Mamatamayi Ranima : Shaktiswarupini Rani Rasmani
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"Woman" is the source of creation, "Woman" is the power, "Woman" is the supreme nature. Again, when this woman is patriotic, spiritual minded, compassionate and blessed by God, then that woman becomes unique.
Today I will tell my enthusiastic readers the biography of such a rare woman who had deep patriotism and compassion for the people of the country and indomitable courage in her eyes. By God's infinite grace and her own merits, she became Lokmata Rani Rasmani. On the one hand, this noble woman was a social worker, on the other hand, she was a religious, God-loving person.
She was born on 26th September 1793 to Swargiya Harekrishna Das and Swargiya Rampriya Dashi, a poor farmer in 'Kona' village of Halishahar in present day North Twenty-Four Parganas district. Rampriya Devi lovingly named the daughter "Rani", but later became "Rani Rasmani" due to her neighbors.
At the age of 11, Rasmani was married to Babu Rajchandra Das, the illegitimate son of Babu Pritram Das, the zamindar of Janbazar, Calcutta, in 1804 AD. It is heard that Babu Rajchandra Das was going to Triveni one day on some business, while passing he saw the 10-year-old Rani, seeing the beauty of her face and face, the young man Rajchandra Das fell in love with her. That day, Babu Rajchandra Das returned to Janbazar from Halishahar. After this he came to Rasmoni's village in Halishahar several more times. There he met Tejaswini and Dayalu in addition to Rasmani's form and Lavanya. As a result, he fell in love with Rani more deeply. As a result, the youngest daughter of the Mahishya family of Halishahar became the Queen of Janbazar - Mrs. Rani Rasmani Dasi.
Both Rasmani and Rajchandra were very kind natured people. Most of their wealth was spent on social activities, religious and charitable institutions. No animal was deprived of their kindness and love. Despite a thousand obstacles, they both never stopped serving people. Ranima did many philanthropic works with the help of her husband. Rani Rasmani gained considerable fame through her various philanthropic works. He constructed a road from Subarnarekha river to Puri for the convenience of pilgrims. He built the famous Babughat (in memory of Babu Rajchandra Das), Ahiritola Ghat, Nimtala Ghat in Kolkata for the convenience of Ganga bathing for the people of Calcutta. Even in the field of education, his contribution was substantial, the Imperial Library which is now the National Library of India, and the Hindu College which is now the Presidency University, which he helped immensely in establishing.
At one time the British government levied a water tax on fishermen's catch in the Ganges. Desperate, the fishermen told Babu Rajchandra Das about their plight. This news reached the ears of Rani, Rani sat down to negotiate with her husband and as per Rani's word, Rajchandra Das paid 10,000 rupees (Rs) to the British government and took a lease of five kilometers of Ganges from Ghusuri to Metiyaburuj. As soon as the lease deed and papers reached Ranima, she gave a novel order to the fishermen. On the orders of the queen, the leased portion was surrounded overnight with iron chains. Fishermen will catch fish only in the leased area. As a result of this incident, the traffic in the ghats was stopped, and the company's big cargo ships were also stuck.
It can be thought! A queen of Calcutta is clashing with the British Raj. Calcutta residents have never seen such an incident before. As usual the queen was summoned to the Supreme Court and ordered to remove the iron chains. Ranima was kind to the people, even if there were a thousand obstacles, she could not see anything other than the interests of the people. He made it clear that the fishing nets were damaged by the company's ships and the fish did not come to the area. This results in loss of subjects and loss of business to the queen. He will not accept it. Moreover, he did not do such work voluntarily but the company forced him to do so. He will raise this dam only when the taxes imposed on his subjects are remitted.
All the machinations of the company failed before Rani's intelligence and logic. All taxes on the fishermen were removed and 10,000 taka (Rs.) was returned to the Rani for lease. In this way several times the Queen challenged and defeated the British King with her intelligence, logic and money.
Although the daughter of a farming family, Rasmoni's father Harekrishna Das was educated and mentally superior to ten other people. Rasmoni received her primary education from her father, who used to tell her many stories. Every evening the people of the village would gather at Harekrishna Das's house to listen to Mahabharata, Gita, Puranas. The little queen would get lost in those stories. In this way the seeds of respect for religion, faith in God, love for every creature are gradually planted in his heart.
King Rammohan Roy with the help of Babu Rajchandra Das and Rani Rasmani abolished the practice of satidah, Rani Rasmani wanted women to be freed from slavery and the plight imposed on them in the name of religion. Ranima herself did not accept the barriers of the society and came out of the inner curtain and expressed her valuable opinion with her husband. She became Lokmata Rani Rasmani from the queen of Janbazar through her intelligence, love and faith in God.
In 1836, at the age of 49, Rajchandra Das died suddenly and the queen was distraught. On the one hand, the maddened queen lost the shadow of the man she loved, on the other hand, the family and company's conspiracy to take away the zamindari. But with the help of the queen's son-in-law Mathuramohan Biswas, the queen soon forgot the grief and took the zamindar's accounts. After shouldering the responsibilities of a large inherited estate, he gradually established himself as a natural leader and shrewd businessman.
The humanitarian queen never broke her promise, whether she was a thief, a bandit or a saint. In 1851, robbers attacked Rani's barge near Chandannagar on its way to Gangesagar. When the shooting starts, Rani asks the bandit chief to stop the shooting, demanding to know what they want. When the dacoit chief demanded 12 thousand taka (rupees), Rani agreed and promised to get the dues on time but after receiving the dues they would have to leave the road. The next day the man sent the promised money to the robber chief.
Rani Rasmani also played a unique role as a social reformer. Raja Rammohan Roy was greatly assisted by the queen, as I have already said. Again, he also provided sufficient financial support to Vidyasagar Mahasaya in the practice of widow marriage.
Rani Rasmani's greatest social reform has played an important role in eradicating the existing religious discrimination among Hindus. The magnificent Kalimandir of Dakshineswar built by Rani Rasmani symbolizes the union of Hindus through the abolition of caste discrimination. Rani Rasmani was very religious, but even if she was religious, in those days there was no rule for lower caste Hindus to establish religious institutions or places of worship. There, a lower caste woman, no matter how pious she is or a queen, building her temple is a traditional movement of Hindu society.
I request my readers to read with patience. Because they can learn a lot from Rani Rasmoni's life and especially now the phase of Rani Rasmoni's life that I will talk about is very important. Listen then, why Rani Rasmani is remembered in history, that story.
In 1847, a wealthy widowed zamindarani, Rani Rasmani, organized a pilgrimage to the Manse Kashi to worship Goddess Annapurna. Twenty-four boats, relatives, servants, and all the preparations are complete. It is said that on the eve of the journey, Rani had a vision of Goddess Kali. Devi tells him-
"There is no need to go to Kashi. Worship my idol in a beautiful temple on the Ganges. I will appear in that idol and accept the worship."
The next morning told the whole family and asked the son-in-law Mathuramohan to look for land on the banks of the Ganga to establish the temple. After much searching, the land was found to be the land of an English gentleman. However, in 1847 Rani Rasmony bought the twenty acres of land from John Hastie for approximately 42,500 Taka (Rs.) or 50,000 Taka (Rs.).
Readers are requested to pay close attention. The history of the land is a unique example of secularism. The land was owned by a European, Christian John Hastie, part of the land was a Muslim cemetery, now the site of the Kali Temple.
So, what was earlier known as Saheban Bagicha, at the initiative of Rani Rasmoni, became a Kali temple with Navaratna in Bengali architectural style. History has witnessed a meeting ground of all religions.
The construction of this great temple in 1847 started under the leadership of Ramnath Mandal of Taliganj. After nearly eight years of work, the idol was installed in the temple on 31st May 1855, the day of Sannayatra, in Mahasamarohe. Aaradhya Devi of Dakshineshwar Kalibari is "Maa Bhavatarini", Goddess Kalika, Shiva under foot. The main temple has a navaratna, apart from the main temple there are twelve eight-chala Shiva temples known as "Twelve Shiva Mandirs". To the north of the temple is the Radhakrishna Temple known as "Sri Sri Radhakanta Temple" and to the south is the Nath Temple. At the north-west corner of the temple premises are some houses which were originally built for the temple servants, for catering etc. Later many great people came to that house. I will tell you that, wait a little.
When the construction of the temple was nearing completion, the queen faced a major obstacle. The construction of the temple is also not like a temple, in those days it cost about nine lakh rupees to build the temple. Then think what kind of great work Rani had embarked on, that too only by getting a dream. But no matter how magnificent the temple is, who will worship this temple built by a Shudra woman? No Brahmin is willing to be the priest of this temple. There was almost a stir in the society at that time. The people of Calcutta did not think that day, what Rani Rasmani wanted to do.
However, Rani Rasmani is not a bride to be put off. He wrote letters to many eminent scholars of that time. While receiving a dismal response from almost everyone, a poor Brahmin named Ramkumar Chattopadhyay of Kamarpukur, Hooghly, showed Rani a ray of hope. He said that worship in this temple is possible only when Ranima gives the temple as a gift to a Brahmin and hands it over to the priest after collecting a certain amount of money for running the temple.
The queen, without further delay, handed over the priestship of the temple to Ramkumar Chattopadhyay, and earmarked the revenue from the zamindari of Dinajpur for the upkeep of the temple. Ramkumar came to Kalimandir in Dakshineshwar with his younger brother Gadadhar Chattopadhyay or Gadai. He brought along his nephew Hridiya. Ramkumar was given the responsibility of the head priest and Gadadhar for the decoration of Maa Kali and minor tasks related to the temple. The following year, after the death of Ramkumar, Gadadhara was appointed as the head priest of the temple.
Yes, you guessed it right, this Gadadhar is the Gadadhara who later became Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansadev by the grace of Mother Kali. From this time to 1886, Sri Ramakrishna Dev stayed in this temple for about 30 years. His consort Sarada Devi stayed outside the temple premises in Nahavatkhana. This Nahavatkhana is now a temple of Sarada Devi.
In course of time, this Kalimandir of Rani became the Sadhana field of her beloved Gadai Tagore. In this temple Kali Sadhaka Ramakrishna introduced the "Sarvadharma Sahandya Niti", according to him all religions are equal. God is present in everything. This temple of Rani Rasmani became a pilgrimage site for her beloved Chhoto Thakur or Gadai Thakur. Ramakrishnadev's pious disciple Narendranath or Swami Vivekananda has many memories associated with this temple.
As many meritorious people have visited this temple of Rani, it is still one of the notable temples in the world due to the daily arrival of lakhs of devotees. For this temple and through numerous philanthropic works, the name of this unique woman of Bengal, Rani Rasmani, is engraved in golden letters in history.
Writing : Immortal Gallerys
