01Ujani of the Chandimangal
Ujani was a river town of the Ajay, and Bengal knows it from the Chandimangal of Kabikankan Mukundaram, the 16th-century poet, who sang of the merchant Dhanapati of Ujani and of the Devi Chandi who saved his son. The Peetha Nirnaya Tantra’s list names Ujani, where the Devi is Mangal Chandika and the Bhairava Kapilambar. Our list gives the right wrist as the part that fell; others say the right arm or the elbow, and one list puts Ujani far to the east in Chattogram. Shakti Peetha lists differ, and Kogram has kept the worship all the same.
02A village of poets
The temple stands above the river, and from its yard you look down on the wide sand of the Ajay. Kogram is a small village, a few hundred people, yet two poets were born here: Lochan Das, who wrote the Chaitanya Mangal in the 16th century, and Kumud Ranjan Mallik, born on 3 March 1882, who wrote many of his verses within sight of the Devi’s river. An old image of Bhagwan Buddha is kept at the temple. A Jain image of Shantinatha found here went to the Bangiya Sahitya Parishad in Kolkata.
Kogram is in Mangalkot block, reached by road from Guskara or Katwa. The bank is steep; take care on the steps down to the river.
