SIBNIBAS TEMPLE (Shibnibas)

 temple, hindu temple

According to legend, Sibnibas owes its origin to a dream. One in which Lord Shiva appeared before Maharaja Krishnachandra and told him that he was shifting base from Varanasi to his capital. To please the god, the Maharaja set up a new capital at Sibnibas and constructed 108 Shiva temples there.

Historians offer a more rational explanation. They maintain that in the middle of the 18th Century, Krishnachandra to save his capital Krishnanagar from the invading Marathas (Bargis) shifted it to Shivniwas, which is surrounded on three sides by the river Churni.

The Maharaja christened the new capital Sibnibas, probably after the god. Some historians though claim that it was named after Krishnachandra’s son Shivachandra.

Only two of the 108 temples exist now. One of them houses the largest 'shivling' in eastern India. The two temples, along with a Ram-Sita temple, and the ruins of Krishnachandra’s palace are all that remain of Sibnibas’s glorious past.