It is interesting to note that while all the Hindu gods and goddesses are revered and worshipped throughout India, people of different states have a special affinity for one particular god or goddess. Like Lord Shiva in Varanashi, Lord Krishna in Mathura, Vinayaka or Ganapati in Maharashtra or Jagannath in Odisha, Goddess Kali is perhaps the most revered deity in West Bengal. Apart from the Kalighat Kali Temple in Calcutta, there are several other temples in the state where the goddess is worshipped daily, among which Dakshineshwar Kali Temple needs a special needs mention.

Situated on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, Dakshineswar Kali Temple, popularly known as Dakshineswar Kalibari, dedicated to Bhavatarini, a form of Goddess Kali, associated with Ramakrishna and his wife Ma Sarada, mystics of 19th century Bengal, is considered a place of pilgrimage for millions of Hindus around the world. The temple, equipped with nine spires and built in Navaratna style of Bengal architecture, was founded around the middle of the 19th century by Rani Rashmoni, well known for her philanthropic activities.

Rashmoni Das, who was well known for her philanthropic activities and later popularly came to be known as Lokamata Rani Rashmoni, was born on 28 September 1793 in a peasant family, living in the Kona village, a bordering area of present-day North 24 Parganas and Nadia.

She lost her mother at the age of seven and at the tender age of eleven, she was married to a member of a wealthy Zaminder family, Babu Rajachandra Das (Marh), of Janbazar, Kolkata. After the death of her husband in 1836, she took the control her property and business and soon earned the love and respect of her people She was a courageous lady, had confrontations with the ruling British on several occasions, and was also one of the earliest social reformers in early nineteenth-century Bengal. She was also a religious woman, who financed the construction of several ghats, a flight of steps leading down to the Ganges, which include the Babu Ghat, constructed in the memory of her husband, along with the Ahiritola Ghat and Nimtala Ghat for the benefit of the daily bathers in the river.

As a religious lady, Rani Rashmoni decided in 1847 to go upon a long pilgrimage to the sacred Hindu city of Kashi, also known as Varanashi, to pay homage to the Divine Mother Kali, accompanied with twenty-four boats, carrying her relatives, servants, and supplies.

Legend says, the night before she was scheduled to leave for Varanasi, the Divine Mother goddess Kali appeared before her in a dream, asking her to leave the idea of visiting Benaras or Varanashi, and to build a temple along the Ganges and arrange for her worship there.

Deeply influenced by the dream, and considering it as the divine command, Rani Rashmoni discarded her proposed pilgrimage and eventually, purchased a 12,000-hectare (30,000-acre) plot of land in the village of Dakshineswar, which during that time was surrounded by dense forest. Part of the land, resembling a tortoise hump, was once a Muslim burial ground, which was considered as an ideal place for the worship of Shakti according to Tantra traditions, while the other part, measuring 8.1-hectare (20-acre) and popularly known as Saheban Bagicha, was bought from an Englishman, Jake Hastie. It took eight years, between 1847 and 1855 and around nine hundred thousand rupees to complete the construction of the huge temple complex, and the idol of Goddess Kali, formerly named Sri Sri Jagadishwari Kali, and later came to be known as Bhavatarini, was installed on the auspicious day of the Snana Yatra of Lord Jagannath on 31 May 1855, with Ramkumar Chattopadhyay as the head priest. The idol, created by the sculptor Nabin Bhaskar, born in Dainhat in Katwa of Burdwan District, was crafted from hard black rock stone, brought from west Jamalpur.

The main temple of the complex, the temple of Goddess Kali, the three storey south facing edifice, built in Navaratna style of typical Bengal architecture, with nine spires distributed in the two upper storey, stands on a high platform with a flight of stairs, covering an area of around 46 sq feet (4.27 sq m) and rises over 100 feet (30m) high. Apart from a narrow and covered terrace that serves as an audience chamber, the temple also has a spacious Natmandir, built right in front of the temple. The garbha griha or the sanctum sanctorum of the temple contains the idol of goddess Kali, known as Bhavatarini, standing on the chest of Lord Shiva, placed on a silver throne that resembles a lotus with thousand petals. The complex also contains the row of twelve identical Shiva temples, located close to the main temple, facing the east in the typical aat-chala or eight eaves, another Bengal architectural style, and each containing a Shivalinga made of black stone. Apart from that, there is also a Vishnu temple, also called Radha Kanta temple, located at the northeast end of the main temple that houses a 21 and a half inch idol of Lord Krishna and a 16 inches idol of Radha on a silver throne.

Ramkumar Chattopadhayay, the head priest of the Dakshineswar Kali Temple, was assisted by his younger brother, Gadadhar and nephew Hridaya. However, as Ramkumar passed away in 1856, just a year after the temple was inaugurated, Gadadhar was appointed the head priest by Rani Rashmoni, despite objection of the other senior priests of the temple. Later, Gadadhar Chattopadhayay became famous as Ramakrishna Paramahansa, an ardent seeker of Goddess Kali, and was the major influence for bringing much in the way of both fame and pilgrims to the temple. His consort Sarada Devi, popularly known as Ma Sarada, used to stay in a small room on the ground floor of the Nahabatkhana or the music room, which later became a shrine dedicated to her. However, Rani Rashmoni lived for only five years and nine months after the inauguration of the temple and died on 19 February 1861, just a day after accomplishing her final task of establishing a trust for the maintenance of the temple on 18th February, 1861.