Situated on the sea shore at a distance of 13 km to the southeast of
Baleswar, Bhimpur is a village famous for the Chamunda image seated on a lotus on the prostrate body of an Apasmara Purusha, a small demon symbolising ignorance. She is worshipped as Bhimadevi or Kalika and represented as an eight-armed deity wearing a garland of human skulls around her neck. The place is named after this deity.
The images of Jaina
tirthankars, a beautiful image of Mahavir and an image of Thakurani unearthed from this village reveal the influence of
Jainism in the past.
Nearby is the village of Kasba. The big images of Avalokiteshwar, the
Buddha in meditative pose and a broken image of Buddhist
Tara prove that the place was once under the influence of Mahayana School of Art. Mounds of earth and many old tanks are seen in various parts of the village.
Baleswar is on the National Highway 5 and is the main rail junction on the
Kolkata-
Chennai route.
