Lalmai Chandi Temple

About

Lalmai Chandi Temple, often called Chandimura Mandir, rises on the highest point of the Lalmai hill range in the Barura Upazila of Comilla District in Bangladesh. The temple is dedicated to Kali and stands close to a smaller shrine devoted to Shiva, the two forming a long-revered pairing of the great deities of the Shakta and Shaiva traditions on a single sacred summit.

Local tradition traces the founding of the temple to the seventh century, when Rani Probhaboti, the wife of a Buddhist Moharaj, is said to have raised the first sanctuary on the hill. The shrine has passed through successive eras of devotion since then, with later patrons carrying on the worship of the goddess and the upkeep of her precinct.

A major renovation took place in the seventeenth century under Diteea Debi, a niece of Maharaj Manikko Bahadur of Tripura, who is remembered for the excavation of the Dutia Deeghi tank near the hill. A further round of restoration was undertaken in 1972 and 1973 by Swami Atmanada Geeri Moharaj, who organised the development of the temple precinct in its present form.

History

The Lalmai hill, an unusual elevation rising from the plains of eastern Bengal, has long carried religious significance. The Chandi shrine on its summit is traditionally dated to the seventh century and credited to Rani Probhaboti. A seventeenth-century renovation by Diteea Debi of the Tripura royal house was followed in the early 1970s by reform and reconstruction led by Swami Atmanada Geeri Moharaj.