Terracotta, or unglazed fired clay products, is an ancient art form in India. It seems to have developed as an extension of pottery-making,
which is possibly the oldest craft practised by mankind after the making of
stone tools.
It was of course much later, possibly around 700 or 800 CE, when
temples began to be built in India that ways had be found to decorate the
temples with sculptures, and it was mostly in stone in those days.
Sophistication in temple architecture progressed with time and finer and more
elaborate carvings began to be made by the 15/16th centuries.
Yet
finer designs and in less time and less effort came with the development of
terracotta tiles to decorate temples with. Necessarily, terracotta generally flourished where stone for temple building was scare and clays were abundant, as found in the numerous river basins, such as the Kangsabati, the Damodar, Ajoy, Rupnarain rivers and of course the Ganga (Hooghly) in West Bengal. It was of course to some extent deliberate because of the ease and the sophistication of designs that could be made in clay relative to that in stone. This found a great flowering in the
late 17th, through the 18th and into early 19th
century. A good part of this now has become part of Bangladesh but a
great deal remains in West Bengal to be enjoyed in towns such as Bishnupur,
Kalna, Ilambazar, Guptipara and elsewhere in the Bankura and Midnapur districts
of the state. These sites are quite easily accessible from Kolkata by journeys of just three to five hours by bus, vehicle or train.
The "Jor-Bangla" temple in Bishnupur
"Raghunath" temple in Ilambazar
A hunting scene on Jor Bangla
A detail with Shri Krishna in Shyam Rai temple, Bishnupur
As
the above illustrations indicate, the motifs for the sculptures in the
terracotta are diverse, ranging from the secular, such as wars and royal
hunts, to the common devotional theme of Shri Krishna with the gopinis in
Vrindavan. Tile after terracotta tile is placed on the basic superstructure of
the temple, made here mostly of laterite blocks, to create a wonderful piece of
art.
