User talk:Mehzabeen32/sandbox

Kodla moth, Bagerhat...The flavour of temple architecture
Temple architecture secures one of the fascinating sectors of the architectural heritage of Bangladesh. The temples, some still announce their existence with strength and boldness while others that barely can reveal their past grandeur and glory mostly belong to the medieval or late medieval period. Study of temple architecture reveals those early temples in Bengal were mainly of two types, Bhadra or Pida and Sikhara or Rekha. Later in the medieval period, a variety of combinations and elaborations of these basic types were developed although in Bengal the Bhadra or Pida were not so popular. However, the Bengali style comprising of the curvilinear profile from the traditional rural huts were a very popular type of temples having names like Ek-bangla, Jor bangla, Char-chala, Aat-chala baro-chala and so on. There were also the ratna temples consisting of the series of ornamental towers or ratnas. According to the number of ratnas these were named as Pancha-ratna (five towers), nava-ratna (nine towers) etc. The Sikhara or Rekha type is also known as the Nagara style in Indian aesthetics.

Kodla Math is one of the remarkable examples of this Sikhara type in Bagerhat while there are two others known popularly as the Mathurapur Deul in Faridpur and Sarkar's Math in Mahilara in Bakerganj and all of them belong to the 17th century. Kodla math have other name and that is Ayudha math as it is situated in the village Ayudha, some10 km north from Bagerhat world heritage mosque. This is an ancient old Hindu temple with full of terracotta designee. Shape and designee of this temple is really wonderful as it is not like other common type of Hindu temple in the subcontinent region. The façade treatment and decoration of the Kodla Math is one of the main attractions of the temple. Its architectural style relates to the Shikhara type with its high structure like a pyramid. The ornamented façade reveals the rekha type and is composed of horizontal parallel lines that are placed from the bottom to the top of the math at a distance of around 14 inches.

On the other hand from each corner of the structure, four perpendicular lines cross the horizontal lines and create rectangular panels all over the surface. The scriptures that were written on the panels have almost been destroyed. From what is left, it could be determined that a Brahmin had constructed the Math, and erected it to get the kind grace of Brahma, the deity. Like some of the fortunate heritage structures, the Kodla Math still stands today with its decaying beauty and splendour, but if not taken the proper care, it would perish with time leaving behind the trail of our forgotten pasts.