Bishnupur

Bishnupur is one of the great overlooked heritage towns of eastern India, the seat of the Malla dynasty, whose rulers governed the region of Mallabhum for close to a millennium before the family embraced Vaishnavism in the 17th century and poured its wealth into temple-building. What survives is a remarkable open-air ensemble of terracotta temples, unlike anything in the palace cities of the north.

Because the Bengal delta has little building stone, the Malla architects worked in laterite and brick, then sheathed the walls in intricately moulded terracotta panels, a narrative skin of gods, battles, court scenes, and everyday life. The oldest and strangest of the monuments is the Rasmancha, a low brick pyramid built by Bir Hambir around 1600 to display the region's Krishna idols during the annual Ras festival. Nearby stand the twin-roofed Jorbangla (Keshta Rai) temple, the five-pinnacled Shyam Rai temple, and the Madan Mohan and Malleswar temples, alongside the great Dalmadal cannon. It is worth being clear that these temples are on India's UNESCO Tentative List, a candidate site, not yet an inscribed World Heritage property.

Bishnupur is also a living craft town: the birthplace of the Baluchari saree, whose silk pallu is woven with entire mythological scenes, and home to the Bishnupur gharana, a distinguished school of dhrupad classical music. MyTripMyTravel runs Bishnupur as an unhurried, expert-led heritage leg, staged by chauffeured fleet from Kolkata, with a vetted art-historian escort to read the terracotta panels and a visit to the weavers and musicians who keep the town's older traditions alive.