The temple at Kalighat as a place of worship for the Sakti cultists was set up by the Sabarna Roy Choudhurys, A famous Brahmin Zamindar family of Barisa in the district of 24 Parganas. This family was one of the foremost Brahmin families in Bengal and still continues to be very highly regarded for the various contributions to the cultural development of Bengal. Different branches of the Sabarna Roy Choudhurys had settled themselves at other villages, namely, Halisahar, portions of Calcutta, Baruipur, etc. It is believed that the swirling wheel of Lord Vishnu had sliced off the corpse of Goddess Sati, when Lord Shiva was performing his menacing dance (Pralay) with her on his shoulders, in a fit of tremendous rage. The slices of her body fell at different places which later turned into pilgrimage centers for the devout Hindus. Kalighat is one such sacred spot where a toe of the Goddess's right foot is believed to have dropped. In the months of Bhadra, Paush and Chaitra (according to Bengali calendar), Kalighat turns into a confluence of devout Bengali and non-Bengali pilgrims.
