Ramna Kali Temple

About

The Ramna Kali Temple, long remembered as the Ramna Kalibari, stands in the Ramna area of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Set on a 2.25-acre site beside the former Dhaka Racecourse, now Suhrawardy Udyan, and across from the Bangla Academy, the shrine is dedicated to the goddess Maa Kali and has been a centre of Hindu devotion since the days of the Mughal Empire.

In Nepalese folklore the Temple is said to have been founded by devotees of Maa Kali who came down from the Himalayas to Bengal. Although it had stood for centuries, the precinct was largely developed in the early twentieth century under the patronage of Rani Bilashmoni Debi, wife of Rajendra Narayan, when its tall shikhara rose as one of the most prominent landmarks of Dhaka. Beside it stood the Ma Anandamoyee Ashram, with a large dighi serving pilgrims and the wider neighbourhood.

On the night of 25 March 1971, the Pakistan Army launched Operation Searchlight against the Bengali nationalist movement in what was then East Pakistan, triggering the Liberation War. Two days later soldiers entered the Ramna Kali Mandir complex and within an hour killed more than a hundred people, including Hindu devotees and Muslims who had sought refuge with them. The original Temple was demolished.

A reconstruction of the complex was announced in 2017, supported by the government of India, and the rebuilt Temple was inaugurated on 17 December 2021 by President Ram Nath Kovind of India, who described the shrine as a symbol of the spiritual and cultural bond between India and Bangladesh.

History

Tradition holds that the Temple was founded in the Mughal era by devotees of Maa Kali who had travelled down from the Himalayas, and it was substantially rebuilt in the early twentieth century under the patronage of Rani Bilashmoni Debi, when its tall shikhara became one of Dhaka's recognised landmarks. On the night of 27 March 1971, two days into the Pakistan Army's Operation Searchlight, soldiers entered the Temple complex and within an hour killed more than a hundred people, Hindu devotees and Muslims who had taken shelter among them alike, and the Temple itself was demolished. The site stood without its Temple for decades until reconstruction, supported by the government of India, was announced in 2017. President Ram Nath Kovind of India inaugurated the rebuilt Temple on 17 December 2021.

Significance

For Dhaka's Hindu community the Temple now carries a double weight, a place of daily devotion before Maa Kali and a memorial to those killed on this ground in 1971. At its reopening, President Kovind called it a symbol of the spiritual and cultural bond between the peoples of India and Bangladesh, and the Temple today stands as both a living shrine and a remembrance.

Architecture

Bengali Hindu Temple architecture with a tall shikhara; rebuilt after 1971 in modern masonry, marble, and glass