Maluti

Maluti temples

Thirty-six of the original 108 have already gone; 72 terracotta temples still stand in this village near Shikaripara, on the eastern side of the Chota Nagpur Plateau. Kings of the Baj Basanta dynasty raised them between the 17th and 19th centuries in what was their capital, out of devotion to Mowlakshi, the family deity, though Shiva, Durga, Kali and Vishnu hold shrines here too. The Global Heritage Fund counts the site among the world's twelve most endangered and has proposed conservation work. That is the whole argument for going sooner rather than later.