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Friday, November 2, 2018

Kalikambal Temple, George Town – History

Kalikambal Temple, George Town – History
Kalikambal Temple is part of the tradition of naming the port cities of Mumbai, Calcutta and Chennai after the goddess consecrated in a temple on the seashore. Chennamman lent her name to Chennai, capital of Tamil Nadu. She was the presiding deity of Chennai Kuppam, an old settlement in the 17th century CE. The area where the temple now exists was called Maratta town. This changed to Muthialpet and Pavazhakaara Theru – Coral Merchant Street. This area was also called Chennamman Kuppam. The presiding deity of Chennamman Kuppam was Kali and now she is called Kalikambal. For more than 500 years Vishwakarmas (artisans and craftsmen’s community) worshipped Kalika as their family deity. The temple is being maintained by Vishwakarmas.
The temple was originally located closer to the sea shore and was relocated to the current site at 1640 AD. It was then built in 1678. Shivaji, the Maratha warrior and the founder of the Hindawi-Swarajya in the 17th century, had worshiped in this temple incognito on 3 October 1667. It is interesting to note that he came to be called as Chatrapati after worshipping the deity. It is believed that a fierce form of Goddess was held in worship earlier and that this form was replaced with the Shanta Swaroopam (calm posture) form of Goddess. The great Tamil poet, Subramanya Bharathiyar, when he was working for Swadeshi Mithran, used to visit this temple often. He song the famous “Yadumaki Ninrai Kali” song on this deity. The famous TMS’s song ‘Ullam Uruhuthaiya’ was sung for the first time here only, in 1952 by Sri Andavan Pichai.