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Getting there
Kolkata → Joypur Forest · ~4 hours
Bishnupur had been on my list for a long time. One of those places you keep saying "next time" about until finally, next time arrives. This time it arrived in January 2026 — and it arrived with the whole family. My parents, my husband Utsav, my brother, and my in-laws. A proper family convoy from Kolkata.
The drive is about 4 hours and fairly easy, though road repair work slows things down in patches. We drove straight to Joypur Forest, where we were staying at Sonar Bangla. One important tip before you check in — stop at Banalata for lunch on the way. The prices are significantly more reasonable than the resort, and the food is genuinely one of the better options in the area. We were glad we did.
Day 1 was a rest day — settling in, catching up, the easy rhythm of a family holiday beginning. The forest around us was quiet and green.
2
The terracotta city
Rasmanch · Madanmohan · Jora Mandir · Joybangla Palace
I should confess something about Day 2. I was still recovering from an injury — limping leg and all. And I had decided, with complete conviction, to wear a saree to Bishnupur. My husband thought this was hilarious. "How much can someone love wearing a saree?" he kept saying. But a pink saree against 17th century terracotta? Absolutely non-negotiable.
Pink saree, yellow bag, ancient terracotta. No regrets.
The roads inside Bishnupur are impossibly narrow — there is simply no driving around to sightsee. So we parked and hired a tuk-tuk whose driver doubled as our guide. He took us through the whole circuit — Rasmanch, Madanmohan temple, Jora Mandir, Joybangla Palace and more.
The intricately carved interiors, approaching the circular temple, and a moment with the family.
"Every surface tells a story. The gods, the dancers, the warriors — all pressed into terracotta centuries ago, still perfectly there."
What strikes you about Bishnupur is not one single grand monument — it's the accumulation of it. Temple after temple, each one covered in terracotta panels so intricate you could stand in front of a single wall for an hour and still not see everything. Scenes from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, musicians, dancers, elephants — all rendered in this warm red-brown clay that glows in the winter sun.
The Rasmanch is the most striking structurally — a massive pyramidal platform ringed with arched corridors that stretch in every direction. You walk through it and the arches repeat endlessly, each framing the next.
The Rasmanch in full — and the extraordinary carved exterior of the Madanmohan temple up close.
We ended the day with shopping. The Bishnupur silk sarees come in two kinds — Baluchari and Swarnachari. They look almost identical, but the difference is in the thread: Swarnachari uses zari (gold thread) while Baluchari uses normal thread. Both carry the same intricate figurative motifs — tiny dancers, gods, scenes from the epics — woven right into the silk. The craftsmanship is genuinely remarkable. I found a beautiful black Swarnachari that I absolutely had to have.
My husband had been teasing me about the saree all day. And then, without any fanfare, he bought it for me. The man who spent the morning questioning my love for sarees ended the day gifting me one. I rest my case.
The loom where a Bishnupur silk begins its life — silk threads, patience, generations of craft. And the Swarnachari itself — magenta silk, gold zari motifs, the one that came home with me.
The whole family together — and the terracotta handicraft market, where the famous Bishnupur horses line up in rows.
3
Into the forest
Joypur Forest safari · then homeward
The last morning was for the forest. We hired a guide and drove into Joypur with genuine hope — maybe a deer, maybe something more. We didn't see tigers or leopards. But we did see a fox. And for me, any wildlife that isn't the usual suspect is exciting. A fox darting through the undergrowth, there one second and gone the next — that counts.
After breakfast, we packed up and drove back to Kolkata. Four and a half hours, the same road, but somehow the return always feels different. The trip was short — just two nights — but Bishnupur had been on my list for years. Some places deserve the wait. This was one of them.
"It was a short break. Even then, we did not miss the opportunity for a quick family getaway. That, more than anything, is the point."
