imitation of what we see in chruches and cathedrals !!

even today madanmohan has its own little crowd of faithfull servitors and sincere devotees ....

sambya
02 February 2010, 02:06 PM
two more pictures from the present madanmohana temple . the first one shows the eauropean styled stainedglass window .

sambya
02 February 2010, 02:09 PM
two pictures of the previous madanmohana temple with its rich terracotta carvings , which now houses the replica murti of madanamohana and is protected by archeological survey of india .

Believer
13 July 2010, 01:34 PM
One wonders how many million other non-descript, but historic temples exist in India that are known only to the people inhabiting the area.

Eastern Mind
13 July 2010, 01:40 PM
One wonders how many million other non-descript, but historic temples exist in India that are known only to the people inhabiting the area.

If there is a temple for every 1000 people (seems like it would be an even smaller ratio to me) there would be only a million temples.

Aum Namasivaya