25/01/2026
Blog: The Legend of Khelaram Data
Nestled away from sight, just off the main road leading into the City of Nawabganj is an architectural gem. This Navarathna temple, characterized by its nine turrets common in West Bengal, called Khelaram Datar Kotha (Khelaram Data’s Mansion), declared as a national heritage site by the Government Department of Archaeology in 1989 and built about 200 years ago, is definitely worth a visit.
The origins of this temple are vague. There is not a lot of historical record that supports the history but the story of Khelaram Data has been passed down through oral tradition. Based on the oral tradition, Khelaram was born in Dhaka and was like a Robin Hood character, who became wealthy by robing from the rich. In another version of the legend, he left home and probably and become a trader sailing as far as Malaya. When he returned home with his wealth his mother, to whom he was a dotting son, insisted that he share half his wealth with the locals. It might also have been the case that when he left home, he became a pirate and would smuggle his wealth to the temple complex using an underground passage connecting his temple complex home to the nearby Ichamati River, a trans-boundary river that flows through India and Bangladesh.
In either version of the story, Khelaram distributed his wealth among the local population. This led to his name becoming, Khelaram ‘Data’ (the donor or charitable).
At some point, Khelaram built his mansion-cum-temple complex, we’re told, at his mother’s behest. The building is also locally known as “Andhar Kotha” (Dark Mansion). It was said to have been built as a five-story building but with three of those floors now being buried underground. Today, only the top two floors are visible. It is unknown whether there have been attempts to dig up the lower floors, but if they are there, they should be capable of being uncovered. Apparently, even until a few years ago, passageways existed that led to a basement, which are no longer accessible.
The temple complex benefited from a restoration project in 2015 which has prevented its complete ruin and collapse. Prior to its restoration, the bare brickwork of the temple was showing and much of the detail of the temple had stripped away. In a paper written following the restoration work, the temple was described as square-shaped building with a ground floor consisting of fifteen rooms with two staircases leading to the first floor with another nine rooms.
On the first floor, there is a raised central chamber with a pinnacle spire (shikhara). A feature of the temple is that that it has three different types of spires, the pinnacle spire for the central chamber, gabled spire (dochala) for the rectangular rooms in the middle of the structure and hipped (chouchala) spire for the rooms in the four corners. On the top floor, there is an open-aired corridor used as the ‘pradakshina path’ (or parikrama path), a walkway that surrounds the main shrine, typical of other Navarathna temples. Following the restoration, it is possible to appreciate the floral and geometric patterns adorning the walls of the inner and outer walls of the building.
Khelaram Datta was rumoured to have drowned in the pond immediately in front of the temple. As the story goes, he was devoted to his mother but one day, following an argument, she walked out on him and it is possible that, in his grief, he committed su***de.
How to get there:
Kolakopa, Bandura, Nawabganj Upazilla, Dhaka District, Bangladesh. Nawabganj is a mere 30 km from Dhaka but due to traffic and the narrow road infrastructure, it takes more than 2 hours to get there by car.
References:
https://ijsab.com/wp-content/uploads/2024.pdf
https://rsisinternational.org/journals/ijrias/uploads/vol10-iss10-pg2529-2547-202511_pdf.pdf
https://www.facebook.com/archaeology.gob/posts/khelaram-datar-temple-is-a-magnificent-structure-at-late-mughal-or-early-colonia/1218160735056832/
https://contextbd.com/architectural-cultural-significance-khelaram-data-temple/
https://pozaman.myportfolio.com/the-legend-of-khelaram-data-nawabganj
