Hetampur

Hetampur is located at 23°46′55″N 87°24′12″E.

The Rajbari was built in the shape of a castle with 999 doors which has given it the name Hetampur HajarDuari. (hajar is one thousand in Bengali, duari means doored). Hetampur Rajbari has been used by film directors such as Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Tarun Majumdar, Raja Sen, Dilip Roy, Sandip Ray, and others in many Bengali films – Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne, Abhijan, Mrigaya, and Ganadebata.[4]

Hetampur has many interesting terracotta temples in various styles of architecture. During the late 1940s till about 1952 Indian artist Mukul Dey conducted detailed photographic survey of Birbhum-Barddhaman group of terracotta temples. He visited Hetampur and photo recorded the Gol-Mandir, the Chandranath Shiva temple and the Dewanji temples here. Chandranatha Siva Mandir in Hetampur of Dubrajpur, Birbhum built in 1847 is Octagonal pinnacled - Naba Ratna type with terracotta on three sides. Dewanji Mandir nearby is tightly ridged Rekha type with small terracotta facade of 19th century Birbhum-Barddhaman style having rich terracotta on two sides. Out of these three temples, the Gol-Mandir temple is no longer in existence at Hetampur. Its memory survives only in the photographs by Mukul Dey. A portrait of Queen Victoria, European nuns and priests form the theme of decoration on a 19th-century temple in Hetampur.[5]

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  Dewanji temple
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  Terracotta carvings in Dewanji temple
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  Chandranath Shiva temple
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  Terracotta carvings at Chandranath Shiva temple

Bipracharan Chakravarty of the Hetampur Raj family started a Saraswati Puja at Hetampur. His grandson, Ramranjan, started a 3-days fair on the occasion. The fair continues on the grounds of the Hetampur Rajbari. Gurusaday Dutt had once presented raibeshe bratachari during the fair. Many renowned personalities were invited to attend the fair and some of them came. Hetampur Royal Theatre and Ranjan Opera had their inaugural shows at the fair.[6]