Dhakeshwari Temple (National Temple of Bangladesh)

Dhakeshwari Temple is traditionally dated to around the 12th century and associated with the Sena dynasty, though the precise founding circumstances rest more on tradition than on a firmly dated inscription. Its name, “Goddess of Dhaka,” is popularly said to be the source of the city of Dhaka’s own name, and the temple is venerated as a Shakti Pitha — one of the sites across the subcontinent where, in Shakta legend, a fragment of the goddess Sati fell after Shiva carried her body in grief. The present-day main image is a replacement; the older cult image is said to have been moved to Kumortuli in Kolkata around the time of Partition.

The temple complex, built around a five-spired (pancharatna) main shrine with four subsidiary Shiva shrines, suffered severe damage during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, when much of the complex was destroyed and its main hall reportedly used by occupying forces to store ammunition. In the decades since independence it has been repaired and expanded, and in 1996 the Bangladeshi government formally designated it “Dhakeshwari Jatiya Mandir” — the National Temple — making Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority nation, unusual in having an officially recognized national Hindu temple. It remains the country’s most prominent living center of Hindu worship, especially for Durga Puja.