After zamindars, the most significant patrons of terracotta temples were merchants. The surge in textile exports and the monetization of the economy under the Mughals in the 17th and 18th centuries enabled merchants to become wealthy and to replicate the temple sponsorship of the landholding classes.
Merchant-sponsored temples are found in every district of Bengal. In Birbhum, commercial activity increased after the East India Company gained direct control of the region in the 18th-century.
Ilambazar became a major manufacturing centre—specializing in tussar, indigo, and shellac—and several merchants sponsored temples. Several sites in Central Birbhum specialized in traditional ironsmelting, including Ganpur where several merchants built richly decorated temples faced with a local pink laterite called phulpathor. In the market town of Siuri, once renowned for furniture and palanquins, the merchant Ghanashyam Das built the majestic Radha Damodar Temple. In Surul, in eastern Birbhum, the Sarkar merchants sponsored three terracotta temples near their 19th-century mansion. The ancient town of Supur became a French textile trading outpost in the 18th-century when its merchants built two ornate brick temples. Further south, in Itanda, textile merchants sponsored several temples, including a jor-bangla Kali temple. In the 18th-century even more villages became textile-producing centres serving the European trading posts along the river. In villages like Haripal and Dwarhatta, the French, Dutch, and English even set up their own manufacturing centres or aurungs to control production and ensure supply for their ships. In eastern Hugli, Rajbalhat emerged as a major textile centre, where the Sil and Ghatak families built several richly decorated temples. Other villages with merchant-sponsored temples include Kotalpur (Bakuli family), Jaynagar (Chatterjee family), Baligori (Dey family), and Aknapur (Kundu and Mallick families). In western Hugli, silk-weaving villages around Arambagh and Goghat are rich in merchant-sponsored temples. Notable examples include Hatbasantapur (China family), Bhalia (Sarkar family), Badanganj (Barat family), and Shyambazar (Datta and Das families). The large village of Bali-Dewanganj, famous for silk weaving and metalware, boasts ornate merchant mansions and temples in neighbourhoods such as Routpara, Ghoshpara, and Dalalpara. Several villages in northern and eastern Medinipur district became centres for silk-cocoon rearing, spinning, and weaving. Remnants of aurungs established here by the Dutch, French, and English still survive around Daspur. Villages in this region with merchant-sponsored temples include Khirpai (Datta family), Suratpur (Hazra family), Khorda-Bishnupur (Roy family), Purba Gopalpur (Adhikari family), and Ajuria (Charan family). In central Medinipur, on the Kangsabati River is the village of Pathra where several temples were sponsored by the indigo-trading Majumdar and Banerjee families. Lowada, once famous for sugar and palm candy, has the Poddar family’s Radha-Gobinda Deul. Further south, the Maity textile-merchants constructed the superb Janaki Ballabh Temple in Tilantapara.
