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 KOLKATAWhere Shakti residesBy Rajashri DasguptaEvery day of the year, thousands of the faithful, some with wishes and others with hopes, throng to the famed Kalighat Temple, at the very mention of which devotees recall Ma Kali, the tutelary deity of Kolkata and, indeed, the whole of West Bengal. The most common image of the majestic goddess is of her standing on the chest of Shiva wearing a necklace of human skulls, a girdle of human arms, and holding an axe and a severed human head. She is dark as a thundercloud and her protruding tongue, some say, drips with the fresh blood of her enemies. Her ferocious power inspires awe and affection in equal measure and nowhere is this more obvious than in Kolkata. Sri Ramakrishna, one of her most famous devotees, saw her in every human being. It is possible to see her too in every corner of the city she has made her home. She is in the unceasing flow of the Ganga, in the plaintive song of a fisherman, in the undulating bellow of a conch shell during puja, in the festive pandals of the rich, in the earthen diyas of the poor, in the frayed photo that hangs in a corner tea shop, in the red-and-white bangles that Bengali women wear, in the labyrinthine streets of the city's destiny. She is in the hands of the sculptor who brings her to life every Durga Puja , fierce, unforgiving and adorable. It is not possible to imagine Kolkata without Kali. She, on the other hand, rules the world.
Legends and mythology
Legend goes that Kali, the `conqueror of time', so relished vanquishing demons that she got carried away and began killing everyone in sight. To stop her, Lord Shiva threw himself under her. When Kali recognised her own beloved, she was shocked out of her rampage, and ended her destructive spree. One of the 51 Shaktipeeths, Kalighat is where Sati's toe is said to have fallen on the banks of the Adi Ganga.
Architecture and antiquity
Some historians have tried to prove the Kalighat Temple's antiquity by tracing it to the Chandragupta II (380-414 CE) and Sena periods (1095-1260). It is said the temple's location was shifted twice. The deity was originally worshipped in a hut near the Posta Bazaar trading region in North Kolkata and was then moved south to Bhawnipur, before the present temple was constructed in Kalighat. In early 18th century, zamindar Sabarna Roy Chowdhury's family settled in the Barisha-Behala area and obtained rights to the temple and its property. This led to considerable controversy over the years as another family, that of the Haldars and their descendants, claimed ownership too, though it has also been argued that the Haldars had been entrusted only with the shebait or worship of the goddess. Finally, in the 1960s, a committee was formed for the management of the temple with representation from the government and the Haldar family. Such issues notwithstanding, the legions who worship the goddess have only grown. It took seven to eight years to rebuild the temple in 1809 at a cost of Rs 30,000. Beautifully rendered in traditional Bengal-style temple architecture, with an aatchal or eight roofs in two tiers, one superimposed over the other, the temple has a central dome towering over four smaller domes in the four corners.
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