| Temples & Legends of Bengal |
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| Temples & Legends Of India |
THE KALIGHAT TEMPLE |
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constructing the present temple at Kalighat in 1809, Santosh Roy Choudhurys had set up a
large number of Siva temples at Barisa and various other villages. It is said that during his lifetime Santosh Roy Choudhurys had given more than a lakh of bighas of land as devottar and brahmotrar. Many of these Siva temples are now in ruins. Kalighat temple is built on an area of eight kathas of land. It is 60 cubic feet high. The inner space is about 50 cubic. It took about eight years to construct the present temple, which had cost Rs. 30,000/- at that time. About 595 bighas of land roundabout the temple formed the devottar property of the temple. Besides there are a large numberof devottar lands in other villages. The Sabarna Roy Choudhurys were confirmed Shaktas and as the Samaipatis (leaders) of the Brahmins of southern Calcutta they did their best in spreading the Shakta cult.6 The Sabarna Roy Choudhurys had also set up the famous Chitreswari Kali temple at Chitpur also. From the temple of Chitreswari there used to be a pathway through deep jungle upto Kalighat that was known two hundred years back as the pilgrim's track. It is this path way which has now become the well- known Chitpur road of Calcutta. They also set up the Sham Rai and Radha temple near Laldighi in Calcutta. |
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| About Kalighat | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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