हिंदीOn this day
Standing

Ratnavali (Anandamayi) Shakti Peetha, Khanakul

On the Khanakul–Krishnanagar road by the Ratnakar river stands the Ratnavali Shakti Peetha, where the Peetha Nirnaya Tantra places Sati’s right shoulder. The Devi is worshipped here as Anandamayi.

Built: Seat of the Devi on the Ratnakar; present temple of later dateWhere: West Bengal (Hooghly district)Deity: Kumari, worshipped as Anandamayi; Shiva as Bhairava22.71° N, 87.85° E
Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domain

01The right shoulder

The Stotram gives Ratnavali and Mithila in one breath: at Ratnavali the right shoulder, the Devi Kumari, the Bhairava Shiva; in Mithila the left shoulder. Khanakul in the low, river-cut country of south-west Hooghly holds the Ratnavali seat, by the Ratnakar, a stream of the Damodar and Rupnarayan delta. The Devi in the temple is called Anandamayi. Where exactly the old Ratnavali lay is not agreed by every writer, and Shakti Peetha lists differ; Khanakul is the place Bengal’s pilgrims go to.

02Khanakul’s temples

Khanakul lies in the Arambagh subdivision of Hooghly, a temple village of the old Bhurshut country. Besides Ratnavali it has the Ghanteshwar Shiva temple and old Vaishnava temples of Gopinath and Radhavallabh. Raja Ram Mohan Roy was born at Radhanagar in Khanakul in 1772. The country floods in many monsoons, when the Damodar and Mundeshwari overflow, and the old temples of the village have stood through those floods for generations.

Visiting

Khanakul is reached by road from Arambagh. Avoid the peak monsoon, when the roads may be under water.

Nearby

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Taraknath Temple, Tarakeswar

The Baba Dham of Bengal, 58 km from Kolkata. Every Shravan lakhs of devotees carry Ganga water barefoot from Sheoraphuli to pour on Baba Taraknath.

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Bargabhima Temple, Tamluk

In Tamluk, the old port of Tamralipta on the Rupnarayan, the Peetha Nirnaya Tantra places Sati’s left ankle. The Devi is Bargabhima, and her bhog each day must include shol fish.

Jagannath Temple, Mahesh (Serampore)Rebuilt
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Jagannath Temple, Mahesh (Serampore)

The Jagannath temple on the Hooghly at Mahesh, whose Rath Yatra has been held, by the temple’s reckoning, since 1396, the oldest in Bengal and second only to Puri in age. Shri Chaitanya called the place Nava Nilachal, the new Puri.

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Dakshineswar Kali Temple

The navaratna temple of Kali on the Hooghly that Rani Rashmoni built, where Sri Ramakrishna served as priest and lived for some thirty years. Here Narendranath Datta, later Swami Vivekananda, came to him.