Being as the patron saint of Calcutta, a visit to the temple of Kali is a crucial visit in the city.
Kali is one of the most important goddesses of the Hindu religious pantheon, but also one of the most ferocious and feared. According to Hindu mythology, Kali was born from the forehead of the goddess Durga, the slayer of demons, during a struggle between gods and wicked forces as consort of Shiva thereafter appears related to that god, the only one able to calm his anger and ferocity nature dark and powerful precisely because it is associated with Tantra, the need to confront her, her terror and wickedness.
Regarded as the goddess of death and destruction associated with it have been many cults and sects, one of them, the thugs, one of the bloodiest in the history of mankind.
Legend has it that Kali also end up being torn to pieces by Vishnu, and his body cut into 51 pieces. In each of the places of the earth in those who have fallen each of these 51 pieces, is built a temple in her honor. East Calcutta is the one built on the site that allegedly fell right toe of Goddess.
The arrival at the temple of Kali is through a series of flooded streets stalls, and harried vendors who come and push nose as we put the products closest to the eye, haggling for more and better (like everywhere c'mon). The square by being accessed is old and dirty, also as usual, and there, before entering we return to remove their shoes and walk barefoot.
Kali Temple was built in 1809 on the ruins of another temple of the sixteenth century. Raised on two floors, a temple not flashy, but more remarkable is the mysticism that is breathed in, a kind of fear produced perhaps by the black figure of Kali, who presides. Nearby is an altar where the goat was slaughtered offered in honor of the goddess, and a place where the bodies are usually exposed to be purified before being burned at the tombs of the Ganges?