Kantajew Temple, Dinajpur

The 18th-century Kantajew Hindu temple at Kantanagar in Dinajpur district, Bangladesh, built by Maharaja Pran Nath between 1704 and 1752 — the finest surviving terracotta temple in Bengal. Every surface of the three-storey, 15-metre-high navaratna (nine-spired) structure is faced in moulded terracotta tiles depicting the Ramayana, Mahabharata and Krishna lila episodes across 15,000 individual panels. Bengal has no building stone, so terracotta became the Bengali answer to decorative sculpture — pressed from clay, fired in situ and set on brick. The 1897 Assam earthquake destroyed the nine spires; the remaining decoration is intact. ASI protection since Bangladesh's independence; the temple is a major Hindu pilgrimage within Muslim-majority Bangladesh.