Scrape, slide and deseed. Boil in tamarind water ( a tbsp of squeezed tamarind added to enough water to cover the karela.

When slightly tender rake out, squeeze dry when cool and keep – this is to remove it’s bitterness and tenderise it.

Step2: 250 GM mince meat

For mince: paste of 1/2 onion.

1tbsp of gaic paste

1tsp dhania powder

1 tsp haldi powder

Red chili to taste

1 tsp Amchur

Salt to taste.

Oil

Method for cooking qeema:

Heat oil and add all masalas. Saute for 5 Minutes then add qeema and cook till done. Oil should leave sides.

Step 3- Now stuff the qeema in the karela and tie it with a thread.

Step 4: Heat oil . Add one large onion sliced and when slightly pink add the stuffed karela.

Cover and cook on slow fire. A kadhai or lagan is best. Shake it in between lightly and use a Spatula to turn it over without breaking it.

Step 5: remove thread before serving. Tastes great with paratha

The famous Hazarduari Palace of Murshidabad drew me to this once grand capital of the Nawabs of Bengal, now a dusty town in West Bengal.

For someone who chases monuments and forgotten ruins across the country, everything Murshidabad had to offer fascinated me.

When my guide told me about the Nawabi buildings on the other side of the Bhagirathi, I was more than happy to cross. The ferry took cars, cycles, scooters, goats, hens and people.

A post by Kolkata blogger Amitabha Gupta had already alerted me about an old terracotta temple here, and we went in search of it. And, amidst banana trees and green fields, I found the most exquisite terracotta temple.

It was a small temple, and as the sun’s rays fell on it, its red brick surface glowed, the shade from the trees adding a dappled effect.

The temple is in the village of Bhattabati. The legend goes that the place got its name from the Bhata Brahmin families who came from Karnataka and settled here in the reign of Alauddin Husain Shah (1494-1519).

Not much is known of the builder of this 18th century Shiva temple called Ratneshwar. It has five pinnacles, of which the central one is considerably taller than the rest.

The terracotta panels which cover the surface of the temple are spectacular.

The Ratneshwar temple stands on a plinth and is looked after well by the villagers, which include many Muslims. The temple is about 10 metres in height. The door to the shrine is kept locked but opened on request

The terracotta panels on the temple have religious and secular scenes, and describe scenes from the life of Rama and Krishna, talk of kings, queens, dancing girls, reclining noblemen, troupes of musicians, women tabalchis, hunting and wedding scenes and more.

The figures have worn down over time. Every inch is covered by these remarkable terracotta scenes, including a lower panel with a version of terracotta warriors.

An exquisite panel on the western side depicts Durga in her mahishasura mardini form. She is flanked by Lakshmi and Saraswati. There are two rather large hunters on top of this panel. A small dog and a hawk in a cage accompany them. The detailing is fantastic.

The northern wall has a huge sculpture of Vishnu in the Vaman avatar. The sculpture shows the three steps that Vaman took to subdue the asura Mahabali. One points towards the sky, the second is on earth, and the third is firmly on King Mahabali’s head. Unfortunately, the portion showing the foot on Mahabali is damaged. Above is an exquisite ras-lila scene.

The eastern panel is a large but severely damaged statue of possibly the matsya avatar of Vishnu.

This temple with its mythology, artistic perfection and message of communal harmony is something that symbolises India to me. I hope it is preserved before it is fully lost to us.

https://www.thehindu.com/society/history-and-culture/the-terracotta-temple-of-bhattabati/article26676392.ece

Rana Safvi

DECEMBER 09, 2018 00:00 IST

A visit to one of the earliest surviving brick temples of India

One of the most important sources for studying history is architecture, which is why it is often called built heritage. It documents the progress of man and civilisation. In India, religious and secular buildings are testimony to the skill of artisans and workers and the resources of the rulers and richer sections of society. The excavations of cities of the Indus Valley Civilisation testify to early urbanisation, as early as 2,600 BCE. Rock-cut architecture began to develop from the 3rd century BCE. Though the earliest rock-cut architecture is from the Mauryan dynasty, the Ajanta caves are among the earliest rock-cut temples.

As man progressed and learnt new techniques, rock-cut temples gave way to stone temples and as stone was not easily available everywhere, to brick temples. In the Gangetic plains, which have alluvial soil and paucity of stones and rocks, many brick structures came up. Though rock-cut and stone temples withstood the vagaries of time, brick temples were not so fortunate. That is what makes the brick temple of Bhitargaon, about 50 km off Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, so special.

The man who restored heritage

In 1861, Lord Canning appointed Sir Alexander Cunningham as the Archaeological Surveyor to the Government of India, and it is to Cunningham that we owe a huge debt, for he located and rescued a good part of India’s built heritage. He was responsible for excavations in Sarnath in 1837 and Sanchi in 1841. In 1871, he was made the first Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India. After that began a series of field surveys, which are documented in reports. In the Report of the Gangetic Provinces 1875-76 and 1877-78, Cunningham writes that his friend, Raja Ravi Prasada, gave him information of a brick temple near Kanpur that had superior terracotta work. Between November 1877 and February 1878 he made two visits to Bhitargaon.

The village Bhitargaon had been part of an ancient city called Phulpur. The temple was simply known as Dewal, or temple, by the locals. It is one of the earliest surviving brick temples of India. Though Cunningham had placed it as belonging to the 7th century, it has subsequently been identified as belonging to the late Gupta period, to the 5th century.

I got a chance to visit this temple in October with some friends. We went on a long drive through the countryside to reach the temple, which is located in the middle of a village within an ASI enclosure.

According to Cunningham, the temple, facing east, measures 66 sq ft and has indented corners. The earliest photographs of it, taken by Cunningham’s assistant Beglar in 1878, show a small projecting hall before the entrance. The entrance into the sanctum shows one of the first uses of a semi-circular doorway. It is, however, a corbeled or false arch composed of bricks placed edge to edge instead of face to face. Cunningham calls this the ‘Hindu arch’. He writes that this is peculiar to India. This is different from a true arch which has a wedge-shaped voussoir and a triangular keystone. The corbeled arch cannot support large domes whereas a true arch can.

The temple also has a tall pyramidical spire ( shikhara) above the inner sanctum ( garbha griha) . This shikhara became the standard feature of the Nagara temple architecture of India.

The walls are 8 ft thick. They are decorated with terracotta sculptures on panels fitted into niches separated by bold ornamental pilasters made for the purpose. Many have fallen or have become damaged and have found their way into museums. The remaining ones are of Shiva and Parvati seated together, Ganesha, an eight-armed Vishnu, a Mahishasura Mardini and many animal figures, flora and foliage. Muhammad Zaheer, who examined this temple in the 1960s, and who wrote The Temple of Bhītargāon, counted 143 panels.

Beglar’s photograph shows the temple in a dilapidated state. This is because lightning struck it and damaged it, destroying the top of the shikhara. According to Cunningham’s conversations with the locals, this happened a few years before the mutiny in 1857 but no one knows the exact date.

The outer semicircular arch over the entrance steps has also fallen. Only the one leading into the sanctum remains. The structure we see now was reconstructed from the masonry in 1905 and is different from its original shape as it was rebuilt in unrelieved straight vertical lines. The top was left untouched as there was no evidence of its original shape. The sanctum is a windowless space of 15 sq ft and must have had an image in it. According to Cunningham, because of the Varaha incarnation at the back of the temple, it was probably a Vishnu temple.

https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/the-marvel-at-bhitargaon/article25701343.ece