It was the year of 1853.
Ramkumar had come to Calcutta. The family decided that it was time for Gadadhar to go to Calcutta to make something of his life. He could help Ramkumar in the running of the school and revive his own education.
Gadadhar had no objection to the idea. Infact he was happy that he would again be in the care of his brother who treated him like his own son.
With the permission of his mother he went to Calcutta with his brother, Ramkuamar.
In Calcutta, Ramkumar’s school was in a colony named Jhamapukur.
Ramkumar had taken upon himself to do priestly duties in several households but due to the school he was not able to do justice to those obligations. He had to devote his entire time to the school.
He didn’t want to give up his priestly duties as it brought him a good amount of money. So, he gave the charge of the priestly duties to Gadadhar. The task suited well to the religious nature of young Gadadhar.
He was happy.
Besides playing priest he had restarted his normal studies. His sweet nature had enamoured the customers. He had become the favourite of all the religious people. His endearing talk, polite manners and religiousness had made very good impression. Gadadhar had made a fresh band of friends. He was having a normal good time. He had again lost interest in studies after showing a brief enthusiasm. The priestly duties had claimed him.
Ramkumar wanted his brother to gain higher education and rise in life. But the disinterest of his brother in the studies dismayed him. He advised Gadadhar not to neglect his studies.
Gadadhar listened calmly and remarked, “Brother! I don’t want the knowledge that only teaches how to earn bread and butter. The knowledge I seek is that enlightens one spiritually. That will help me attain real understanding of life and final salvation.”
The elder brother stared at the younger one. He could not make head or tail of what the latter was saying. But he did not lose temper because he loved Gadadhar. And he didn’t want to force anything on the youngman.
The time changed. Financial state of Ramkumar took turn for the worst. Only a couple of boys remained in his school. No amount of hard work changed the luck. He wanted to close down the school and try something else. But what? He was not trained for any other job. He gave the problem a lot of thought but the viable solution evaded him.
At last he left everything to the fate and prayed to God for some divine help.
There was a colony named ‘Jaan Bazaar’ in South Calcutta where lived a famous queen named Rasmani, She belonged to Dheewar caste which was considered of a lower order in Hindu caste system. Her husband Raja Ramachandradas had died some time ago when the queen was 44 years old.
She had four daughters.
After the death of her husband Rasmani had to manage the princely estate herself. She had immense wealth and properties. The queen was a very efficient and capable woman. Very kind hearted she was who never shirked from helping out the needy and the poor.
Rasmani had married off all her four daughters. The third one was named Karuna who was married to Madhurnath Biswas who belonged to upper caste but was not rich. Karuna died shortly after marriage.
Rasmani liked Madhurnath very much. On the former’s request the latter lived with his mother-in-law and helped her in the management of the estate.
Pleased with his work and nature the queen married her fourth daughter Jagdamba to him.
Rani Rasmani had a long cherished dream to go on a pilgrimage. She wanted to visit Kashi. Finally, she made up her mind and began all the preparations in earnest. She had set aside a large sum of money for the purpose.
But before she could depart she saw goddess Kaali in her dream. She spoke to Rasmani, “Do not go to Kashi. Construct a temple for me on the bank of Ganga. It should be beautiful and the regular arrangements for my daily worship be made. There I will accept your prayers and offerings everyday.”
The queen took her dream seriously and cancelled her pilgrimage programme.
She really believed that Kaali Maa had personally spoken to her and what she had said indeed was sacred order to the queen Rasmani.
She decided to build the temple accordingly.
She surveyed the bank of river Ganga to select a suitable spot for the temple. The place she finally chose was at a river side village called Dakshineshwara in south of Calcutta. Eighty bighas of land was purchased by her for the purpose and construction work started for the Kaali Mandir.
It took seven years for the temple construction work to reach some distance. The completion was still some way off. The queen was becoming impatient. Who knows when the death would steal a march on the life? She decided to duly instal the Kaali idol in the incomplete temple.
Why wait for the construction to be completed? By the time the Kaali idol arrived the construction too had reached the finish line.
A grand celebration was organised on 31st May, 1855. The goddess idol was installed in the temple with all due rites and rituals. The temple reverberated with echoes of holy chants and sounds of bells and conchshells. The queen spent money like water. Pundits and scholars had come from far and wide places.
The queen presented a gold coin and a silk shawl to each of the distinguished guests. All day long free food was served to the armies of people who partook in rows after rows. The queen spent nine lac rupees on the extravaganza. She also bought Shalwadi district to make it the property of the temple to finance the daily expenses of the temple. All the taxes levied went into the coffers of the temple.
But there was no priest in the temple.
She was looking for a worthy Brahmin priest. But no Brahmin would accept it because they claimed that the queen was a lower caste. Brahmins considered it a shame to serve a lower caste.
During those days Brahmins would not even enter temples belonging to the lower castes.
The queen had deep faith in Maa Kaali. Why should only a Brahmin qualify to be a priest? Why can’t she herself worship Kaali daily? After all its was Mother Kaali herself who wanted a temple built by her. It made sense. But she also knew that orthodox clergy and upper caste prejudice won’t accept such rationality. If they stayed away from the temple even if wrongly it would seriously devalue the importance of her temple she built with such love and devotion.
She would not let it happen. Her temple should be acceptable to all.
Rasmani consulted several religious scholars and pundits to find an answer to the riddle. No solution appeared in sight. It worried her. By chance Ramkumar came to know of the queen’s dilemma.
He went to the queen and suggested, “Rani, if you donate your temple and the attached property to some Brahmin then he would naturally do the worship and the daily rites and the rituals. That can solve the problem as the temple would be a Brahmin’s property and no caste would stay away.”
The queen liked the idea.
She donated the entire complex to her Brahmin guru. With his consent she became the Chief Trustee as she wanted to be linked to the temple symbolically or in some other way. When the orthodox clergy heard about it they rose up in arms. They declared that no Brahmin would go to the temple if the lower caste served as a temple trustee. But no one had the courage to openly condemn it as sacrilege.
Ramkumar disagreed with other Brahmins. He declared that the arrangement suffered no religious disability. It pleased the queen and she started to rever Ramkumar. She requested him to wear the mantle of the priest of the Kaali Maa temple.
Ramkumar accepted the offer. All the problems of the queen were now solved positively to her liking.
In the celebration of his duly becoming the priest of the temple prasadam was accepted by all except one person—Gadadhar. Otherwise he had taken part in all other rituals zealously. He was somehow very orthodox in respect of his food and eating habits. He fasted all day long. In the evening he went to a shop and bought some Chiwara, a rice preparation to eat.
Then, he returned to Jhamapurkur.
But Ramkumar did not return. In the morning Gadadhar went to Dakshineshwara to look out for his brother. There he learned that his brother had no intention of returning home. He returned home again hoping that his brother would return when all the rituals at the temple were over. He did not know that his brother had accepted the whole time preiesthood of the Kaali temple.
One week went by.
Still there was no sign of Ramkumar. Gadadhar again went to Dakshineshwara where the truth was revealed to him.
Gadadhar did not like it.
He protested, “Brother, our father never took anything from any lower caste person. But you have accepted to serve a lower caste.”
Ramkumar advised his brother to use his brain and think rationally. How could a person (the queen) chosen by Kaali Maa herself be considered a lower caste? There was something wrong with the caste consideration. The brothers debated on.
Atlast they decided to settle the matter through lottery. The lottery went in favour of Ramkumar which held that Ramkumar had done the right thing.
Now what could Gadadhar do?
The school had closed. The priesting at Calcutta was not paying enough to sustain him.
Should he go back to the village? But what for? There was no hope. He pondered and pondered. In this exercise the evening overtook him while he still was in Dakshineshwara with his brother. He had to stay for the night.
At night, Ramkumar asked him to take food. But Gadadhar refused to accept the food of the temple that belonged to a lower caste queen. He was still not reconciled or was not certain about what he should do.
Ramkumar said, “This food is cooked in the holy Ganga water that sanctifies everything it touches. Why should you refuse to eat the food? It is simply foolish and stretching the beliefs too far.”
Gadadhar did not argue. He just kept silent but would not touch the food.
Ramkumar suggested, “Alright brother, go and bring some food material from the market. Cook the food out there on the sand on Ganga bank. Will that be okay?”
Gadadhar agreed to it.
That settled the dispute. Now Gadadhar would buy his own food material and cook it outside the temple.
Thus, he stayed with his brother and Kaali temple had senior and junior priest.
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