On the way from Burdwan to Guskara get down at Kogram or Ujani Satipeeth stop or from Sealda by train to Guskara and from there take a bus going to Guskara bus stand, from there take a bus going to Newhat and get down at Ujani Satipeeth or Kogram stop. One can come here from Bolpur and also from Katwa.
But the temple is within one and a half kilometers from the main road. Toto is available for visiting temples. There is a tall archway on the road itself. Ujani satipeeth is written there. And a board on the side of the road says Pallikbi Kumud Ranjan Mallick’s homestead.
The temple is situated at the very end of the Kogram near the river Ajay, so there is a calm, mellow and quiet atmosphere all around. And the population in this kogram is also very less.
The temple is a very modest one-storied temple. Front porch. Then the sanctum sanctorum. There is a flower garden in front of the temple. Mother is worshiped with that flower.
Mother Mangalchandi is present in the womb. Mother here is ten-pointed. Mar’s statue is made of hard stone. Earlier the mother’s idol was made of ashta dhatu. But in 1994, the statue was stolen. Mother is worshiped in one picture for three or four months. Then High Court judge Sudhendu Nath Mallik, a son of the Mallik family of the village, made this hard stone statue. Since then mother has been worshiped in hard stone idols. But here the mother has no children. A small Ganesha idol is kept separately.
Beside the Mother and Bhairava is a small Buddha image seated on a Vajrasana. According to the experts, the statue belongs to the Pala period. That Buddha statue is also worshiped here. There are also a few broken stone idols. I also saw such a broken stone idol in the ancestral house of rural poet Kumud Ranjan Mallick nearby. All these broken stone idols seem to have been recovered from the nearby Ajay Nad or Ajay Nadar Char.
Anyway back to the earlier context, the ancient name of Kogram was Ujani. Hence the name of this Sati Peetha, Ujani Sati Peetha, is the thirteenth Sati Peetha according to Peetha Tantra Tantra. Here the left elbow of the goddess fell. Here the Goddess is Ma Mangalchandi and Bhairav is Kapilambar or Kapileshwar. There is no separate temple of Bhairav here. In the same sanctum sanctorum resides Bhairav Kapileshwar along with his mother Mangal Chandi.
The head priest of the temple, Somnath Roy, was saying that they are in charge of mother’s worship in mother’s dream country from generation to generation. Before him, 17 members of this clan were engaged in the worship of mothers. Currently, he is in charge of mother’s puja as the eighteenth descendant. Apart from the daily puja here, the main event of this temple is Durga Puja.
During Durga Puja, Mother’s annual puja is held for four days. On the third day of Puja, goat sacrifice is also performed along with other sacrifices on the Navami day. Here the mother is given fish every day throughout the year. Only during Durga Puja, the mother is given non-vegetarian food on Ashtami.
Apart from the Durga puja time, Kali Puja, Navanna, Jaya Tuesday in Jaishtha month, Vipattarini and Payala Maghe are special pujas of the mother.
On that day, a fair was also held on the banks of Ajay river. The fair is known as Ujani Mela or Mangalchandi Fair.
Puja can be offered very properly in this temple. But the only problem is that there are no shops nearby. When going to offer puja to mother, puja material should be brought along.
There is also provision for Bhoga. But you have to go and contact by ten o’clock in the morning.
Adjacent to the temple is Pallikabi Kumud Ranjan Mallick’s ancestral home. I couldn’t resist the urge to say two lines of his poem Amar Bari.
“My house is on the bend of the Ajay River, which is broken.
Where water fills the earth and surrounds it.” Really so At the ancestral home of rural poet Kumud Ranjan Mallick, right next to the river Ajay. And here the confluence of Ajay river with Coonur river. So here the water surrounds the land. The name of the house is “Madhukar.”
Here and another temple has the statue of Vaishnava poet, author of Chaitanya Mangalkavya, Lochana Das. An idol of Nitai Gaur is also worshiped in the temple along with an idol of Lochan Das. Nearby came a dilapidated, dilapidated, ancient, overgrown manor house. I did not find any information about the house.
There is a small story behind the initiation of Ma Mangalchandi Puja in Ujani. He is mentioned in the poem Chandimangal by Kabikkankan Mukunda Ram Chakraborty. Once a dancer in the court of Lord Indra Apsara Ratnamala was born on earth in the form of Khullana under the curse of Lord Indra. Saudagar, the rich man of Ujani Nagar, got married with her. Dhanpati Saudagar was a Shaiva. And Khullana used to worship Ma Mangalchandi. Once while going to trade, rich man Saudagar Khullana’s worshiped mother Mangalchandi kicked him and left to trade.
The consequences of this incident are dire. Dhanpati Saudagar was captured by the king of Sinhalese while trading. On hearing that news, her son Shrimant Saudagar worshiped Ma Mangalchandi, satisfied the mother and was able to bring back his father Dhanpati Saudagar. Dhanpati Saudagar returned to Ujani and started the puja of Ma Mangalchandi.
Everyone will be fine.
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