Cooch Behar

Cooch Behar, a quiet, unobtrusive small town, used to be a seat of princely grandeur. Its glamour and opulence in the heyday of the rule of Cooch Behar’s Narayan – Koch kings lasted till India’s independence in 1947.
What remains of that legacy is the architecture. Burnt red brick structures highlighted by pale arches, cornices and Corinthian columns are scattered all over the town, particularly around Sagar Dighi tank, on whose partially algae-covered waters they are reflected – a huge blob of red that marks the town’s epicentre. The landscape of Cooch Behar town is marked by at least 22 substantial tanks. The river Torsa, flowing down from the Eastern Himalaya, runs alongside the town on its western and southern fringes, before taking off towards Bangladesh.

Home to a peace-loving people with scholarly and artistic pursuits (the number of music and dance training institutes on its main thoroughfares is noticeably high), Cooch Behar is a neat little township, strategically located at the centre of the district with the same name. Devotion and spiritualism is the over-riding emotion – evident in the proliferation of temples dotting the town. But the real draw is the indigenous people of Cooch Behar District – Rajbanshi, Toto, Gorkha, Mech, Rabha, Lepcha and Bhutia – whose distinctive dress, methods of brewing wine and netting fish are just as attractive as memories of once-flourishing royalty.

Things to See and Do

There is so much greenery, so many vast water bodies and such quietude, that just to walk along the pebble-strewn dry river bed, soaking in the pollution-free air of Cooch Behar, is pleasure enough. The burnt red brick structures and the temples painted in detergent white have their own appeal. The palace museum too can absorb you for a while.

Cooch Behar Royal Palace

Designed by an English architect, F Berkley, the 19th century Cooch Behar Palace was built on classical Italian lines. Its construction began during the reign of Maharaja Nripendra Narayan and was completed in 1887. The arched corridors and ornamental portals seem to stretch on forever.

A part of it is now a museum, showcasing oil paintings of the kings and imported chandeliers, sepia-tinted photographs of royalty, antiquities such as a hoe, arrows, terracotta figurines, clay models of a cow with calf and much more unearthed from Gosanimari, where the old capital of the Koch kings was located. Laterite and sandstone sculptures from as far back as the 7th century CE are on display, although few are intact. A tribal gallery shows glimpses of the lifestyles of Cooch Behar’s indigenous people.

Sagar Dighi

There are 22 tanks all over town – the most spectacular among these is Sagar Dighi, with grand structures arrayed all around it. The buildings, built mostly between the 1880s and 1920s, are now offices of the district administration. A popular hangout in the evenings, the tank attracts migratory birds in winter.

Temples

Madan Mohan temple complex has a dazzling white one-storied structure as its centrepiece. It’s a fine blend of Hindu, Islamic and Central Asian architectural tradition.
Another temple, the Baneshwar Shiva Temple, has an interesting roof in the Bengali Do-Chala style.
Madhupur Dham, a serene retreat, is dedicated to the Vaishnavite spiritual guru Shankar Dev, who fled his native Assam in the 16th Century to avoid persecution by the rules and found asylum with Koch king Nara Narayan.