Kalkaji Mandir, is a Hindu Temple, dedicated to the Hindu Goddess Kali.

The new House of Worship will be built just south of Delhi, on a highland site of eight acres overlooking both old and New Delhi on the road to Agra and Bombay and southern India. The land was purchased in 1953 as a goal of the Ten Year Crusade. The beginning of construction of the edifice is a goal of the Five Year Plan.

Rúḥíyyih Khánum, in a brief address before she placed the cornerstone, pointed out that all the Messengers of God — Krishna, Buddha, Zoroaster, Moses, Christ and Muḥammád, as well as the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh — were, in the utmost happiness and joy, watching over the establishment of this House of Worship.

The ceremony took place in a tent erected on the site that provided seating for 10,000 persons. Prayers were offered in 10 languages.

Architect Fariborz Ṣahbá designed the new House of Worship. It will be in the shape of a nine-petaled lotus, paying homage to the glory of both the Buddhist and Hindu religious Dispensations, which arose in India.

It is interesting to note that Bahapur, the district in which the House of Worship site is located, means literally “town of Bahá.”

Opposite the site is an area named Kalka. “Kalka Avatar” — literally “Manifestation of Kalka” — is one of the titles of the Promised One of the Hindu religion, which says that the advent of Kalka in the world will herald the age of peace, prosperity, and universal brotherhood.

(Bahá’í News, Issue 562, January 1978)


EARLY in the Ten Year Crusade the goal assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of India of acquiring a Temple site for the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of India was achieved. At the time of the Intercontinental Conference in October 1953 an admirable site was found through the efforts of Shoghi Effendi’s representative to that conference and members of the National Spiritual Assembly of India. This site, a few miles south of Delhi, on the road to Agra, the city of the Taj Mahal, is so located that any building erected on it will be readily visible to the thousands who pass daily by rail or highway between Delhi and important centres in the southern part of India.

It is interesting to note that the village situated on the Temple land is called Bahapur (literally the village of Baha), and that opposite is a Hindu temple dedicated to Kalka Avatar. Kalka Avatar, according to Hindu belief, is one of the names of the Promised One of the Hindus whose appearance in the latter day will herald the age of peace, prosperity and universal brotherhood.

(The Bahá’í World, Volume 16)