Sarbamangala Temple

Hours: Dawn to dusk; aarti at set times (morning and evening)
Entry: Free; small donation expected for prasad
Of all Bardhaman’s temples, none carries a longer or more deeply felt devotional weight than Sarbamangala. The idol of the presiding goddess, a form of Shakti, is approximately 1,000 years old and is the tutelary deity of the Bardhaman Raj itself, which gives the temple an emotional centrality that pure architectural comparison cannot capture. The main shrine, built by Maharaja Kirti Chand in 1702, is Bengal’s first Navaratna (nine-peaked) temple. Its distinctive tiered silhouette, with chariots on each of its three layers, is unlike anything else in the town.
The compound also contains a cluster of subsidiary shrines, the Tarakeswar, Rameswar, Kamaleswar, Chandreswar and Mitraswar Shiva temples among them, making it a self-contained spiritual precinct. During Navratri, Poila Baisakh and Durga Puja, the crowds are enormous; quieter weekday mornings offer a more contemplative experience. The idol is said to rival in sanctity the great Shakti shrines of Kalighat and Dakshineswar.