Kolkata: Kalighat Temple is all set to get a major facelift including a golden crown and will therefore join the league of other famous temples located across India known to have spectacular gold crowns.
The Reliance Foundation has taken the responsibility of restoring the entire Kalighat Temple Complex to its original glory. Reliance chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani during the Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) had announced the initiative. Changes are taking place in the “Garvagriha” and the place where “Bhog” is served.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier expressed her plans to give a complete facelift to this temple and was looking for a private player who would take the responsibilities. Ambani during BGBS had said: “Reliance Foundation has taken up an ambitious project to renovate and restore the famous Kalighat Temple in Kolkata, the seat of Bengal’s reigning deity. We are repairing the entire temple complex, including the centuries-old heritage structures and restoring them to their original glory. The private agency has therefore approached the temple authorities with their facelift plan which includes installation of a golden crown and renovation of the sanctum sanctorum. During BGBS, Ambani told the Chief Minister Banerjee that this project was as close to him and his wife as it was to Banerjee’s. He also thanked Banerjee for giving them the opportunity.
Kalighat is considered as one of the 51 Sati Peethas in India where the various parts of Sati’s body are said to have fallen, in the course of Shiva’s “Rudra tandava”. Four fingers of Sati’s right foot are said to have fallen in Kalighat.
Kalighat Temple in its present form is about 200 years old. However, the place Kalighat has been referred to in different religious texts in the 15th century. The present structure of the temple was completed under the patronage of Sabarna Roychowdhury family’s (Barisha) in 1809.