Sridhar Temple, Kotulpur

The Sridhar temple stands at Shiromanipur village under Kotulpur police station in Bankura district, inside the palace of the Bhadra family, and here Vishnu is worshipped as Sridhar in the form of a shaligram. The family traces back to Sadananda Bhadra, a trader in salt, thread and mustard who settled at Kotulpur in the late 17th century and bought the zamindari of seventeen taluks from the Maharaja of Burdwan. Their seat also has a Durga mandap, nahabatkhana, Girigovardhan temple and rasamancha, and Ramakrishna is recorded as visiting the house in 1880.

Built in the early 1830s, the temple is a pancha-ratna design, with a pinnacle at each corner of the roof and one at the centre; it is about 15 ft 9 in square and 30 ft high, on a plinth reached by three steps. Terracotta covers the facade: a central Ratha Yatra panel showing Krishna and Balarama leaving for Mathura, Rama and Sita with their companions, the war with Ravana, Dashavatara plaques, and boats recalling the family's river trade.