About the Book Portuguese, Armenians, English, Scots, Jews, Parsis, Greeks, Japanese and Chinese had come to Kolkata from the eighteenth century to reap their fortunes. A constellation of impressive religious edifices that is linked to the city's mercantile history was the result. Hindu, Sikh, Muslim, Jain and Buddhist communities from across the subcontinent also built places of worship in the same city.
In this book, Kolkata's unique spiritual heritage is presented through splendid photographs of its diverse places of worship that are symbols of Kolkata's composite culture. The narrative, that accompanies each place of worship featured, provides readers with insights into the city's history as well as introduces the customs and traditions of the array of communities who made the city their home. The multi-religious ethos of the city is especially important today when diversity is increasingly being threatened by forces of homogeneity and globalization.
About the Book Jael Silliman was a tenured Associate Professor of Women's Studies at the University of Iowa and a Program Officer at the Ford Foundation, New York, working on Reproductive Rights and Justice for Women. She has written extensively about the Baghdadi Jewish community. Her books on this subject are Jewish Portraits, Indian Frames; The Man with Many Hats and The Teak Almirah. Jael is now an independent scholar, consultant, and writer.
Introduction There are literally hundreds of books on the enchanting city of Kolkata-its history, its music, its streets, its people, and its festivals and so on. But it is difficult to find a comprehensive volume on all the important places of worship, even with a lot of effort. Mala Mukherjee’s and Jael Silliman have filled this gap by bringing in vivid colors all the interesting places of worship of different communities that lend Kolkata its unique vibrancy and zest for life. There are, of course, a few books dedicated to only the Hindu temples of Kolkata, like Tarapada Santra's delightful book on the temples of Kolkata and some of these books focus on just the many Kali temples or even on just the famous one of Kalighat. We have, similarly, books on only the Siva temples or even only one, like the Bhukailash Siva mandir. But these are mainly in Bengali and do not contain attractive photographs. We also have a lot of older and quite better works on the churches of Kolkata as Europeans who erected these imposing buildings, kept better records in true western professional standards, with several decent photographs.
**Contents and Sample Pages**
