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Belur Math (Ramakrishna Temple)

বেলুড় মঠ

Belur, Howrah, West Bengal · 22.6325°, 88.3564°

Sri Ramakrishna (universal temple)ModernSyncretic (temple–mosque–church motifs)

Sacred since

1935 CE

first attestation / structure

Standing structure

main temple dedicated 1938; Math founded 1898

patron: Ramakrishna Mission (design: Swami Vijnanananda)

History & significance

World headquarters of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission on the Hooghly, founded by Swami Vivekananda. The main temple is deliberately composed so that, viewed from different angles, it resembles a temple, a mosque and a church — Ramakrishna's realisation that all paths reach the same sea, fixed in architecture.

Sthala katha — the legend

Vivekananda carried Ramakrishna's relics here himself in 1898, saying the Master would 'stay where he is worshipped by all, without distinction'; his own room upstairs, with the Ganga breeze he loved, is preserved untouched.

Reaching there

Belur Math is a terminus of the Kolkata suburban railway network on the Eastern Railway main line, with Howrah Junction about 6 km away. Buses from Howrah station run throughout the day and taxis are readily available. The district administration gives Kolkata (CCU) airport as the nearest, about 9 km off.

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