Temple Origin

In the year 1847, the wealthy widow Rani Rasmani prepared  to go upon a long pilgrimage to the sacred city of Banaras to express her  devotions to the Divine Mother. In those days there was no railway line between  Calcuttaand Banaras and it was more comfortable for rich persons to  make the journey by boat rather than by road. We are told that the convoy of  Rani Rasmani consisted of twenty four boats carrying relatives, servants, and  supplies. But the night before the pilgrimage began, the Divine Mother, in the  form of the goddess Kali, intervened. She appeared to the Rani in a dream and  said, "There is not need to go to Banaras.  Install my statue in a beautiful temple on the banks of the Ganges river and arrange for my worship there. Then I shall manifest myself in the  image and accept worship at that place." Profoundly affected by the dream, the  Rani immediately looked for and purchased land, and promptly began construction  of the temple. The large temple complex, built between 1847 and 1855, had as  its centerpiece a shrine of the goddess Kali, but also had temples dedicated to  the deities Shiva and Radha-Krishna. A scholarly and elderly sage was chosen as  the head priest and the temple was consecrated in 1855. Within the year this  priest died and his responsibility passed to his younger brother, Ramakrishna,  who over the next thirty years would bring great fame to the Dakshineswar  temple.