Visiting Kolkata Kali Mandir in Kalighat

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There are many Kali temples in Kolkata, out of which two are quite famous. One is Dakhineswar Kaali temple and another is Kalighat Kaali temle. Dakheneswar kaali temple is situated at the northern side of Kolkata while Kalighat Kaali temple is at the southern side. Dakhineswar Kaali temple is famous because Ramakrishna Paramahansa was associated with this temple. Kalighat kali temple is famous because it is old and considered to be more sacred from religious angle. For tourists, Dakhineswar kaali temple is more attractive. It is not only beautiful but also comfortable (as there are no dalals). There is a distance of about 16-18 kms between the two temples.

Kalighat is easily accessible. You can go to kalighat by town bus or by tram or by metro train. There is a metro station called Kalighat metro from where you can go to the temple (less than a km). The temple is situated near small (canal like) river called Aadi Ganga which is connected to river Huguli afterwards.

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From Howrah station we went to Kalighat by a special (AC coach) town bus which was going towards Yadabpur. It took Rs 25/- per head for Kalighat. We got down at kalighat bus stop which was on the way to Yadabpur. From bus stop we found some arrow marks showing route towards Kaali temple. We could just walk down as it was less than a kilometer. As the temple is very famous, anybody could guide about the route. Reaching the temple was not a problem at all. Kaalighat kaali temple is full of dalals who will try to guide you through the tmeple and extract money from you by various means. We thought to avoid them and just go inside the temple. But unfortunately we did not find any shoe stand. Pooja shops started forcing to buy coconuts and keep shoes in their shop. We also soon got surrounded by dalals who asked us different amounts (50 rs, 100 rs etc.) for guiding us in the temple. As there was no shoe stand, we could not even get into the temple (leaving the shoe unwatched). After some time one person asked 10 rs to keep the shoes and I happily agreed for that. Once leaving the shoes we were free to go inside the temple.
Inside the temple we saw a very big queue before Kali temple. We had no time to stand in the queue and wait long hours for darshan. We prefered to have free darshan from Nata Mandir instead of standing in the long queue or paying money to the dalals. There are shiva, ganesh and other temples inside the kali temple campus. Those temples were free from crowd.We had a peaceful darshan of other temples like shiva etc. as there was no crowd.


There is a place for animal sacrifice in the temple. It is like two stone poles. The animal is supposed to put its neck within the poles. The head is supposed to be cut in one strike. As this is an ancient temple (12th century?) there were may animal sacrifices in the past. Some people say there are sacrifices even during recent days which I don't believe. However, I am not authentic in that matter and that is not my topic to discuss.



There are many other temples at the side of the main Kali temple. Such as Hanuman temple etc. About 50 mtrs away there is a beautiful shiva temple called Nakuleswar Bhairav (picture below). There is also a Jagannath temple (Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra) in front of Nakuleshwar Bhairab temple.



We also visited Palli Durga temple, another devi temple, about half km from Kalighat kali temple. The durga idol in this temple is huge and beautiful. The idol is made of brass like metal which look golden.



For tourists from out side, if you are not too religious you can skip this temple. If you are visiting this kali temple you may plan to visit some nearby places like Birla Mandir (2 kms) and Alipore zoo (3 kms) etc. The other interesting points in Kolkata are Belur Math, Dakhineswar Kali, Victoria Memorial, Eden Garden, Millenium park etc.You can see some more pictures of Kali temple in my google+ album below.
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Comments

[Radhika Sharma]

Nice information
Thanks for sharing the Kali temples in Kolkata i want this info. bit.ly/2GHlZ8g

[Nikhil Nanda]

HanumanJi
thanks for sharing such nice blog , as Nikhil Nanda as contributed in planing to build three more idols of HanumanJi in each of the four corners of the country.