A trip to Tarakeswar Tarakeswar is a temple town located in the Hoogly district of West Bengal. The greatest center of the Shaiva sect in West Bengal, the Tarakeswar Temple, Kolkata, is a well-known place of pilgrimage, and people from all over the world come here to worship Lord Shiva, in the form of Tarakeshwar.Like every other temple city this also has a legend behind it. It is said that a staunch devotee of Lord Shiva, named Vishnu Das, migrated from Ayodhya to Hooghly, with his entire family. The local people of Hooghly, somehow, found him to be suspicious character. To prove his innocence, he burnt his hands with a red hot iron bar. After some days, his brother discovered a unique site in the nearby forest, where the cows yielded milk at a particular place every day. On investigation, the brothers discovered that a Shivaling (Idol of Shiva in phallic form) was present at the mentioned site. After this incident, a dream to Vishnu Das revealed that the idol was the symbol of the Tarkeshwar form of Lord Shiva. Very soon, a temple was built there by villagers, which has been renovated with time. Tarkeshwar Temple has a typical Bangla architecture, with a sanctum and a veranda in its front. The idol of the Lord is installed in the middle of the sanctum. The tetra faced veranda has three-vaulted railings on its roof. In front of the veranda, there is an assemblage hall for devotees. The temple records maximum crowd on the holy day of Mahashivratri. Another grand celebration at the temple is Chaitra Sankranti. Even on Monday, the temple is extremely crowded, as it is considered as the day of Lord Shiva. The foot fall at the temple is maximum in the month of Sravan ( the month dedicated to Lord Shiva) .In this month almost each and every one from Kolkata atleast visit the holy place once. How to Reach Tarakeswar: You can go by road from Kolkata . You will find many State buses from Kolkata, Kamarpukur, Howrah . It takes about 3 to 4 hours to reach there from Kolkata by car. The other route is to go by local train from Howrah. It takes 2 hours to reach Tarakeswar from Howrah station. It is advised not to go in a local train in the month of Savan as it is tooo….. crowdy. You will hardly find a place to stand in the train. If you are travelling for the first time in the local train, you will not be able to abroad it. A special pilgrimage trip to Tarakeswar : In the month of Savan, you will find many people carrying kavad ( a pot of ganga water) on their shoulders,travelling from from Kolkata/ Shivrapulli to offer to the shivlinga at Tarakeshwar. They travel round about 42 kilometers on foot ( bare foot) to pay their salutations to Lord Shiva. All along the way they keep chanting " Bol Bum Tadak Bum… Bhole baba Par karega" Mostly they travel in groups and they move at night.People of all age ----small children to elderly people carry kavad. It is a belief that if you carry kavad 3 times your wish will be fulfilled. All along the route you will find people helping out the pilgrims carrying kavad ( called as kavadis) with water, medicine and other necessities.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Aug 2013 04:31:12 +0000
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