Nabadwip Bhavatarini Temple (near the Poramatala) in Bengal is a unique shrine as the Goddess Kali worshipped in the temple is a modified image of Ganesha.
History Of
When the founder of the Nadia royal dynasty, Bhabananda
Majumdar, died, his son Raghav Ram Majumdar built a large temple on the banks
of the Ganga and consecrated an idol of Lord Ganesha there. This was in 1669 CE.
Soon after the consecration, he passed away. Everything went on as usual. A
hundred years later, around 1760, a devastating flood struck the Ganga, and the
riverbank began to collapse.
At that time, the throne of Nadia was held by the powerful
King Krishnachandra. He had the idols moved. But because the idols had been
relocated and touched by many people, the Siddhantabagish forbade immediate
reconsecration. Instead, they commanded that the idol be buried in the earth
for twelve years.
Time moved forward. Krishnachandra’s great-grandson Girish
Chandra now sat on the throne. He ordered the idol to be lifted. During the
process, Ganesha’s trunk broke. In such a situation, after much deliberation,
it was decreed that if the Ganesha idol were transformed into an idol of Mother
Bhavatarini, all ritual impurity would be removed. And thus the idol of Mother
Bhavatarini was created.
For this reason, this so-called Kali idol is entirely
different from the usual forms. Here the Mother is seated in the yogic
knee-folded posture (jora asan). If one looks carefully at the ears and tongue,
traces of the original Ganesha idol may still be seen. Even the figure of Shiva
lying beneath the Goddess differs somewhat from the common depiction.
Maharaja Raghav Ram had not only established the Ganesha
idol. He had also begun building an adjacent temple intended for Shiva. But
immediately after installing the Ganesha idol in 1669, he died. Thus the Shiva
temple remained unfinished. His son Rudra Dev completed the establishment.
Rudra Dev installed a massive Gauripatta Shivalinga, naming
it Raghaveshwar Shiva. After the great flood of 1760, though the Ganesha idol
was rescued, the entire Shiva temple — including the Shiva idol — remained
submerged. Sixty-five years later, when King Girish Chandra reconsecrated
Mother Bhavatarini, he also raised that Shivalinga and established it within a
new octagonal-roofed Shiva temple. This is the only Shiva temple in Bengal with
such an octagonal roof. Since then (from 1825), he has been known beside Mother
Bhabatarini as Bhavataran Shiva.
Between 1911 and 1928, during the reign of the then Nadia king, Kshaunish Chandra, the temple was renovated. In 2019, the West Bengal Heritage Commission listed the temple as a heritage site of Nabadwip.