| This
inscription makes out that there was a ruler known as Harishchandra in the 15th century
whose queen was known as Hari Priya. The temple was built in 1462 A.D. There is a second
inscription dated 1646 A.D. which mentions that a Brahmin Nanda and his wife carried out
extensive repairs to the temple.Four miles north of Barakar under the Hadla hill there is
a beautiful stone shrine to Kalyaneshwari, the Lady of Fulfillment, a place of pilgrimage
for barren women, which is said to be 400 or 500 years old. According to tradition the shrine and the group of temples attached were erected
by an ancestor of the Panchet Raja, who is said to have married the daughter of a Raja Lau
Sen of Senpahari. The story is that a Rohini Deoghar Brahman once saw a jeweled arm rise
out of the waters in the adjacent nala. He went and informed Raja Kalyana Sinha of Kasipur
of Panchet (in Purulia district) who came himself and saw the prodigy. At night the
goddess herself appeared to him in a dream and pointing to an irregular stone, somewhat
like a rule argha, said, "This is my murti; worship it."
The Raja built the temple and the stone having been duly
inscribed was installed in it.Near this temple and in the province of Bihar the township
of Maithon has grown as a result of construction of the Maithon Dam, on the river Damodar
at the instance of the Damodar Valley Corporation. Kalyaneswar Devi temple has been
since its inception a great center for Sakti Puja. The temple has an importance because it
belongs to the group of other temples of Sakti complex in the neighboring parts of Bihar.
Another famous Sakti temple is
that of Nilkantheshwari or Bindabasini situated in the neighboring colliery town of Katras
in Dhanbad district of Bihar. Human sacrifice was common on both Kalyaneshwari and
Nilkantheshwari temples. |
