Dakshineswar temple is the most revered Kali temple of Bengal. Ma Kali, in her different image and attitude, is the most revered goddess of the country – particularly in eastern part of India, three states namely Bengal, Assam and Tripura. Actualy, Dakshineswar Kali temple is only second to Kamakhya Kali temple in reverence. Kamakhya Kali temple goddess is Tantrik Kali where sacrifice of animal blood is must. Whereas Dakshineswar Kali is known as Ma Bhabatarini – a form of Adyashakti Kali Mata – Ma is standing over Shiva, her consort. Therefore, following our hindu custom, Ma is ashamed of standing on her husband and consequently she being ashamed, opens her mouth and holds her tongue with her teeth. Adyashakti is the primordial energy-consciousness-bliss, she is the creator of the universe and liberates jivia from the clutches of Maya. The amazing fact of the idol is that, the face of Ma Kali is so calm and soothing that it seems to be our mother – own family. There is also a striking difference between Dakshineswar Bhabatarini with Kamakhya and Tripureswari temples – that is, the puja at Dakshineswar is performed with complete vegetarian voga consisting of sweets, fruits and vegetables. But in other two Shaktipeeths the voga must contain animal bloods! Only from 2019, the sacrifice of animals become prohibited at Tripureswari – Ma Kali is a form of Ma Chandi here. There is another peculiarity in Tripureswari temple. There are two idols in the garbha griha – one is of 5 feet height and the other one is of 2 feet only – known as Chhotoma. So, among the three most famous Shakti peeths of three states, Dakshineswar temple stands alone with its idol and style of puja rituals. Ma Bhabatarini is like a lady of our home – so, the Sahajia way of Kali puja, adopted by its legendary chief priest Sri Ramkrishnadev, is different from the style of rituals at the other two Shakti peeths.
Dakshineswar temple was built like navaratna, a typical Bengal style of temple architecture. There is a large roof over the temple with four spires at the four corners of the roof. It is followed by a smaller roof over it where four corners of this roof also have four spires. At the middle of this roof is the biggest spire. The two roofs are in such angles that all nine spires can be seen from any place. Altogether, there are nine spires.
Dakshineswar temple has an interesting history. Rani Rashmoni, an intelligent, philanthropist bengali widow, who was in-charge of his husband’s zamindary, was set to sail to Kashi for Ma Kali’s ‘darshan’ in 1847. But in the night before her scheduled pilgrimage, Rani dreamt of Divine Mother goddess Kali who adviced her not to go to Kashi, instead, Rani should make a temple of Ma Kali at the bank of river ganges and should arrange her worship there. Divine mother also told her in the dream that she will manifest her image in the idol of the temple.
Profoundly influenced by the dream, the spirited lady Rani Rashmoni, who was not only a devoted benevolent zaminder and pious widow, but also a shrewd administrator, immediately started searching the suitable land for the construction of the temple. She bought 20 acres of land at the bank of river ganges from James Hasty, an Englishman. The land resembled the hump of a tortoise. The total temple area is of 60 bighas though,in the record book of the Trustee Board of the temple, it is 54.5 bighas. A portion of the purchased land was an abundoned muslim burial ground. As per records, the total cost of the land was 42 thousand and 500 rupees. According to the record book, some portion of the temple land was donated for the construction of Vivekananda bridge over the river ganges. Accordingly, present temple land is of 58 bighas. The construction of the temple building started in1847 and was completed in 1855. The idol was installed on Snan Yatra day, 31st May, 1855. The main navaratna temple was of 14 square meter area and 30 meter high. The idol was placed in the Garbha Griha (sanctum sanctorium) on a thousand petaled lotus throne made of silver. The idol is south facing. Apart from this main temple, within the temple premises, there are a series of 12 identical Shiva temple in a single line at the river side. Each of these temples are painted white and the black Shiva lingas made of stone are placed inside. All the Shiva temples are east facing and are in ‘aat chala’ architecture – a typical bengal way. The Shiva temples are equally divided by a river bank. At the north-east of the temple premises, there was a Vishnu temple (popularly known as Radha-Krishna temple). 550 mm idol of Krishna and 410 mm idol of Radha were placed on a silver throne in the sanctum sanctorium. It was repaired later and ultimately replaced by the present Devottar estate in 1930.
Dakshineswar temple was opened on the Snan Yatra day of Sri Jagannathji in 1955. The first chief priest of the temple was Ramkumar Chattopadyay and his younger brother Gadadhar as his assistant.
Rani Rashmoni was a spirited patriotic lady. Because of her impartial governance, she annoyed many including the high-ups of East India Company officials. When the inauguration day was approaching, the Brahmin Samaj objected to Rani’s ownership of the temple of goddess Kali! They cited two reasons for objection. First, Rani being widow of low caste Mahishya and married to a further lower caste – dhobi community -, cannot own the temple ; secondly, Rani’s order of opening the temple to people of all castes with equal rights, that is, any hindu can offer puja to the goddess Kali in the temple. Rani with her indomitable energy and indefatigable industry, managed to retrieve the situation to a large extent. The Brahmins relented when Rani made the chief priest from a high caste Brahmin and she declared that she should not have any role in the affairs of the temple. A Trustee Board was made to run the temple administration choosing its members from Brahmin caste. For the maintenance of the temple, Rani donated the earnings from her newly acquired zamindary of Dinajpur (now in Bangladesh) to the temple Trust. Rani completed the registration of the Board of Temple Trust on 18th February,1861 and conspicuously she died on the next day. The head priest Ramkumar Chattopadhyay died about one year after assuming the charge of head priest of the temple. After the death of Ramkumar, Rani Rashmoni had chosen the young Gadadhar – famous in the name Ramkrishna – as head priest. The Brahmins again opposed it strongly. Their main opposition was the way Ramkrishna mingled with and allowed the lower caste people of the society and his way of simplicity in performing the puja. This time, they also tried to destroy the temple property and even attempted do harm, to the extent of physical assault to Ramkrishna. Opposition to the appointment of Ramkrishna was not only from Brahmin Samaj, but also from the family of Rani. At this point of time, with her administrative acumen and outrageous courage, Rani overcame these obstacles and went ahead with the appointment of Ramkrishna Chattopadyay alias Gadadhar as Chief priest of Dakshineswar Bhabatarini temple. In this venture, Rani was ably assisted by one of her sons-in-law Mathurbabu. Afterwards, with his immense help, Rani was able to make the Board of Trustee of the temple registered just before her death.
After the death of Rani Rashmoni, the name of the Bhabatarini temple of Dakshineswar became immensely popular with the people including so called high society of Bengal. The fame and carishma of Bhabatarini and her priest son Ramkrishna became known to not only the people of bengal, but also of whole India. The credit was completely of Gadadhar, now famous in the name Ramkrishna. After some years, Ramkrishna became Kalpataru to his desciples on1st January. From then, he became Sri Ramkrishna Parmhansha (supreme knowledgeable) to his followers. Ramkrishna may not have much formal education, but his way of puja to Bhabatarini and his embracing everyone, without considering caste and social status, made everyone feel oneness with him and at the same time, Ma Kali, in the form of Ma Bhabatarini became mother of everyone’s house. Hindus began to feel that Ma is the protector of everyone. Devoid of hard rituals and tantrik way of puja offerings with fresh blood, Ramkrishnadev made the Sahajia way of puja. He was a philosopher of highest order and he preached the philosophy of equality and offering love and respect to the god from the core of the heart. All his basic principles were preached by his most illustrious desciple Swami Vivekananda. Ramkrishnadev stayed in a small room at a corner of the temple premises with his wife Saradamoni Devi. Saradamoni propagated her husband’s philosophy of love and respect to everyone including animals and trees. It made her known as Ma (mother of all lives). After the death of Saradamoni, their room inside the temple became a place of pilgrimage.
The philosophy of Sri Ramkrishna was propagated by his desciples, the most prominent among them is Narendranath Datta, known as Swami Vivekananda – his post sanyash name. Vivekananda and other desciples of Sri Ramkrishna reffered him as Thakur (god) and Saradamoni as Ma. Actually, the philosophy of love for all, along with treating Ma Bhabatarini as the lady if our own fanily – attracted people’s mind most. This made the Dakshineswar Kali temple most famous shaktipeeth of bengal.
The temple of Ma Bhabatarini of Dakshineswar is still run by the Trustee Board. It has no legal attachment with Ramkrishna Mission of Belur. At present, managing trustee is Sri Kushal Chakraborty. Special puja are offered every year on three special days; the inception day of the temple, that is Snan Yatra day, in the night of amabashya day after Durga puja, and Kalpataru day.
(Author is a retired Professor and former Director & Consultant of West Bengal Biotech Development Corporation)