While the central government has recently declared the revival of several temples, such as the Kashi Vishwanath Dham and Kedarnath Dham, state governments in India are also not far behind. At the Bengal Global Business Summit held in November last year, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani declared that the Reliance Foundation has taken up an ambitious project to restore and renovate the renowned Kalighat temple in Kolkata. Under the project, the foundation is set to restore the entire temple complex. Structural engineers and experts from Jadavpur University (JU) and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati, have been roped into the project.
When Mukesh Ambani referred to Kalighat as, “the seat of Bengal’s reigning deity”, he was probably not wrong. According to some legends, Kolkata got its name from Kalighat or Kali Khetro (the other name for Kalighat). As per Hindu mythology, when Shiva was mourning the sudden demise of his wife Sati, Vishnu used his sudarshan chakra to cut the goddess’ corpse into 51 pieces to escape the wrath of a bereft Shiva. It’s believed that in Kalighat, the toes of the right foot of the goddess had fallen. Historically speaking, while the temple finds mention in 15th century Bengali literature, it was only a small hut until 1809. Padmabati Devi, the mother of Barisha’s zamindar Sabarna Roy Choudhury, discovered the fossils of Sati’s finger in a lake called Kalikunda, which led Sabarna to offer 595 bighas of land to the deity and eventually to the construction of the structure of the present-day temple.
The Kalighat temple is a quintessential example of the Bengal style of temple architecture, as it features gabled roofs (called chala). This style is an emulation of the structure of the mud and thatch-roofed huts found in rural Bengal. The main temple is a four-sided building that features a truncated dome. The two roofs bear a total of eight faces. Both of these are painted with metallic silver along with bands of pop hues such as yellow, red, green and blue — all of which converge at the cornice. The absolute top roof has three spires, the tallest of which has a triangular pennant flag. The outer walls of the temple are intricately designed with diamond-shaped chessboard pattern tiles of alternating green and white colours.
The project is focusing on conserving the ethos of Kalighat and with this goal, it has appointed conservation architect Kalyan Chakraborty, who is now working in collaboration with artist Tamal Bhattacharya, to enhance the temple’s artwork. Initially, the team did not know how intricate the terracotta work was under the aatchala (two-tiered roof). Only later did Tamal discover the delicate motifs of flowers and birds hidden by the structure, most of which had worn off over time. Since finding a replica of these terracotta works was almost impossible in this era, he began to make the motifs himself with his team, at his studio in Baruipur. The illustrated tiles within the complex will also be restored. These tiles were not present when the temple was initially built. It was later added to prevent the walls from getting damp. However, the demerit of this was that they lacked uniformity. The complex now has 25 different types of tiles because they were chosen according to availability. The ongoing project aims to recreate a uniform look through the use of sticker transfer and glazing techniques. The pillars of the temples will also receive a new coat of paint, as will the pots at the top of the temple that are to be covered in gold. To manage crowds better, a new wall, segregating the market area from the temple, has already been constructed. It will also be decorated with terracotta artwork. Apart from these, the temple will go through some technological changes to improve ventilation.
While the debate about whether or not the renovation of temples of a certain religion should be encouraged by governments remains, one can not ignore the fact that such temples also stand strong as instances of the architecture of a bygone era that need to be restored and cherished. The aatchala architecture of the temple of Kalighat is one such example. Kolkata continues to be one of the most-visited cities by foreign tourists and the Kalighat temple largely tends to be one of the must-visit places in their itineraries. Even to an onlooker with little knowledge about architecture, the stacked and dome-shaped temple seems soothing to the eyes and wholesome to the soul.
One can stay at Taj Bengal, Kolkata at Alipore, just 3.5 kms from the temple.
Email: prattusa@newindianexpress.com
X: @MallikPrattusa
