History & Mythology

Lord Shiva — The Eternal God of the Universe

Before we can understand the history of this magnificent temple, we must first understand the deity who inhabits it — Lord Shiva, the Mahadeva, the Great God, the Destroyer and Regenerator of the Universe. Shiva is one of the principal deities of Hinduism, and within the tradition of Shaivism, he is worshipped as the Supreme Being — the Absolute Reality from which all existence emerges and into which all existence ultimately returns.

Shiva's mythology is as vast and complex as the cosmos itself. He is the Adiyogi — the First Yogi — who sits in eternal meditation on Mount Kailash in the Himalayas, his body smeared with sacred ash (vibhuti), his matted hair (jata) adorned with the crescent moon and the sacred river Ganga flowing from it, the sacred Ganga flowing from the locks of his hair. He is the husband of Goddess Parvati (also known as Shakti, Durga, Kali, and Uma), the father of Ganesha and Kartikeya, and the lord of a vast divine retinue including the Nandikeshvara (divine bull Nandi), the Bhuta-ganas (divine attendants), and the Saptarishis (Seven Sages).

In his cosmic aspect, Shiva embodies the principle of dissolution — the breaking down of all that is formed, so that new creation can emerge. This makes him not a god of destruction in any nihilistic sense, but a god of transformation — the deity who presides over the necessary endings that make new beginnings possible. He is the deity of yogis, ascetics, and seekers — those who have turned away from worldly attachments to seek the ultimate truth of existence. And yet he is also the supremely compassionate deity of ordinary devotees, quick to grant boons, fiercely protective of those who take refuge in him.

The Significance of 108 in Hindu Tradition

The choice of 108 as the number of Shivalingas at Naba Kailash Temple is no coincidence — it is a deeply considered act of sacred mathematics rooted in millennia of Hindu scriptural and astronomical knowledge.

The Vedic tradition holds that 108 is the number of the cosmos. Ancient Indian astronomers calculated, with astonishing accuracy, that the distance between the Earth and the Sun is approximately 108 times the diameter of the Sun, and the distance between the Earth and the Moon is approximately 108 times the diameter of the Moon. These calculations, made thousands of years before modern astronomy confirmed them, led the Vedic seers to regard 108 as the fundamental ratio of the cosmos — the mathematical heartbeat of the universe.

In the Vedic scriptures:

• There are 108 Upanishads — the philosophical texts that form the essence of Vedic knowledge
• The Rigveda, the oldest of the four Vedas, has 10,800 verses (108 × 100)
• There are 108 names of the Goddess (Ashtottara Shatanamavali) recited in her worship
• A Rudraksha mala contains 108 beads for japa (mantra repetition)
• There are 108 karanas (dance poses) of Nataraja (Shiva as cosmic dancer)
• There are 108 marma points (vital energy points) in the human body according to Ayurveda
• In Hindu temple architecture, the 108 pada-vinyasa (grid of 108 spaces) is used for sacred site planning

For Shaivites (devotees of Shiva specifically), 108 has even deeper resonance. The number of names in the Shiva Ashtottara Shatanamavali — the 108 sacred names of Lord Shiva recited in worship — equals 108. The Rudrashtadhyayi — the most sacred hymn to Rudra (a fierce form of Shiva) — is recited in multiples of 108. In this context, the Maharaja's decision to build exactly 108 Shiva temples was a declaration: every dimension of the cosmos that is encoded in the number 108 is present here, in this sacred space.

Kalna: The Ancient Temple Town of Bengal

The town of Ambika Kalna has been a seat of religious culture in Bengal for many centuries. Situated on the western bank of the Bhagirathi — one of the most sacred rivers of India, a distributary of the holy Ganga — Kalna has attracted pilgrims, sages, and royal patrons since ancient times. The town's name itself is layered with religious significance: "Ambika" refers to the Goddess Durga (also known as Ambika), indicating that the town was historically also a centre of Shakti worship alongside its strong Shaiva tradition.

By the time the Bardhaman Raj estate rose to prominence in the 17th and 18th centuries, Kalna had already established itself as one of Bengal's most important temple towns. Several significant temples had been built in the town by various royal patrons, and it was part of a broader tradition of Bengali maharajas competing in pious generosity, each trying to outdo the others in the grandeur and devotional intensity of their temple endowments.

The Bardhaman Raj Family — Patrons of Bengal's Temple Tradition

The story of the 108 Shiv Mandir cannot be told without understanding the family that built it — the Maharajas of Bardhaman, one of the most powerful and culturally significant royal families of Bengal during the 18th and 19th centuries.

The Bardhaman Raj (also spelled Burdwan Raj) was a large zamindari estate that controlled vast territories in what is now West Bengal. The family rose to great prominence under the patronage of the Mughal Empire and later developed close ties with the British East India Company during the colonial period. This combination of Mughal-era prestige and British-era political accommodation allowed the family to accumulate enormous wealth and, with it, to engage in extensive temple construction and religious patronage.

The Bardhaman maharajas were deeply devout Shaivites — followers of Lord Shiva — and their religious patronage reflected this devotion in concrete, monumental form. They built temples, endowed trusts, supported festivals, and provided for the maintenance of a vast network of religious institutions across their territory. The 108 Shiv Mandir at Kalna was the most ambitious and most spectacular expression of this tradition of royal religious patronage.

Maharaja Teja Chandra Bahadur — The Visionary Royal Devotee

Maharaja Teja Chandra Bahadur ascended to the throne of the Bardhaman Raj at a time of relative stability and prosperity for the estate. A man of deep personal piety and considerable aesthetic sensibility, Teja Chandra became one of the most prolific temple-builders in the history of the Bardhaman estate. His reign saw the construction of multiple magnificent temple complexes, but the 108 Shiv Mandir at Kalna was undoubtedly his masterwork — the fullest expression of his devotion to Lord Shiva and his vision of what a sacred space could be.

The decision to build not one, not a dozen, but a full 108 Shiva temples, each housing its own Shivalinga, each constructed with the same care and devotion as if it were the only temple, reflects a quality of devotional imagination that goes beyond mere piety into the realm of mystical vision. Teja Chandra appears to have conceived of the entire complex as a single sacred entity — a mandala made of brick and stone, a yantra given three-dimensional form, a permanent offering to Shiva that would continue to praise and worship the god long after the human bodies of all those who built it had returned to the earth.

The temple was consecrated in 1809 CE — a date that marks not only the completion of this extraordinary project but the beginning of its ongoing sacred life. From the day of consecration to the present day, the priests of the temple have performed the daily rituals of worship, maintaining an unbroken chain of devotion that now extends over 215 years.

Construction and Craftsmen

The actual construction of 108 temples is an engineering and logistical feat that deserves acknowledgment alongside its spiritual significance. Under the direction of Maharaja Teja Chandra, skilled craftsmen — including master temple architects (Sthapatis), terracotta artists, sculptors, and construction workers — were engaged in what must have been years of intensive work to bring the vision to fruition.

The Bengal terracotta tradition that shaped the aesthetics of the 108 Shiv Mandir had been developing for centuries. Terracotta — fired clay — was the primary medium of artistic expression in Bengal, used for temple decoration panels, figurines, and architectural elements. By the 18th and 19th centuries, Bengali craftsmen had developed extraordinary skill in terracotta work, creating panels of incredible detail and expressiveness.

The panels adorning the outer walls of the 108 shrines at Naba Kailash depict scenes from the great epics — the Ramayana and Mahabharata — as well as scenes from the Shiva Purana, the Bhagavata Purana, and other sacred texts. They also include panels depicting the secular life of the period — musicians, dancers, courtly scenes, and even scenes from everyday Bengali village life — a charming reminder that the divine and the human are never truly separate in the living tradition of Hinduism.

Two Centuries of History: The Temple Through the Ages

The 108 Shiv Mandir has weathered over two centuries of Bengali history — the twilight of the Mughal era, the rise and dominance of British colonial rule, the tumultuous events of India's freedom struggle and Partition, and the post-independence era with all its changes and challenges. Through all of this, the temple has remained a constant — a fixed point of divine energy in the flux of human history.

During the British colonial period, the temple continued to be maintained by the Bardhaman Raj Estate, which itself had become deeply integrated into the colonial administrative structure as a major zamindari estate. The maharajas of this period maintained the temple's traditions while also engaging with the wider world of colonial Bengal — a world that was simultaneously being transformed by Western education, social reform movements, and the beginnings of Indian nationalism.

After Indian independence in 1947 and the subsequent abolition of the zamindari system in the early 1950s, the legal and administrative status of many temple properties changed significantly. The Bardhaman Raj Estate, reorganised under the new legal framework, continued to maintain responsibility for the 108 Shiv Mandir and its associated properties, ensuring that the devotional traditions of the temple remained unbroken even as the political and social landscape of Bengal was transformed beyond recognition.

Today, the temple is recognised as a heritage monument of great significance and attracts visitors not only from across India but from around the world — pilgrims seeking Shiva's divine grace, tourists fascinated by its unique architecture, and scholars studying the rich tradition of Bengal's temple-building culture.