The famous Dakshineswar Temple was founded by Rani Rashmoni around middle of the 19th century. Rani Rashmoni was a Mahisya by caste. In 1847 Rashmoni decided to go upon a long pilgrimage to Kashi. Rani was to travel in twenty four boats along with all her relatives and servants. According to the story the night before the pilgrimage began Mother Goddess came to her dream and said Rani not to go to Benaras. The goddess ordered her to set up a temple on the bank of river Ganga and install a statue of Divine mother. The temple was built in 1855. Divine mother is known here as ‘Maa Bhavatarini’ . Folklore has that there was a man lived in dewlipota who found a shivalinga in this place. The shivlinga was known ‘Baneswar’. It is said that the shivlinga was found at the south of this place that’s why the shivlinga was called Dakshineswar and for that reason this place is renamed as Dakshineswar. Rani was so affected by the dream that she immediately looking for a plot and bought a 30,000 acre plot in the village of Dakshineswar. She bought the plot from an English man named Jake Hastie and was then popularly known as ‘Saheban Bagicha’. It was partly an old Muslim burial ground shaped like a tortoise. It took 8 years and nine hundred thousand rupees to complete the construction of the temple. Navin Bhaskar was the man who built the idol. The idol was crafted in single ‘kosthipathor’. The idol was placed on the day of Snan Yatra on 31st May 1855. Ramkumar Chattopadhyay was appointed as the head priest. Soon his younger brother Gadadhar moved in and so did his nephew Hriday. Ramkumar Chattopadhyay died in the next year and the position of the head priest was given to Ramkrishna. His wife, Sarada Devi stayed in the south side of the ‘Nahabat’ in a small room on the ground floor which is dedicated to her. Rashmoni lived only five years and nine months after the completation of the temple. She died on 19th February 1861. After her death, her son-in-law took the charges of the temple. The three storeyed south facing temple has nine spires distributed in the upper two storeys and stands high platform with a flight of stairs, overall it measures 46 feet square and rises over 100 feet high. In the ‘Garbha griha’ an idol of goddess Kali known as Bhavatarini standing on the chest of Shiva. The two idols are placed on a lotus throne made of silver. There are twelve identical Shiva temples built facing the east. The all twelve temples shows the typical aatchala form Bengal architecture. They are built on either side of the ghat on the Hooghly river. To the north east there is a Vishnu Temple known as Radha Kanta Temple. Right in the northwest corner of the courtyard that is to the north of the twelve shiva temples is Sri Ramkrishna’s room. Right to the north of Ramkrishna’s room is a rectangular Verandah. A little north to the Bakultala is Panchabati where Ramkrishna practiced many religious and spiritual activities. The grove is a collection of five trees which are the bata, the peepal, the neem, the amalaki and the bel. Thakur planted these trees under his own care. Totapuri was the tontra guru of Sri Ramkrishna. Ramkrishna had sixteen direct disciple who became monk. Swami Vivekananda was the most famous disciple of Ramkrishna. Other renowned person of Calcutta like the dramatist Girish Ghosh and many all came to visit Ramkrishna. Kalpataru Utsav is one of the famous annual religious festival of this place. The event held on 1st January 1886 when his followers believed that Ramkrishna revealed himself as an Avatar. On this day Ramkrishna took Kalpataru Avatar and fullfil the all wishes to his disciples. So his disciples called him ‘Kalpataru’.This is very famous among his disciples. This festival is still continued. Every year in 1st January Kalpataru Utsav is celebrated. Many people all over India came to visit Dakshineswar throughout the year especially on the special day like Kali Puja, Paila Baisakh, Akshay Tritiya. Adyapith is the religious place near the Dakshineswar Kali Temple. It was founded in 1915 by Sri Anand Thakur- a great devotee of Maa Kali and Sri Ramkrishna. Adya Maa is a devine form of Maa Kali. The temple have three statue. The bottom is having the statue of Sri Ramkrishna, the middle is having Maa Adya and the top displays Radha Krishna. The temple have a great significance among the people. How to reach : People have to get down at Bali Station if they come by train. Bali station is both connected with Howrah and Bandel. Then they have to take bus or auto and get down at Dakshineswar. If anyone come by metro then they have to get down at Dakshineswar metro station. People can walk through the skywalk to reach the temple premises.