Dolmancha Mandir

Kantaji Temple, also known as the Kantanagar Temple, is located in the graceful heart of gorgeous countryside of Dinajpur. This is a stunning block of religious artwork, and is surely one of the most impressive Hindu monuments in Bangladesh.

Built in 1704-1752 A.D. by Pran Nath, a renowned maharaja from Dinajpur, and his adopted son Ram Nath, it is the country’s finest example of brick and terracotta style. Its most remarkable feature, typical of late Mughal-era temples, is its superb surface decoration, with infinite panels of sculpted terracotta plaques. This 15-sq-meter, three-story edifice was originally crowned with nine ornamental two-story towers, which collapsed during the great earthquake of 1897 and were never replaced. The temple is built on a high platform. This is a Nava-ratna temple. The roof of the ground floor and first floor each contains four sikharas or ratnas at their corners while the roof of second floor in its middle contains the ruins of the central sikhara.

The entire outer surface of the temple is exquisitely established with terracotta plaques which depict flora and fauna, geometric motifs, mythological scenes from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, and the contemporary social scenes and favorite pastime. The idol of Kantaji is kept in the garvagriha of the temple in its ground floor. The department of Archaeology has been performing the necessary conservation and restoration works of Kantaji Temple since it was declared a protected monument by the Government in 1960. This is a UNESCO world heritage site.

A Buddhist temple has been discovered in the territory of 2500 years old fort city named Wari-Bateshwar,Narsingdi. It has been located 14 kilometer away from the mother site of Wari-Bateshwar. It has been discovered at the village of Tongir tek, Shibpur upazila, Narsingdi. After discovering, the team of Archaeologist from Jahangirnagar University named it as ‘Tongir tek Mandir Vita’. Researcher conducting excavation there, assuming that it might be 1500 years old ancient Buddhist temple. With the discovery of this feature, it has been evaluating as a milestone in Buddha religion.

Along with the extended excavation, Researcher also collecting the seeds and pollens from this site. This collection will help a broad-spectrum research to reveal the environment, life style and eventually food habits of ancient people.

Researcher came to knew about the temple in the year of 2011, and they started excavating the site in 2012 where they found a parent room (গর্ভগৃহ) of the temple. Currently, researchers said that they have completed one-fourth of the excavation. Along with parent room of this temple there are Mandap & a Corridor interconnected which is a great sign of a complete ‘Buddhist Temple’.

There is a copperplate named ‘ASHRAFPUR COPPERPLATE’ also discovered from the same Upazila, previously. Where it was mentioned that there were four ‘Buddhist Bihar or Biharika’ in that region. Now, Archaeologist trying to discover those by excavating this temple. Generally, Buddhist Bihar is a part of the Temple & located very near to the worshipping house. May be someday, Archaeologist will discover the Bihar along with this Temple which will bring a new dimension in Buddha religion of Bangladesh.

Dhakeshwari National Temple is a Hindu temple in Dhaka city. It is state-owned, giving it the distinction of being Bangladesh's 'National Temple'. The name "Dhakeshwari" means "Goddess of Dhaka". Since the destruction of Ramna Kali Mandir in 1971 by the Pakistan Army during the Bangladesh Liberation War, the Dhakeshwari Temple has assumed status as the most important Hindu place of worship in Bangladesh.

The Dhakeshwari temple was built in the 12th century by Ballal Sen, a king of the Sena dynasty, and many say the city was named after this temple. The current architectural style of the temple cannot be dated to that period because of the numerous repairs, renovations and rebuilding which have taken place over time. It is considered an essential part of Dhaka's cultural heritage. Many researchers said that the temple is also one of the Shakti Peethas, where the jewel from the crown of the Goddess Satihad fallen. Although there is not enough historical context to establish this as a fact, researchers were directed to this site while trying to locate the particular Shakti Peetha. Since ages, the temple has been held in great importance. The original 800-year old statue was taken to Kumartuli, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. There remains the replica of original idol in Dhaka. The temple was further damaged during the Muslim mob attacks of 1989–90.

It is widely believed that the Queen, wife of King Bijoy Sen, went to Langolbond for bathing. While coming back, she gave birth to a son, known to historians as Ballal Sen. After ascending to the throne, Ballal Sen built this temple to glorify his birthplace. Legends say that Ballal Sen once dreamt of the deity covered under the jungle. Ballal Sen uncovered the deity from there and built a temple, named for Dhakeswari. Whatever the legends describe, Hindu religious consider Dhakeswari to be the presiding deity of Dhaka, which is an incarnation or form of Goddess Durga the Adi Shakti . The idol of Durga is called Dhakeswari.

Within the premises of the Dhakeswari there are temples of two types of architecture. The ancient one is of the Poncharotna Goddess Durga’s which lost its actual look after the renovation work. Bradly Bird wrote this at the beginning of this century. The present temple is two hundred years old which was built by an agent of East India Company. Most probably he had renovated the temple. Other than this there are four Shib Temples. According to hearsay, in the 16th century King Mansing built these temples by laying four Shib Lingas there. But this information seems to be unreliable. The fusion of Bangla chowchala and shikor temple is notice in the architecture of Dhakeshawri. Ratan Lal Chakraborti in an article mentioned that “ the structure and architecture of it is like a BuddhistPagoda”. He opined that it was probably a Boddist pagoda which was turned into a Hindu temple later. From this, he assumed that the temple was probably built in the 10th century.

How did Dhakeshari temple look like in the 19th century? Ridoynath Majumder described about the temple. At that time the temple was covered by jungle and in its north the Urdu road went westward towards Pilkhana and at its south west was Mirpur road. At its south there was a wood and Urdu bazaar was at the east.

Joy Kalibari Temple, one of the oldest temples in Natore, is located in Natore Sadar Upazila at Lalbazar area. This temple is approximately 300 years old, was built around the beginning of 18th century by Dayaram (দয়ারাম) Roy (1680-1760), the great and influential Dewan of Queen Bhabani (1716-1795) of Natore and the establisher of Dighapatia Royal Family. This temple has 2 buildings. Alongside the main building, in the right, there is a Shiv Mandir. Every weekend, people from all over the district come to this historical and beautiful temple to worship and pay their respects. There are various religious occasions like Durga Puja, Kali Puja etc. which are being celebrated here every year with much pomp and splendor.