First a disclaimer - I am not connected with the Chintpurni Temple Trust which runs the temple and is a government body.

I am thankful to the authors of a number of websites from whom I learnt quite a bit about designing temple websites. I wish to mention two particularly well-designed websites - the Naina Devi and Kangra Pilgrimage . An invaluable source for some of the material used came from a booklet called "Maa Chintpurni" by Pandit Jwalaprasad Chaturvedi. Thanks to Hindugallery.com from whom I have borrowed the Chhinnamastika image.

My son, Anurag, helped me with manipulating various images for the website. Shri Yogendra Yadav and Mohan Sethi encouraged me with their helpful and constructive suggestions. I am thankful to Katherine Erndl and Thomas Coburn whose scholarly writings have helped me clarify many of the concepts and practices relating to Devi worship.

I am a descendant of Pandit Mai Das Kalia. Only the male descendants in the paternal line of Pandit Mai Das are entitled to perform priestly duties at the Temple. There are about 200 Kalia families in Chintpurni and these are divided into 4 tolas. These priests belong to the same gotra (Bharadwaj). This would have caused problems since closely related priests of the same gotra are not allowed to perform puja to a deity during the period of pollution after a birth or death (sutak and paatak). The Kalias claim that when Goddess said to Pandit Mai Das that only his descendants would be entitled to perform puja, she also said, "sutak uar paatak ka vichar nahin karna" i.e. ignore considerations of sutak and paatak. So during periods of birth and death pollution, a priest from one of the other three tolas performs puja at the temple.

I am a "baaridar" of the Temple i.e. we perform puja etc. when our turn (or "baari") comes and in return we get a certain percentage of the offerings made at the Temple.

I presently live in Australia. If you have any questions about the Temple or facilities available in Chintpurni, I'll try to answer it in the best way I can. I can also call upon my brother in Delhi and my mother who lives in Chintpurni. They are more informed than I about these matters.

Please write to me with your comments and suggestions for improvement.

Arvind Kalia