Kalna India
178
Cruises availables
At departure or passage at this port
Scenic Cruises (74 Cruises)
Scenic Aura
74 Cruises
Uniworld Boutique River Cruise (104 Cruises)
Ganges Voyager II
104 Cruises
| 19 September | 12 days | One-way from New Delhi to Kolkata |
450-628-6241
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| 28 September | 12 days | One-way from New Delhi to Kolkata |
450-628-6241
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Frequently Asked Questions
Against the bank of the Hooghly, where buffalo bathe beside fishing boats. From there an electric rickshaw runs into the heart of the town, threading between vegetable stalls and bicycles loaded with jute.
A set unique in India: 108 Shiva shrines laid out in two perfect circles, 74 on the outer ring and 34 on the inner one, each capped with the same curved roof inspired by Bengali huts. The maharaja of Bardhaman built it in 1809.
Because one hundred and eight is the number of beads on a Hindu prayer rosary: a devotee walking the full circuit tells the prayer step by step. From the centre, every doorway lines up and the eye runs from altar to altar in a geometry as calming as it is impressive.
Yes. Priests still perform the rites there, amid the scent of hibiscus flowers laid at the foot of black or white stone lingams. This is not an archaeological site but a working place of devotion.
The former princely estate, facing the 108 temples behind an enclosure wall. It gathers several eighteenth- and nineteenth-century temples covered in carved terracotta, some bristling with multiple turrets in the Bengali manner.
Each façade reads like a comic strip in clay: scenes from the Ramayana, ships, figures at work. The details reward slowness — a dancer here, a parrot there, a moustachioed soldier further along. The caretakers happily point out the best-preserved panels.
On foot between the temple buildings, and by rickshaw to and from the riverbank. The rickshaw ride, included in most calls, crosses the town's daily life at eye level, slowly enough to exchange greetings and collect ten invitations to tea.
It is that of a Bengali market town that pays little attention to its treasures: uniformed schoolchildren laughing through the lanes, barbers working under the trees, women hanging freshly dyed saris to dry like flags.
River fish, mountains of turmeric and marigold garlands for the evening offerings. The confectioners' windows display their curd-milk sweets — Bengal treats sugar work as a major art.
Because this sacred arm of the Ganges has been the region's backbone for centuries: European trading posts followed one another along it, goods moved on it, and every village it passes owes its existence to it. Kalna's maharajas built facing the water, and the town is best understood from the water.
