Chandrakona

Chandrakona was a town of temples and forts in western Bengal, between the territories of Bishnupur and the plains towards the coast. Its brick and stone shrines display the curved forms of Bengal’s village roofs as well as tower shapes influenced by neighbouring Odisha. A seventeenth-century Jor Bangla temple joins the forms of two thatched huts in masonry, an early example of a style favoured by Bengali builders.

Chandrakona was the seat of local rulers who retained considerable independence under the Mughals. Persian accounts remembered its Bhan rulers as rebellious zamindars. Local histories attribute the forts of Lalgarh and Ramgarh to the Chauhan rulers who preceded them. When the last Bhan king, Mitrasen, died without a child, Raghunath Singh of Bishnupur took over the kingdom. Its surviving religious buildings recall a town where several dynasties left their mark.