NRI Restores Kalighat Goddess to Former Glory

[Guest guest]

KOLKATA (March 2, 2004): The four hands of idol of Kali at the

Kalighat temple that has been blessing its devotees from all over

the world will be shining from Thursday onwards, and literally.

 

The brass hands will be replaced with gold on Wednesday night,

donated by a non-resident Indian, from the United States. He,

however, will not be present for the ceremony.

 

The NRI, who wishes to remain anonymous, is donating around eight

kgs of gold for the hands, valued at Rs 50 lakh. He personally

supervised and got the sheets prepared in the U.S. The sebayets will

be receiving the offering on Wednesday and will put it on the

goddess throughout Wednesday night accompanied by chants and special

prayers. The idol with the gold-hands restored will be available

for 'public darshan' from Thursday morning.

 

"It is a matter of great sorrow that those four gold-made hands of

the goddess have been missing for the last 30-35 years," some temple

sebayets said. The gold-made hands had been replaced by ones made of

brass.

 

"History has it that the goddess had gold-hands in 1957-58. However,

no one actually remembers what happened to the gold-made hands or

when they had been replaced with brass hands. We have been agitating

for this for the last two years, when the goddess herself send us

this blessing through a devotee who stays abroad. He approached us

in 2002 with the offer to cover her hands in sheets of gold. It is a

miracle send by the goddess herself." said senior member of

executive committee of sebayets council Ajay Banerjee.

 

A few other parts of the idol are now of gold, donated by devotees

at different times.

 

Source: The Times of India, BY NILANJANA BHOWMICK, TIMES NEWS NETWORK

[ TUESDAY, MARCH 02, 2004 09:05:57 PM ]

URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/533036.cms