Kalighat Kali Temple
This
is a most sacred Hindu temple in West Bengal, India. The temple is dedicated to
the Hindu goddess Kali. This temple is famed as one of the 51 ‘Shakti Peethas’.
Basically, Kalighat was a Ghat -landing stage committed to Kali on the old
banks of the Hooghly River (Bh?girathi) in Calcutta. Calcutta is said to
have been derived from the word Kalighat. However, the river has moved away
from the temple at some point of time. The temple is now on the banks of a
small canal called – ‘Adi Ganga’ which connects to the Hoogly River. The Adi
Ganga is famous as the original course of the river Hoogly. Hence it got the
name Adi (original) Ganga.
Kolkata
is famous world-wide, as the home of festivities and celebrations and is also
well known as the land of fervent devotion. Goddess Durga/Kali is worshiped as
the Mother Goddess in this holy city. Kolkata has an umpteen number of temples
and these temples are devoted to Goddess Kali. Goddess Kali is the most
prominent and popular being in Kalighat Temple. It is a belief that the city of
Kolkata has got its name from this temple, which was changed after some time as
Calcutta. Kalighat is one of the 52 Shakti peeths of the Hindus and
is highly revered and most sacred religious site across Kolkata. The
temple premise and the structure of the Kalighat Temple was constructed under
the benefaction of the famous family of Sabarna Roy Choudhury of Barisha. The
idol of the Goddess Kali is fixed inside the temple, which is built by black
stones. This exquisite deity is admired with pgoldornaments. The most notable
part of the deity is the gold tongue that protrudes out. Inthe Bengali months
of Bhadra, Paush and Chaitra, the temple gets inundated
withdevotees.
History
Kalighat
is considered the Shakti Peetha of India, as per the hindu legends, the various
parts of Sati’s body are said to have fallen in these 51 Shkati Peetha, in the
course of Shiva’s Rudra Tandava. Kalighat displays the spot where the toes of
the right foot of Dakshayani or Sati was found.
Kalighat
is linked with the worship proffered to Kali by a Monk whose name was Chowranga
Giri, and therefore Chowringee area of Calcutta is said to have been named
after him.
The
Kalighat temple is approx 200 years old, although it has been referred to in
Mansar Bhasan composed in the 15th century, and in Kavi Kankan Chandi of the
17th century. Mention of the Kali temple is also found in Lalmohon Bidyanidhis
Sambanda,Nirnoy. There are 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 Kumara Gupta I, have been found in Kalighat. This is the evidence of the
ancient past of the place.
