RANG MAHAL -- The palace in ruins 

History of Bengal also comes hand in hand with histories of variety of zamindar families that dominated social scene of the region for several centuries until coming of independence . And along with the story  of zamindars comes the story of their palaces and temples . The architecture that they patronised . The overwhelming majority of the zamindari houses that survive today are distinctively european flovoured . But before coming of the british , it was Mughal and Nawabi tastes and styles that dominated the scene . Unfortunately only a select few buildings of that style still survive .

The abonded ruins of Rang mahal at the nondescript Mankar village of Burdwan district is one such palace that has a strong indo islamic influence . The ceilings are made solely from bricks ( unlike use of wood buttresses in British era )  . The arches are persian , the stucco work is very late mughal .

The simha dwar , lion late with Nuabat ( concert rooms for playing sehnaai as the king enters ) on top and two stucco bengali styled lions carved in relief

  

The residential complex inside

There are two Shiva temples . The lingas are now missing

Locals say of a certain Dikkhits who were the owners of Rang Mahal . Their tutelary goddess , a golden statue of Durga used to be brought to this palace for annual worship . The descendants have moved on to Burdwan town and the grand buildings are now falling apart .

Beautiful painted stucco work

An octagonal building with a arched circumbulatory path ( now partially collapsed ) . I think it was a raas mancha

Stucco carvings of Radha Krishna in medieval Bengali style

Each faces of the octagonal building had a pair of Radha Krishna each

Dikkhit / Dikshit is not a popular bengali title . Which makes me think that this family might have been originally from the west , as with many other zamindar families .
The famous Burdwan Raj family was from Punjab while the Nashipur Raj family of Murshidabad hailed from Uttar pradesh . During their long stay in Bengal , they were relegated into the culture of the state ...... but they still retained some of their native styles . It is possible that the rang mahal palace bears a distinct north indian indo islamic style because the royals originated in northern India .