Dhakeshwari Temple, Dhaka – The Temple

Dhakeshwari Temple, Dhaka – The Temple

The Dhakeshwari Temple is a complex of several shrines and ancillary buildings. There is a permanent altar outside the main temple premises. It hosts the Annual Puja (worship) of Goddess Durga, the greatest Bengali Hindu festival held in October. The complex has an inner-quarter on the east and an outer-quarter on the west. The main temple is situated in the inner quarter on the east. A wall separates this quarter from the outer wall and entered through a monumental gateway, known as the Nahabatkhana gateway, a bell adorns its top.

A marble altar for puja-offerings can be found in the ground of the inner quarter. The Nat-mandir stands in front (or to the south) of the main temple and in its centre there is a place for Bali. To its south stands the yajna mandir with a yajna-Kunda. To the north of the Nat-mandir stands the main temple facing south. It is a three-roomed structure with a veranda in front having beautiful wooden doors with carving of different motifs, both sculptural and floral.

Three slightly pointed multi-cusped arches enter the veranda in front of the central room, which is rectangular, on three heavy pillars. The veranda in this section has marble floor and is covered over by a vaulted roof.  The veranda in front of the eastern room, square in shape, is entered through semi-circular arched entrances, while the western veranda, also square, is entered by a simple doorway. The central room has a vaulted roof, while the side rooms are covered with flat roof on wooden beams.

The spandrel of the arch in the central room is decorated with six lions. Merlion decorations are placed above the curved cornice. The three rooms of the main temple are crowned with domical-sikhara roof; the sikhara over the central room is much higher and bigger than the flanking ones. The roof over each room is constructed in four gradually receding tiers, the lowest tier has a somewhat Chau-chala look, and the upper three appear to be in the shape of north-Indian canopies.

The two side-rooms of the central temple contain black basalt Shiva Linga, one in each and the male four-armed (Vasudeva) and the female ten-armed (Dhakeshwari or Durga) deities adorn the central room. It is said that earlier the female deity was made of pure gold. There is a large tank with north - south elongation with walking-path all around on the western side. A very old banyan tree stands on the southeastern corner of the tank. There are a few tombs of sadhus to the east of the rest rooms and the tank.

There are four small temples of same size and shape on the northeastern corner of the tank, which stand one after another from east to west. These Temples are unique in having a fusion of the classical sloping Bengal roof (char-chala in Bengali, made to resemble the roof of a thatched hut) and shikhara, spire, more common across other parts of the subcontinent. Each of them is built on a high plinth and approached by a flight of steps.

The stairs of the eastern-most temple is made of marble. These temples with shikhara are square in plan and their roof was constructed in six gradually receding tiers with lotus and kalasa finials on top. Each of these is entered through narrow arched openings, one each on all sides except the north. There exists a projected band on linear decoration, and in between this band and the domical roof the walls are decorated with panels of semi-circular cusped arches. Each of the temples has a Shiva Linga inside.