Khirpai

Twelve square kilometres of small-town Bengal between Chandrakona and Ghatal that punches well above its weight. In the 18th century this was a serious commercial centre, with the East India Company maintaining a factory here for cotton-cloth, brush and bell-metal, and you can still see how the prosperity reshaped the place: dozens of family-built temples scattered through what is now a sleepy municipality of around 16,000 people. Most are easy to miss without a local guide; ask at the bus stand for someone who knows the way.
Radhamadhab Temple at Malpara is the headline draw and sits about 1.5km from the bus stand on the Ghatal-Khirpai Road. Built in 1817 in the pancharatna style, it preserves some of the most narratively rich terracotta in the district: episodes from Krishna's life, the ten avatars of Vishnu, the Ram-Ravana battle from the Ramayana, hunting scenes, and decorative floral panels. The carving has weathered but most of the panels are still readable. Visit in mid-morning, when the light hits the southern face.
Khargeswar Shiv Mandir, just north of Radhamadhab, is a smaller, south-facing aat-chala (eight-roof) shrine from 1861 with a fine surviving panel and recently renovated. The contrast with the older Radhamadhab, same town, different style, four decades apart, is instructive about how Bengal temple architecture was constantly reinventing itself.
Dalan Mandir in Paharipara, dedicated to Singhabahini (a form of Durga riding her lion), claims to be the oldest temple in the Khirpai region, built in 1746, and is worth the detour for that reason alone.
Sitalanda Tin Temple at Hattala is a substantial aat-chala structure from 1839, built by the Pani family, with surviving terracotta on the south face. The Umapati Shiv Mandir at Gangadaspur, another small aat-chala, is the surprising one, housing a black-stone icon of Surya, the sun god, that scholars date to the 10th or 11th century, far older than the temple itself. The icon was clearly relocated here from somewhere we no longer know. On the southeast side of town, a lake with overgrown ruins on its bank marks the site of pre-1660 European trading houses, where French, Portuguese, Dutch and English merchants all set up shop at various points to buy cotton and silk.