01Vasishtha and Tara
The temple’s own tradition tells that Maharshi Vasishtha did the sadhana of Tara here and attained siddhi, which is why the seat is called the siddha-peetha of Tara. The image worshipped daily is a silver mask of the Devi, garlanded and dressed; underneath it, seen only by the priests at the morning rites, is an older stone image of Tara suckling Bhagwan Shiva, in the katha of how she saved him after he drank the poison at the churning of the ocean.
02Bamakhepa
Bamacharan Chattopadhyay, born in 1837 in a nearby village, came to Tarapith as a boy and spent his life in the cremation ground, so lost in the Devi that people called him khepa, the mad one. He ate the temple’s offerings before they reached the Devi, and the story goes that the Devi herself defended him to the temple’s patron. He died in 1911, and his samadhi in the shmashan is visited as much as the temple. The present temple building, of brick with terracotta panels, dates from the early 19th century.
The life of this place
- early 19th centuryThe present temple is built by a local zamindar.
- 1837Bamakhepa is born near Tarapith.
- 1911Bamakhepa leaves his body; his samadhi stands in the shmashan.
About 8 km from Rampurhat station. Kaushiki Amavasya in Bhadra is the great night here; expect very large crowds.
