Kankalitala Temple Shakti Peetha in Bolpur, West Bengal

Kankalitala Temple is close to Shantiniketan in Bolpur. It is an ideal destination for those spiritually inclined. You can hire a rickshaw to get there.

Story of Maa Kankalitala Mandir

Kankalitala is one sacred destination of Hindus. It is one of the 52 Shakti Peeths, which is holy abode of Goddess Sati. It is believed that Lord Shiva in a rage, refused to give up the corpse of Sati, his consort. He danced wildly and angrily. Lord Vishnu, in order to calm him down cut the corpse of Goddess Sati in to 52 pieces. One of the pieces, Her waist, is believed to have fallen here in Kankalitala. You can read the story in Bakreswar Shakti Peetha.

Goddess Parvati is the residing deity of the Kankalitala Temple. It created a depression in the earth which later filled up with water and formed the sacred kund (pond). It is strongly believed by devotees that the actual body part now lies underneath this water. Very clean and well maintained. The diety room has no idol but a photograph of Maa Kali.

Kankalitala Temple Shakti Peetha

Kankalitala Temple door to inner sanctum

Shakti Peetha

52 Shakti Peeths are scattered all over India, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Tibet, Nepal, Bangladesh and one in Pakistan too. Of these there are 13 Shakti Peetha in West Bengal. You can see the entire list here. At each location a temple is built or it existed for centuries.

  1. Phullara (lips) in Birbhum
  2. Goddess Bahula (left arm) in Burdwan
  3. Mahishmardini (portion between eyebrows) in Bakreswar
  4. Kalika (Right toes) in Kolkata
  5. Devagarbha (Bones) in Birbhum
  6. Vimla (Crown) in Murshidabad
  7. Kumai (right shoulder) in Hooghly
  8. Bhramaari (left leg) in Jalpaiguri
  9. Nandini (neck) in Birbhum
  10. Mangal Chandika (right wrist) in Burdwan
  11. Kapaalini (left ankle) in Midnapore
  12. Jugaadya (great toe) in Burdwan
  13. Kalika Devi (throat) in Birbhum

Kankalitala Temple Shakti Peetha

Kankalitala Temple is close to Shantiniketan. This temple is 8kms from Bolpur station. Prayers are offered on everyday basis, but it seemed to be a very desolate place. Sometime back in 2010, a major burglary took place there, the temple was looted. There is a boundary around the temple, but that seemed to be a mute spectator.

Local people believe that there is a stone in the depths of the pond near the temple which resembles a human skeleton. When the pond dries up during summers, when the water level recedes, this stone form is visible. Most of the locals claim to have seen it and the stone is said to have sharp edges causing cuts when one tries to touch it.

Kankalitala Temple Shakti Peetha holy banyan tree

A huge banyan tree provided shade to the temple complex. Just outside the temple premises under the hot sun, were a set of poor devotees seeking alms!

Meet a sadhu and pujari from Kankalitala in my Faces of India series – Faces of India 237, Faces of India-265

Kankalitala Temple sadhus seeking alms

Pin this for later

Kankalitala Temple Shakti Pith West Bengal India

Surul Rajbari and Terracotta Temples in Bolpur, West Bengal
Automated External Defibrillator by PHILIPS

40 Responses to “Kankalitala Temple Shakti Peetha in Bolpur, West Bengal

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.