Dhakeshwari Temple

About

Dhākeśvarī National Temple (ঢাকেশ্বরী জাতীয় মন্দির) stands in Old Dhaka, Bangladesh, where it is honoured as the state's principal Hindu sanctuary. State-owned, it carries the formal title of the country's National Temple — Bangladesh being the only Muslim-majority nation in the world to so designate a Hindu place of worship.

The presiding deity is the goddess Dhākeśvarī — literally 'the goddess of Dhaka' — and the city itself is named after her. Tradition counts the temple among the fifty-one Śākta Pīṭhas of the Indian subcontinent, in this case as the place where the jewel from the crown of Devī Satī is said to have fallen. The jewel itself was lost long ago, and the principal ancient metal mūrti of the goddess was carried to Kumortuli in Kolkata at the time of partition, where it continues to be worshipped today; a faithful replica now serves as the presiding image at Dhākeśvarī.

Since the destruction of the Ramna Kālī Mandir by the Pakistan Army during the 1971 Liberation War, Dhākeśvarī has been the most important Hindu place of worship in Bangladesh, and it remains the largest Hindu temple in the country.

History

Tradition ascribes the founding of the temple to King Ballāla Sena of the Sena dynasty in the twelfth century — about 1100 CE — though successive cycles of repair, renovation, and rebuilding mean that little of the present architecture can be securely dated to that period. The temple's connection with the name of Dhaka itself, and its place among the Śākta Pīṭhas, secured its standing through the Sultanate, Mughal, colonial, and modern periods. The original mūrti was carried to Kumortuli, Kolkata at partition by the chief priest in response to growing violence against Hindu temples in eastern Bengal; in 1950 the businessman Debendranath Chaudhary built a temple for the goddess there. The image is about 1.5 feet tall and shows the goddess as Kātyāyanī Mahiṣāsuramardinī Durga — ten-armed, mounted on her lion, with Lakṣmī, Sarasvatī, Kārtikeya, and Gaṇeśa at her sides.

Significance

Dhākeśvarī is at once a Śākta Pīṭha, the namesake shrine of a national capital, and the National Temple of Bangladesh. For Bengali Hindus on both sides of the border, the goddess Dhākeśvarī — whether worshipped in Old Dhaka or in her ancient image at Kumortuli — remains a deeply living presence.