Kalighat Temple
The Kalighat Temple ( Bengali : কালীঘাট মন্দির) is a Hindu temple in Kalighat, a district of Kolkata (previously Calcutta). For worshipers of the goddess Kali , here called Kalika , it is one of the most important places of pilgrimage on the Indian subcontinent .
History of the temple
In its current form, the building was completed on the site of an earlier temple in 1809 with the help of the wealthy Roy Choudhury family. Already in the middle of the 18th century Kalighat with its black goddess was a well-known and much-visited place of pilgrimage. In addition to countless legends, the earliest references can be found in a work known in Bengal , the Mansar Bhasan from the 15th century. Various tantric scriptures also point to an early worship of Kali in this environment.
Although the origins can be traced back to tantric beliefs, Kalighat was never exclusively a tantric temple. Already around 1550 the popular Bhuvaneswar Brahmachari, at that time a priest in Kalighat, is said to have consecrated and erected little Salgram Shilas , round stones as the embodiment of Vishnu , which can still be seen today. On the temple grounds there is next to the main sanctuary for potash also a Radha - Krishna Temple and one to the worship of Shiva .
The Kali statue (the cult object, Murti ) consists of a black block of rock that, according to one legend, was found in the river and, according to another, grew out of the earth. In the course of time, wealthy visitors equipped them with golden limbs, tongues and magnificent clothing.
mythology
According to mythology, Kalighat is one of the 52 Shakti Pithams . In the underlying story, Shiva dances the dance of destruction through the universe with the corpse of his beloved wife, the goddess Sati , on her shoulders. She killed herself because of a serious insult on the part of her father Daksha . Vishnu, however, threw his disc and began to dismember the corpse in order to save the universe. Wherever the parts fell on the earth, great pilgrimage sites arose, the Shakti Pithams . The toe is said to have fallen into the river Bhagirathi (a branch of the Ganges ) near the present day temple. In this context, the mythology about the origin of the temple offers different versions:
- One story tells of a Brahmin who offered his prayers near the present temple when the entire area was still covered with dense forest. One evening he saw a bundle of rays rising from the Bhagirathi River. In the clear water he found a stone in the shape of a human toe and at night he realized in a dream that this stone was nothing more than the toe of Sati, which Vishnu's weapon had cut off.
- There is also talk of the hermit atamaran who once meditated here. The goddess appeared to him in a dream and announced her appearance. Finally he found it in the form of a large black stone in the water and set it up for worship. According to another version, the stone grew out of the earth.
- According to another explanation, it was the tantric monks who found the stone while roaming the jungle and worshiped it as a representation of Kali. They set it up in the dense jungle to hide the human sacrifices that were common in some tantric directions at the time.
Victim
Even if human sacrifices are a thing of the past, the thought of the bloody sacrifice is still present in the temple. Although an abomination for most Hindus, goat sacrifices are still common here today. Some believers order a young animal which is blessed by one of the priests and killed and bled to death by the butcher with a single cut. The blood is offered to the goddess while the meat is taken home as prasad , as blessed food. In addition to the bloody sacrifice, gifts of flowers and sweets are mandatory, as is the case with every temple visit. A few coins are always included, occasionally larger sums. The priests there live with their families from these donations as well as the personal remuneration of the pilgrims for the temple service.
With some of the donations, the organizers regularly cook food on huge clay ovens for the poor, hundreds of whom are encamped around the temple.
Web links
- Kalighat. Temples of Bengal. templenet.com
- Bengal - History of Kalighat. bangalinet.com
Coordinates: 22 ° 31 ′ 13 ″ N , 88 ° 20 ′ 31.5 ″ E