500-yr-old Manasa Temple reopens to public

On completion of a 10-year reconstruction project costing Tk 1 crore, the over 500-year-old “Manasa Temple”, popularly known as “Bijay Guptar Manasa Mandir”, was opened to the public in Barisal yesterday.
The dome shaped single-storey structure sits on a two acre land in Goila of Agoiljhara housing a 27-maund (around 1000 kilogrammes) brass-metal idol of Manasa made by one Ramgopal Kangsa Banik of Dhaka's Shankhari Bazar.
During 1484-85, Bijay Gupta had written “Manasa Mangalkavyas”, devotional paeans centring the Hindu snake goddess Manasa who is worshipped chiefly for the prevention and cure of snakebites and also for fertility and prosperity.
The previous idol, placed in the early 20th century by local worshippers, alongside the temple, was looted and destroyed by the Pakistani occupation army and their associates during the Liberation War.