Dakshineswar Kali Temple

The Dakshineswar Kali Temple was built in 1855 by Rani Rashmoni, a wealthy widow of the Mahishya community whose own pilgrimage to Kashi was disrupted by a divine vision instructing her to build a Kali temple instead. The complex sits on a 20-acre plot on the eastern bank of the Hooghly, 12 km north of central Kolkata. The Bhavatarini ('Saviour of the Universe') form of Kali — the wrathful goddess subduing Shiva — stands in the central nine-pinnacled (nava-ratna) shrine, flanked by twelve identical Shiva temples and a Radha-Krishna temple along the riverfront. The temple is inseparable from Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, who served as its priest from 1855 until his death in 1886, and whose spiritual experiments here laid the foundation for the Ramakrishna Mission and the Vivekananda movement. His small living chamber, with the modest cot on which he slept, is preserved at the north-west corner. Photography prohibited inside the sanctum. Kalipuja (October/November) is the largest annual gathering — three-day all-night celebrations. Daily processions are most active at dusk.