About 200 kilometres from Calcutta is the town of Bishnupur, famous for its terracotta temples. There are about 30 of these temples scattered over a wide area, all built during the reign of the Mallas. The Mallas, whose rise to power is shrouded in legend, ruled in the 17th and 18th centuries. Adi Malla is supposed to have been the first Malla king. According to a story, he was abandoned by his father, a prince, and was brought up by tribals. One day, in his seventh year, the boy was taken to a festival held in honour of a dead tribal chieftain. The dead man's elephant swung the boy up in his trunk and placed him on the seat of power. Thereupon, the tribals acknowledged him as their new ruler and named him Adi Malla. A long line of Malla rulers followed. Some of them may have taken over neighbouring territories because eventually the Mallas had a kingdom to rule over.
	The greatest of the Malla kings was Veer Hambhir, a contemporary of Akbar. Hambhir was a devotee of Vishnu. He named his capital Bishnupur and constructed the first of its many temples- the Ras Mancha. Bishnupur became one of the principal centres of culture in Bengal during the reign of Veer Hambhir and later kings like Raghunath Singh and Veer Singh. With the advent of the British, the small kingdom of the Mallas became part of the much larger province of Bengal and is now a part of Bankura district. Monuments and temples still existing in Bishnupur's Bankura district speak volumes about terracotta architecture in ancient history.

Domestic pottery, despite overwhelming competition from china, metal, even plastic ware; clay dolls, images of divinity and flora and fauna; in all these a choice of colours, simplicity of form, spontaneity and propriety of ornamentation present a unique blend of society and religion. 15,000 artisans today work for clay craft terracotta and glazed pottery in and around Calcutta. Terracotta plaques, obviously an adaptation from the temple terracottas of Bengal, are known for their minuteness and composition. Done in high relief, these plaques represent mythological stories, historical events, decorative patterns and figures of birds and animals.