Kalighat Kali Temple

Kalighat Kali Temple is a Hindu temple in Kalighat, Kolkata, West Bengal, India dedicated to the Hindu goddess Kali. It is one of the Shakti Peethas.

Kalighat was a Ghat (landing stage) sacred to Kali on the old course (Adi Ganga) of the Hooghly river (Bhāgirathi) in the city of Kolkata. The name Kolkata is said to have been derived from the word Kalikata devi of Kalighat Temple. The river over a period of time has moved away from the temple. The temple is now on the banks of a small canal called Adi Ganga which connects to the Hooghly. The Adi Ganga was the original course of the river Hooghly. Hence the name ''Adi'' (original) ''Ganga''.

Legend

Kalighat is regarded as one of the 51 Shakti Peethas of India, where the various parts of Sati's body are said to have fallen, in the course of Shiva's Rudra Tandava. Kalighat represents the site where the toes of the right foot of Dakshayani or Sati fell.

Kalighat is also associated with the worship offered to Kali by a Dasanami Monk by name Chowranga Giri, and the Chowringee area of Calcutta is said to have been named after him.

History

The Kalighat temple in its present form is only about 200 years old, although it has been referred to in Mansar Bhasan composed in the 15th century, and Kavi Kankan Chandi in the 17th century. The present structure of the temple was completed under the Sabarna Roy Chowdhury family's patronage in 1809. Santosh Roy Chowdhury, a Kali devotee himself, started the construction of the present-day temple in 1798. It took 11 years to complete the construction. The factual authenticity of Roy Chowdhurys' being the traditional patron of the deity is disputed. Mention of the Kali temple is also found in Lalmohon Bidyanidhis's 'Sambanda Nirnoy". Only two types of coins of Chandragupta II, who incorporated Vanga in the Gupta Empire, are known from Bengal. His Archer-type coins, which became the most popular type of coinage with the Gupta rulers after Kumaragupta I, have been found in Kalighat. This is evidence of the antiquity of the place.

Temple details

Shoshti Tala

This is a rectangular altar about three feet high bearing a small cactus plant. Beneath the tree, on an altar three stones are placed side by side - left to right representing the goddesses Shashthi (Shoshti), Shitala and Mangal Chandi. This sacred spot is known as Shoshti Tala or Monosha Tala. This altar was constructed by Gobinda Das Mondal in 1880. The place of the altar is the Samadhi of Brahmananda Giri. Here all the priests are female. No daily worship or offering of Bhog (food offering) is done here. The goddesses here are considered as part of Kali.

Natmandir

A large rectangular covered platform called Natmandir has been erected adjacent to the main temple, from where the face of the image can be seen. This was originally built by Zamindar Kasinath Roy in 1835. It has been subsequently renovated often.

Jor Bangla

The spacious verandah of the main temple facing the image is known as Jor Bangla. Rituals occurring inside the sanctum sanctorum are visible from the Natmandir through the Jor Bangla.

Harkath Tala

This is the spot adjacent to the Natmandir, southwards meant for Bali (sacrifice). There are two Sacrificial altars for animal sacrifices side by side. These are known as Hari-Kath.

Radha-Krishna Temple

This temple is known as Shyama-raya temple and is situated inside the temple at the west side of the main temple. In 1723, a settlement officer of Murshidabad district first erected a separate temple for Radha-Krishna. In 1843 a Zamindar called Udoy Narayan erected the present temple in the same spot. The Dolmancha was founded in 1858 by Madan Koley of Saha Nagar. There is a separate kitchen for preparation of vegetarian Bhog (food offering) for Radha-Krishna.

Kundupukur

This is the sacred tank situated in the south-east of the temple outside the boundary walls. Present area of the tank is approximately 10 cottahs. In the past it was bigger and called 'Kaku-Kunda'. The 'Sati-Anga' (the right toe of Sati) was discovered from this tank. It is believed that taking a dip in this small pond/ tank can bestow one with the boon of a child. The water from this tank is regarded as sacred as that of the Ganges. Pilgrims practice the holy dipping event called ''Snan Yatra''.

There had been futile efforts in the past of draining the water from the tank for cleaning, which creates a strong possibility of a subterranean link with the Adi Ganga.

The Kalighat Temple as a Shakti Peeth

The Temple at Kalighat is revered as an important Shakti Pith, by the Shaktism sect of Hinduism. The mythology of Daksha yajna and Sati's self immolation is the story behind the origin of Shakti Peethas.

Daksha, the son of Brahma was an ancient entity called Prajapati or the keeper of the beings in Hinduism. He had a lot of daughters, one of whom was Sati, an incarnation of the Primordial Mother Goddess or Shakti. She was married to Shiva, the ascetic, whose abode was in the cold and snowy recesses of the Kailasa Parvat. Daksha had frowned upon the marriage, as Shiva was a penniless man, quite unlike the King that Daksha was. In time, Daksha decided that he would arrange a yajna or a ritual where he would invite all the gods, except for Shiva. Sati, his daughter came to her father's place, uninvited and faced a flurry of insults from her father about her husband. Unable to bear the insults, she immolated herself. The news of the death of his beloved wife set Shiva on a delirious rage, as he started the Tandav or the Dance of Destruction with the body of Sati, calming down, only when Vishnu managed to chop her body down into fifty one pieces, which would fall all over the length and breadth of India. (A lot of these places are in modern day Pakistan and Bangladesh as well.)

Shakti Peethas or divine seats of Shakti or the Primordial Mother Goddess, thus came into being wherever these severed parts of Sati's body had fallen.

Each of the 51 Peethas have a temple dedicated to the Shakti or the Primordial Mother, and a temple dedicated to the Bhairava or Shiva, the All-Father, essentially forming important historical centres to mark the marriage of Shaivism and Shaktism, and also the philosophical fact that a man is nothing without his Shakti or Woman and vice versa.

The Shakti here is thus Dakshina Kali (the benevolent Mother of the World) while the Bhairav being Nakulish or Nakuleshwar.

It is believed that the right big toe of Sati (according to another opinion, four toes of right legKalikshetra Kalighat, Sumon Gupta, Deep Prakashan, Kolkata, 2006, p. 13) fell here at Kalighat. However, some Puranas also mention that the Mukha Khanda (face) of the Goddess fell here, got fossilized, and is stored and worshipped here.

The 51 Shakti Peethas are linked to the 51 alphabets in Sanskrit, each carrying the power to invoke one of the goddesses associated with them. These Alphabets are called Beeja Mantras or the seeds of the primordial sounds of creation. The Beeja Mantra for Dakshina Kali is Krīm.

The mythological texts which include the Kalika Purana (Ashtashakti,) recognize the four major Shakti Peethas—Bimala where resides the Pada Khanda (feet) (the temple is inside the Jagannath Temple, Puri, Odisha), Tara Tarini housing the Stana Khanda (Breasts), (near Brahmapur, Odisha), Kamakhya, Yoni khanda (Vulva) (near Guwahati, Assam) and Dakshina Kalika, Mukha khanda (in Kolkata, West Bengal) originated from the lifeless body of the goddess Sati.

See also

* Dakshineswar Kali Temple

References

Further reading

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External links

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{{Authority control

1809 establishments in India
Hindu temples in Kolkata
Shakti Peethas
Hindu temples practicing animal sacrifice