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Photo: Shahnoor Habib Munmun, CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
A late-medieval Hindu temple, one of the most magnificent religious edifices belonging to the 18th century.
Kantanagar Temple, commonly known as Kantaji Temple or Kantajew Temple at Kantanagar, is a Hindu temple in Dinajpur, Bangladesh. The temple is an 18th century religious edifice. The temple belongs to the Hindu Kanta or Krishna, and is most popular with the Rukmini-Krishna devotees in Bengal. This temple is dedicated to Krishna and his wife Rukmini. Built by Maharaja Pran Nath, its construction started in 1704 CE and ended in the reign of his son Raja Ramnath in 1752 CE. It is an example of terracotta architecture in Bangladesh and once had nine spires, but all were destroyed in an 1897 earthquake.
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The palace was a symbol for the greater Dinajpur district from 1806 to 1951. The building is divided into 3 mahals, these are the Aina Mahal which houses a court house decorated with glass and marble, a library and a treasure house (Toshakhana), in addition to the Rajbari consists of the Mahal Rani, in which part of the old structure was demolished in the 1930s to build a building that is used as a shelter for families run by the Department of Social Services. The Aina Mahal also contained a musical demonstration assembly, known as Jalsa Ghar. The palace was abandoned after the abolition of the zamindari system in 1951. Maharaja Girijanath of Dinajpur left the palace after the partition of the country and moved with his family to India. The palace is one of the oldest in Bangladesh. The origins of Rajbari are not very clear, but according to local historians the palace was established by Raja Dinaj, but there is documentation that King Sri Matta Dutta founded the palace. During the reigns of Pran Nath & Ram Nath the Aina Mahal was built. It is also believed that the founder of Rajbari was the King Raja Ganesh in the early 15th century. Part of the Rajbari structures were established by different Zamindars and Rajas. The Rajbari occupies 16.41 acres of land, and much of the structure is in ruins. Since the East Bengal State Acquisition and Tenancy Act of 1950, the ownership of the Rajbari was transferred to the government. In the East Pakistan period during the Ayub Khan regime, Rajbari objects such as furniture, silver weapons and bronze utensils were sold.