Kalibari temple completes 160 years of glorious journey

Lucknow: A divine dream of an ardent practitioner (tantric) Madhusudhan Mukherjee about finding a devi idol during his penance under a neem tree in Ghasyari Mandi paved the way to the oldest Kali temple in the city. The temple is completing 160 years of its establishment on Monday.Mukherjee was among those a handful of people who came to the city about 160 years back. Here, he saw a dream where Goddess Kali wanted his resolute devotion. Following his dream, he found the idol and got it erected in the compound. He continued to serve the temple throughout his life.In the following year, an officer in military accounts commissionerate, Kailash Chandra Chatterjee acquired the land from Military Municipal Committee (MMC) and got a temple constructed by local constructor Saligram. A trust, including prominent Bengalis of that time, was also formed in 1864. The members of the first trust were – Dr NL Chatterjee, Dr SN Bose, SN Sanyal, BN Roy, RK Sarkar, ML Mukherjee, SK Mitra, HK Mullick and VN Vidyant.The temple saw a revamp in 1905 after receiving an enormous amount from Maharani of Darbhanga. In 1939, the trust was registered as ‘Kalibari Trust’ and in 2000 the name of the trust changed to ‘Kalibari Temple Trust’, said joint secretary Kalibari temple trust Debashish Mukherjee. “The idol configuration worshipped in the Kalibari temple has a Panchamunda Asan (seat of five skulls-owl, fox, monkey, snake and bat in the base. Over which, the Dakshin Kali avatar of the goddess can be seen seated over Lord Shiva in Nishkriya manifestation (Mahakaal supporting her), said president temple managing committee Gautam Bhattacharya. “Till 2000, about 60-80 goats were sacrificed on the Kali Puja Day alone as part of certain rituals. There were sacrifices also on various important days like foundation day, navratri and other pujas but the practice was discontinued and replaced with fruit sacrifice,” said president Kalibari Temple Trust Abhijit Sarkar.“ Artists, including singers Indrani Sen, Pandit Srikumar Chatterjee, Pandit Ajay Chakravorty, Pandit Aditi Munshi, Gurujeet Singh, Raghav Chatterjee and dancer Dona Ganguly, have performed in various programmes organized by the temple,” secretary temple managing committee Deepak Bhattacharya.
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