Asim Bando's KOLKATA BLOG

Visited the ancient temple of Ananta Basudeba which is heritage monument built about 335 years ago at Bansberia. Ananta Basudeba temple is a temple of Lord Krishna in the Hangseshwari temple complex in Banshberia , in the Hooghly District in the Indian state of West Bengal . Built by Raja Rameswar Datta in 1679, this temple is noted for the exquisite terra cotta works on its walls. It is built in the traditional eka-ratna style, with curved cornices. The tower on top of the temple is octagonal. The terracota works depict stories from the great Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata , as well as from lilas of Krishna. -- A. B.

Visited the Kolkata Zoo again after a long time. The winter days are here again and enthusiastic people across Bengal are thrushing to visit this oldest zoo of the country with children. Around 80 thousand visitors are going to visit the zoo on holidays. The zoo had its roots in a private menagerie established by Governor General of India , Richard Wellesley , established around 1800 in his summer home at Barrackpore near Kolkata, as part of the Indian Natural History Project . The first superintendent of the menagerie was the famous Scottish physician zoologist Francis Buchanan-Hamilton . Buchanan-Hamilton returned to England with Wellesley in 1805 following the Governor-General's recall by the Court of Directors in London. The collection from this era are documented by watercolours by Charles D'Oyly, and a visit by the famous French botanist Victor Jacquemont . Sir Stamford Raffles visited the menagerie in 1810, encountering his first tapir there, ...

Visited the Bandel Church on the Boxing Day. -- A. B.

The Bandel Church is one of the oldest Christian churches in West Bengal , India . It stands as a memorial to the Portuguese settlement in Bengal . Founded in 1599, it is dedicated to Nossa Senhora do Rosário, Our Lady of the Rosary . It is one of the most prominent historical churches in West Bengal as well as in India. Around the middle of the 16th century, the Portuguese began using Bandel as a port . During or around 1571, they were given permission by Akbar, the Mughal emperor, to build a town in Hooghly. As they began settling around the area, their priests began to baptise the natives - by 1598, Catholics in Hooghly numbered around five thousand, including natives and mixed races. In 1579, the Portuguese built a port on the banks of the Hooghly , as well as a fort, and enlisted the services of a band of Augustinian Friars, then the largest religious body in Goa . The following year, Captain Pedro Tavares obtained the emperor's full permission...