Day four was our
return day. We packed the cars and drove out of Rajshahi. Then, before I
expected to stop, we turned a corner in a village and were greeted by the sight
of a large temple on the other side of a lake. This was Puthia, a place with a
large collection of temples and ruins dating to the British period. It was the
seat of a large zamindar estate. We first visited the Shiva temple, the one I
first saw. Our tour guide was a devoted Hindu from the area and an employee of
the Bangladeshi government’s Department of Archaeology. We were able to go
inside the temple; it was my first time actually stepping into a Hindu temple.
Also in the same area, the guide showed us: a Jagannath temple that is no
longer active because the Pakistani army destroyed the main image in 1971; a
Gobinda temple with terracotta work depicting the romance between Radha and
Krishna; the ruins of a Laxshmi temple behind the Gobinda temple; the Zamindar’s
Rajbari, which is currently being restored and converted into a museum; the
prison and tax collection center from the British period; the guard houses from
the British period; and the zamindar’s swimming pool.
Leaving Puthia, we
visited another rajbari that served as the summer palace for the Puthia zamindars.
This one was not as well preserved and was mostly in ruins. We then stopped in
Natore to buy mishti, and drove back to Dhaka. I took some amazing pictures
this day, so I will let them do the rest of the talking.
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