Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c38.16

c38.16

A variation in design is a form of double temple, and thus known as a *jor-bangla*, which differs but little in its interior plan, although it has a distinctive exterior. As its name implies, it is a “ twin ” (*jor*) shape, resembling two thatch and bamboo huts joined together but constructed of brick and surmounted by a single tower. A good example is the Kestaraya built at Vishnupur in 1726, a temple of fair size as it is a square of forty feet side, and the roof is thirty-three feet high, with its tower rising to nearly fifty feet from the ground. The sanctuary, or *thakur barı*, is a square cell of eight feet side occupying the centre of the structure, and there are surrounding side-chambers, one of which leads by a staircase to an upper gallery carried, rather like a clere-story, around the building. Another temple of this type is that of Chaitanya at Guptapara in the Hughlı district