This Puja can be traced back to the late Sultanate period
The community development block of Keshpur in Paschim (West) Medinipur district is about 130 km from Kolkata by road. Not a conventional tourist destination, it is nonetheless special for a very special reason – a 500-year-old Durga Puja performed by a zamindar (landowner) family in an obscure little village called Arhrah.
Far away from the razzle dazzle of the usual Pujas, this Puja in Keshpur can be traced back to the late Sultanate period or the early 1500s, when local zamindar Bankura Roy invoked the goddess to defeat ‘foreign’ rulers from outside his fiefdom. It was a break from custom for the Shaivite family (worshippers of Lord Shiva), but it wouldn’t be the first.
According to traditional rituals, Durga Puja begins on the day of Sasthi, the sixth day of the new moon after Mahalaya (when the new moon phase begins). Sasthi is the day on which the ritual of ‘bodhan’ is performed, infusing the idols of Durga and her children Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kartik and Ganesh with life. But for the zamindar family of Arhrah, Durga Puja is a 15-day festival which begins before Mahalaya and ends with Dashami, the tenth day of the new moon.
Legend has it that Bankura Roy granted shelter to legendary poet Mukundaram Chakraborty (1500-51, honoured with the title Kabikankan or ‘jewel of poets’) in his estate when Mukundaram was driven out of his own village of Damunya in Bardhaman district. And it was in the zamindar’s ‘chandi mandap’ (worship hall) that Mukundaram wrote his immortal Chandimangal Kavya, a paean to the goddess which forms an integral part of Durga Puja.
Since Bankura Roy’s time, the family has passed through several ups and downs and now carries the last name Deb, granted to them as a title by the British. But the Puja has remained largely unchanged, with all the present descendants gathering annually for the occasion. With the passing of years, the family festival has also grown more public, with the entire village participating in the proceedings.
In yet another break from tradition, the goddess is served fish and mutton as ‘bhog’ (offering), which is later distributed among villagers. However, when it comes to the daily anjali (flower offerings), one of the most inclusive rituals of Durga Puja, only male members of the Deb family are allowed to take part, along with their wives, but only if the women belong to Brahmin families.
Regressive it may be, but the family has held onto the rituals for centuries. In yet another breakaway ritual, the terrible practice of ‘narabali’ or human sacrifice has long been replaced, but the alternative has remained a secret for years. All that is known is that at midnight on Nabami, the ‘chandi mandap’ is closed to outsiders, and the male members of the family enter an underground chamber along with the family priest to offer blood to the deity.
The Durga idol itself has 18 arms instead of the usual 10, and also features the ‘asura’ (demon) emerging from the ‘mahish’ (buffalo). However, once again breaking with tradition, there are no idols of Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesh and Kartik. Instead, they are all painted in patachitra (scroll paintings) and placed by their mother’s side. On all 15 days, the family priest reads from the Chandimangal – a tradition that dates all the way back to Mukundaram’s time.
Every year in Bengal autumn brings a special message with it – the time for celebration has come once again! In Bengal, especially in Kolkata, there is a certain exuberance in the air… big hoardings obstructing almost every sight, huge pandels blocking roads and lanes, thematic lights along the city streets, long queues of people either to enter the shops for last minute shopping or to enter the puja pandels– the city is simply charged up to celebrate the biggest Bengali festival of the year – Durga Puja.
Along with the thousands of small and big budget community puja pandels in every nook and corner of the city, there are quite a few households who worship Devi Durga in traditional but simple and serene way. In this city of theme dominated puja celebration, these ‘Bonedi’ households (the homes of the traditional aristocrats) have been still celebrating this autumn festival in its true, original form for centuries. These families remember the occasion along with the associated age-old rituals, which have been passed to them over generations like a family heirloom. The Behala Sabadna Roy Choudhury’s Durga puja is perhaps the oldest puja organised even before the city Kolkata was officially born. This family was the landlord of 3 villages- Kalikata, Sutanuti and Gobindapur, which they gave to the East India Company and thus the city Kolkata eventually emerged. They started the puja long back in the year 1610 and till now the family celebrates the puja in the same location. Another century old puja that still tries to maintain the same rituals and grandeur as much as possible is Shovabajar Rajbari. To celebrate the win of East India Company in Battle of Plassey (1757), Raja Nabakrishna Deb (who was the teacher and translator of Lord Clive) started the puja in his palatial residence. This was the first puja in a household where British officers, along with Lord Clive and Warren Hastings, were invited to witness the idol. Apart from these households, there are many aristocrats in the city who started hosting Goddess Durga in their family and they still continue to cary forward their tradition with or without much difficulty.
The Past Glory:
These Bonedi families try to maintain and follow the century old customs and traditions, though sometimes there have been few changes over time. In Sabarna Roy Chowdhury’s, the scale and grandeur was much greater before. Nearly 5000 people were fed during puja in the past, which is reduced to 300 now-a-days. It is mentioned by the old timers that Durga adored herself with jewelleries from Jorashanko’s Shiv Krishna Dawn,s residence, had lunch at Kumortuli’s Abhay Charan Mitra house and entertained herself at Shovabajar Rajbari. This entertainment part of Rajbari consisted of Baiji dance, Kobigaan, theatre, fireworks and what not! Dawn family of Jorashanko (puja started in 1840) bought large quantities of jewelleries, diamonds and emeralds from Europe to decorate Chalchitra as well as the Goddess. It is said that to compete with Dawn family’s puja extravaganza, Jorashanko’s Prince Dwarkanath Thakur submerged his family’s Durga idol alongwith her expensive gold ornaments in the Ganges!
The Past and the Present:
Interestingly, most of these houses toned down the grandeur of the puja celebration with time. For instance, the Basu Mallick house of Potoldanga Street started puja in 1831 on a grand scale but they presently continue the festival on a subdued note. Earlier, the ritual of feeding 2000 people with ‘Bhog’, (food first offered to the goddess on silver or brass utensil and then distributed to others) does not seem practical in present day situation. Hutkhola Dutta Bari, who started the puja more than 200 years ago, is now celebrating the festival in their century-old ‘thakurdalan’ without any kind of exuberant show-off. Limited resources and fall in income standard (mainly after the loss of land-ownership after the introduction of the land ceiling and abolition of ‘zamindari’ system in many areas) are the main causes for some of them, while for others, it is the lack of time and helping hands that are required to make the event as grand as before.
The Thakurdalans (courtyard of the goddess):
The most elegant ‘thakurdalan’ of the bonedi houses in Kolkata is perhaps that of the Pathuriaghata Ghosh Rajbari. Build by Khelat Chandra Ghosh, this mansion’s pillared and arched inner courtyard is the most elegant one. Planned and designed by German architecture company Martin & Burn, the premises comprises of marble staircase with wood panelling on either side in a 85 feet long corridor lined with blue and white elephants, originally used as flowerpot stands. A Belgian cut-glass chandelier at the dining hall and a Thomasson Chronometre grandfather clock, brought from London to Kolkata in 1819, in the study holds pride of the place. The Laha Bari, near College Street, has porticos and colonnaded verandas that are a perfect foil to the exquisite chandeliers and stained glass windows inside. The thakurdalan of Shiv Krishna Dawn’s house is huge and often used for shooting purposes. The circular Thakurdalan has verandas which are of semi-circular shape and total effect was like gallery of opera’s in old European countries. The small but very interesting thakurdalan of Harinath Mookherjee’s house at Rajabajar shows statues of Habsi (slaves in pre-British India). On either side of the thakurdalan, statues of one man and woman chained at their legs can be seen. At the main entrance, there is unique design of stucco painted with multicolored figures and floral motifs. The thakurdalan of Potoldanga Basu Mallick house also has stucco floral decoration on its arches and above it a row of stucco figures depicting Dashavatar of Vishnu. Several statues of mercury can be seen in the courtyard which were used to hold gas lamps. The large thakurdalan and the lights on the courtyard of Colootola Badan Chandra Roy’s mansion look very beautiful specially at nights.
The Idol:
The idols of most of these household pujas is ‘ek-chala’, simple and relatively smaller to make the immersion little easy for the labourers. They all still use manual labours to immerse the goddess by lifting the idol on the shoulder and thus it is very important to maintain the right height and weight. From Behala’s Sabarna Roy Choudhury’s (aat-chala) to Jorashanko Dawn’s to Thanthania’s Laha Bari, the idols are sculptured from the scratch in the household by the idolmakers. In some houses, the idols come straight from Kumortuli just before the puja begins. In some houses, the idols have some specific pattern, like, in Shovabajar Rajbari, the face of the lion looks like a horse. In Thanthania Dutta Bari (started in 1855) or in Darjipara Mitra Bari, Devi Durga sits on the lap of her husband Shiva and does not display a war mood. Here, the idols are not of ‘Mahishasuramordini’ but of ‘Hara Gouri’. In Chhatubabu Latubabu’s house, Durga is flanked with her sakhis (companion) Jaya and Vijaya (posed on lotuses) instead of Laxmi and Saraswati. Even the color of the idol can be different. Blue Durga (in the form of Goddess Kali) and red and maroon skinned Durga (described as tapta Kanchan color) are also worshipped in some of the families. At Bhowanipur De family’s puja, the most interesting part of the idol is demon Mahishasura who symbolises the British Empire. Here, the demon wears long coats and boots, golden hair and moustache like Englishman and thus Goddess Durga becomes the slayer of British Empire.
The Bhog (food offered to the goddess):
The Maha Bhog of the Sabarna Roy Choudhury’s puja comprises of ghee bhat, Basanti polao with dried fruits, khichuri, curry of vegetables, traditional fish preparations, payesh and sweets. On dashami, Durga is treated with panta bhaat (rice soaked in water), kochu shaag, keshari daal and koi machher jhaal. Fishes are also being offered to Durga in Chorbagan Chatterjee Bari puja. In Shovabajar Rajbari, instead of Anna bhog (rice offering), huge amounts of monda mithai (sweets and snacks like pantua, peraki, radha ballavi, motichur laddu etc.) are offered which are painstakingly cooked by Brahmin cooks in the Rajbari premises.
Special Rituals:
Each of these families has some distinct special rituals that they continue to perform over the generations. In Shovabajar Rajbari, as well as Jorashanko Dawn’s family, Sondhipuja (a special ritual of lighting the lamp) is performed with the sound of cannon fire. In Darjipara Mitra family (where puja started in 1807), mandatory 108 lotus flowers are replaced by 108 aparajita flowers, which are offered during sondhipuja. After the immersion of the idol, the women of this family sit on the throne of the Goddess in the expectation that the power of Durga will be transferred into them! A special rituals called ‘Kalyani’ puja is performed in Girish Ghosh family’s puja (started in 1856) instead of sandhipuja. This unique ritual was initiated by Girish Ghosh himself when his guru died during the time of sandhipuja. Kumari pujo (worshipping the virgin in the form of goddess) and dhunoporano (burning of earthen lamps on heads by women) are among the star rituals that are performed in many worshipping households. Some rituals had to change with time to cope up with the current situation like letting the Neelkatha bird fly off on Vijaya dashami (so that they could carry the news of Durga’s departure to Shiva) was forbidden by Wildlife Preservation Act. Shovabajar Rajbari now-a-days immerge neelkantha made of clay with the goddess.
It needs mention that the images were clicked over the last three years including the current year, and due to our busy job schedule, we could barely accommodate sufficient time that is required for a more detailed coverage. Added to this, the difficulty to reach different ends of the city, especially to commute from south to the north, where most of the pujas are celebrated, posed serious constraints to provide a more detailed pictorial account of these rituals. We hope to update this presentation in future and make it more complete.
About the authors:
Sayanti PoddarI am a lecturer in geography by profession in Kolkata, West Bengal. My interest in photography was purely accidental, which initiated just to accompany a friend of mine during her photowalks. I bought my first dslr in 2011. Photography, to me, was merely pastime in the initial phase, but later it turned into my passion. I am a nature lover, so landscape photography is an automatic choice for me. From my childhood I loved painting and my passion for this guided me during my landscape photography. Travel and people’s photography are other areas of my interest. Being a resident of Kolkata has helped me to evolve as a photographer to a great extent.
Swati Mallik I am a journalist by profession currently living in Kolkata. Photography has been my point of interest since childhood. The first camera I bought was a KB10 camera while I was a schoolgirl. However, I started pursuing photography a little more seriously during my leisure hours after I bought a dslr camera in 2010. Being a nature lover, I always try to capture beauty of landscape through my camera. Travel and people’s photography are the other types that capture my interest.
How important is Durga Puja to Bengal? Let us begin the answer with a bit of history. Nearly 280 years ago, Bhaskar Ram Kolhatkar or Bhaskar Pandit, the dreaded chief of the Bargi (Maratha) invaders, began a Durga Puja in Katwa in Bardhaman district, about 140 km from Kolkata, where the Bargis had set up a strong encampment. Here was a man whose stated intention was to plunder and loot Bengal, and yet he was actually organising a quintessentially Bengali festival in what had become ‘his’ area.
That is how important Durga Puja always has been in Bengal, since time immemorial. Incidentally, ‘Bhaskar Panditer Pujo’ continues to be performed in Katwa today, in front of the ruins of the temple in which the Bargi commander had begun his puja.
No surprises then, that on December 15, 2021, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) accorded ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage’ (ICH) status to Durga Puja festivities in West Bengal’s capital city Kolkata. As the ICH website’s homepage puts it, “Durga Puja is seen as the best instance of the public performance of religion and art, and as a thriving ground for collaborative artists and designers. The festival is characterized by large-scale installations and pavilions in urban areas, as well as by traditional Bengali drumming and veneration of the goddess. During the event, the divides of class, religion and ethnicities collapse as crowds of spectators walk around to admire the installations.”
On a social, cultural, and artistic level, Durga Puja is perhaps unlike any other religious festival in India. The underlying idea is to celebrate the homecoming of the goddess Durga as she makes her annual visit to her parents’ home with her four children Saraswati, Lakshmi, Ganesh, and Kartik, but in practice, it is the biggest socio-cultural festival of Bengal, cutting across all barriers. It is indeed a cultural heritage that has only grown stronger with every passing year.
According to most scholars, Durga Puja in Bengal dates back to the medieval era (at least 11th century AD), though Bengal broke with tradition by performing the ritual in Autumn, whereas it was originally meant for Spring. Apparently, the unseasonable ritual was begun by Lord Rama, hero of the Ramayana, when he performed the puja in Autumn as part of his war against the demon king Ravana. Initially the preserve of rich aristocratic families, Durga Puja in its present form probably began in Bengal in the 16th century, when renowned zamindar Raja Kangsanarayan organised a lavish festival at a cost of nearly Rs 8 lakh at Taherpur in Nadia district towards the end of the century.
Other landed aristocrats followed in his footsteps. In 1606, a Puja was organised by Bhabananda Majumdar of Nadia, an ancestor of the celebrated Raja Krishnachandra Roy. Kolkata probably got its first Durga Puja in 1610, courtesy Laxmikanta Majumdar, the founder of the Sabarna Roy Chowdhury family. This family is inextricably linked to the founding of Kolkata, since it was from them that the British East India Company acquired the rights to three villages – Sutanuti, Gobindapur, and Kalikata – which went on to become the city of Calcutta, later Kolkata.
In 1790, Guptipara in Hooghly district saw the first barowari (community) Durga Puja as opposed to a private residential puja. The community puja arrived in Kolkata in the early 20th century, and in the 1920s and 30s, became a highly visible platform for demonstrations of nationalism and patriotism, led by such iconic freedom fighters as Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Gradually, Kolkata as the state capital began to overtake the districts as far as grandeur and lavishness goes.
Today, Durga Puja in Kolkata involves spectacular displays of creative fervour, thanks to the rise of ‘theme pujas’, where everything from the temporary pandal housing the goddess to the idols themselves adhere to a specific theme. Celebrated art designers, lighting experts and sculptors are often roped in to create the pandals, illuminations, and idols, with several organisations handing out awards for all aspects of the festival, from idol to environment-friendliness. For five days beginning with Sasthi and ending with Dashami, Kolkata comes to a standstill as millions of people throng the pandals in their colourful festive finery. The streets are crowded at all hours, and the city takes on the air of a joyful carnival, thanks to the hypnotic rhythms of the ‘dhaak’, a traditional Bengali drum.
To someone who has not witnessed Durga Puja in Kolkata, the sheer frenzy is hard to put into words. We invite you to come and see for yourself!
The holy pilgrimage to Gangasagar Mela, also known as Gangasagar Yatra or Ganga Snan, makes up the second largest congregation of Hindu pilgrims in India after the Kumbh Mela. It is an annual holy event held on Makar Sankranti (the last day of the month of Poush, usually corresponding to January 14 or 15), at the point where the river Ganga merges with the Bay of Bengal.
In 2023, for example, Makar Sankranti will be held on January 14. This is the day considered the most auspicious for a dip in the sacred waters of the Ganga. However, plenty of devotees also bathe in the river the next day. Devotees from all over the country, and many other parts of the world, gather in their hundreds of thousands for the early-morning ‘snan’ (bath), while chanting hymns to Lord Surya, the sun god. The carnival is held every year at Sagar Island, situated on the tip of the Ganges delta at the top of the Bay of Bengal. After the sacred dip, the pilgrims offer puja at the Kapil Muni Temple or Ashram.
Should you be among the attendees, we suggest you book your stay at the Gangasagar Tourism Property run by West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation Limited (WBTDCL). Accommodation in Gangasagar is always a slightly tricky prospect, since no private accommodation is available in the Gangasagar temple area. But at Gangasagar Tourism Property, you will have:
24-hour generator facility
Full AC
Attached bathroom
Car parking
Colour television
Hot water
Restaurant
Room service
Western style toilet
We will do everything we can to make your Gangasagar experience as memorable as possible. As they say, ‘sab tirath bar bar, Gangasagar ek bar’ (no matter how many pilgrimages you make, they are equal to one visit to Gangasagar).
Gangasagar or Sagar Island is an island in the Ganges delta about 100 km south of Kolkata, covering an area a little over 12 sq km. The island is a popular tourist attraction anyway, even without the annual fair, and offers the charms of an unspoilt beach on the estuary, with acres of silver sand and clear blue sky, and the calm sea stretching as far as the eye can see.
The island is still relatively unknown and thus, unexploited. It also has a lighthouse, offering spectacular views of the beach, and sunrise and sunset.
For booking and other details, do visit the property’s page on the WBTDCL website.
Some of the more interesting facts about Maithon are that it is a town on the West Bengal-Jharkhand border, and that it is literally split in two between the two states, across Dhanbad and Bardhaman districts, to be precise. While the township and reservoir are largely in Jharkhand, the hydel power project is in West Bengal. The other unique aspect of Maithon is that it is one of the rare locations to accommodate a hydel plant, a thermal plant, and a gas plant.
The reservoir created by the Damodar Valley Corporation’s hydel power project is one of the largest in India, and its breath-taking beauty has made Maithon an extremely popular picnic spot and weekend getaway. There are also a couple of Flower Parks nearby, justifiably famed for their magnificent display of numerous floral species.
You can enjoy all this and much more during your stay at the beautiful Muktadhara Tourism Property (formerly Maithon Tourist Lodge) run by the West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation Ltd (WBTDCL). The view from the lobby and the cottages consists of the reservoir and the islands, while the view from the spacious and well-maintained rooms is magnificent too. Maithon’s famed Kalyaneshwari temple is just about a five-minute drive from the property, while the boating jetty is a few minutes’ walk.
According to one school of thought, Maithon got its name from ‘Maikasthan’ or ‘maayer sthan’ in Bengali, a phrase that translates into mother’s abode, in honour of the Kalyaneshwari temple built by the king of Barakar in the 16th century. The temple is a little over 2 km from the dam, in the West Bengal part of Maithon, and is very crowded at certain times of the year. As a rule, it is best visited very early in the morning or very late at night if you wish to avoid crowds, particularly during weekends.
Of course, there are many other attractions in the area apart from the temple. The good news is that the limited radius within which these attractions are situated makes it possible to view most of them on foot. The slightly less good news is that owing to security reasons, many of these spots prohibit photography, a rule that is fairly strictly enforced.
Once you have had your fill of the dam, take in the Deer Park right on the border of the two states, surrounded by streams flowing from the dam, and the dam itself. Then there is the famous Chammach Pahar or Spoon Island, called Sabuj Dweep in Bengali. Situated on the reservoir itself, the island literally looks like an inverted spoon, and is accessible courtesy government-operated boating services. Completely free of human habitation, the island is home to several animal species, which is why visitors are advised not to go in too deep.
At the end of a day’s sightseeing, come back to Muktadhara for some mouthwatering food, which even the locals who are not staying at the property come in for.
It is best to drive down to Asansol from Kolkata, a distance of roughly 220 km, and from there a further 30 km to Maithon. You could also take a bus from Kolkata to Dhanbad and get off en route at the Maithon bypass, from where you can take an auto to the dam area. There are no major bus stations in Maithon, but there are regular bus services from Asansol, including a minibus service.
You could also, of course, take a train to Asansol from Kolkata. The nearest airport is Bhagwan Birsa Munda Airport in Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand, approximately 190 km from Maithon.
For further details and bookings, kindly visit the WBTDCL website.
Durga Puja outside Kolkata is far older than Durga Puja in Kolkata, simply because the city we now know as Kolkata did not even exist until the last decade of the 1600s. Before that, the area was a collection of villages of which three – Sutanuti, Gobindapur and Kolikata – laid the foundation for the British city of ‘Calcutta’. Gradually, more villages came to be included within its radius, but if we talk of the beginnings of Calcutta, we have to go back to those first three villages.
Which brings us to some of the oldest recorded Durga Pujas of Kolkata, all of which are open to the public:
THE SABARNA ROY CHOUDHURY DURGA PUJA: The Puja was initiated in 1610 by Lakshmikanta Ray, brother to the legendary king Pratapaditya Ray who was defeated by the Mughal general Man Singh. Since the general was a disciple of Lakshmikanta’s father, he gifted large amounts of land (parganas) as ‘guru dakshina’ to Lakshmikanta, and also made him a jaigirdar (landholder) in 1608.
The family bore the last name Ray Mazumdar before they were awarded the honorific ‘Choudhury’ and since their ‘gotro’ (clan lineage) was Sabarna, the Puja instituted by Lakshmikanta became known as the ‘Barisha Sabarna Roy Choudhury Durgotsav’. It was from the Sabarna Roy Choudhurys that the British leased Sutanuti, Gobindapur and Kolikata in the closing stages of the 1600s.
Settled in the Barisha area of Behala in southwest Kolkata, the family still celebrates Puja in all its pomp and splendour according to traditional Bengali customs, harking back to a time when the region’s wealthy landlords saw Durga Puja as an opportunity to establish their wealth and prestige.
SOVABAZAR RAJBARI DURGA PUJA: This is more of a joint Puja, performed in both the houses belonging to the Deb family, standing adjacent to each other. The smaller of the two is ‘Baghbari’, owned by Gopimohan Deb and constructed after the original residence was made by Raja Nabakrishna Deb, a renowned supporter of Hinduism during the Brahmo Samaj reformist movement of Raja Rammohan Roy. Nabakrishna was also a British sympathiser, and began his Puja the year after the British victory in the Battle of Plassey (1757).
Sovabazar Rajbari commences its Durga Puja festivities on the day of Rath Yatra (end June or early July), when the wooden framework of the idol is worshipped. The idol is crafted in-house, and Bodhan (the ritual infusing of life into the goddess) starts 15 days before Nabami. For the Deb family, Durga is simply the daughter of their household idol, Gopinath Jiu, whereas according to mythology, she is the daughter of Himalaya, king of the mountains.
The ‘ek chala’ (all five figures fused into one entity against a single backdrop) style is embellished with ornaments made of silver foil known as ‘daker saaj’. The idols of Durga and her four children are also adorned with gold ornaments.
An important ritual performed by the family is the release of two nilkantha (bluejay) birds prior to and during the immersion of the idol. The first bird, released before immersion, is supposed to fly to Mt Kailasa to convey the message of Durga’s departure to her husband, Lord Shiva. The second bird is a backup in case the first one fails.
HATKHOLA DUTTA BARI DURGA PUJA: This Puja was started in 1716 by Ramcharan Dutta (born 1630), who gave up his property in Gobindapur village to the British East India Company for construction of the first Fort William in 1696, in exchange for a vast tract of land at Chitpore, which was part of Sutanuti. Ramcharan later settled in the neighbourhood of Hatkhola in Sovabazar, and his descendants came to be known as the Duttas of Hatkhola.
‘Bodhon’, which is usually performed on Saptami (the second day of Durga Puja), lasts for 15 days at this home, as it does in Sovabazar Rajbari. In the month of Aashar (June-July), on the ninth day of the new moon, the framework of the idol is worshipped, and the making begins. During the actual Puja, vegetable and fruit sacrifices are performed as part of the rituals instead of animal sacrifices, and once again like Sovabazar Rajbari, the Hatkhola Dutta Bari also performs the ‘Nilkantha’ ritual, only the second bird is set free once the immersion is over.
CHHATU BABU LATU BABU DURGA PUJA: This Puja goes back to at least 1770, when it was started by Ramdulal Dey (Sarkar), the legendary father of the equally legendary Chhatu Babu (Ashutosh Deb) and Latu Babu (Pramathanath Deb). Ramdulal changed the family name of Dey to Deb to give it more social prestige, while Sarkar (in the sense of business agent) was a sobriquet earned through his various shipping and trading activities.
Though some dispute the exact year when Ramdulal (1752-1825) started Durga Puja at his residence on Beadon Street is not known, he was a multi-millionaire by the 1780s, so one can assume the beginnings lay in the years prior. After his death, his two sons enthusiastically carried the family Puja forward and amplified it several times over, thanks to their generally extravagant spending habits for which they were famous.
Durga Puja is currently held in the huge covered ‘thakur dalan’ (courtyard) of Ramdulal Nibas, the palatial and well-preserved family home. The ‘ek chala’ idol is placed on a raised platform, and Lakshni and Saraswati, Durga’s two daughters, are worshipped as Jaya and Bijaya. The 10-day Puja begins right after Mahalaya (new moon) and continues until Sasthi (sixth day), on a ‘ghot’ (metal or clay urn) without the idol. On Saptami (seventh day), idol worship begins. The wooden framework of the idols is worshipped on Rath Yatra.
PATHURIAGHATA GHOSH FAMILY DURGA PUJA: This Puja, among the oldest in Kolkata, was probably first started by Ramlochan Ghosh, clerk (banian) to Governor-General Warren Hastings. But it was his grandson Khelat Chandra Ghosh (1829-78) who moved out of the family home on 46 Pathuriaghata Street to a new house next door at number 47, and amped up the scale of the family Puja in 1846 in his stunning, newly built Pathuriaghata Palace.
Located in the Jorabagan area, Pathuriaghata is among the oldest neighbourhoods of what used to be Sutanuti, and became home to some of Kolkata’s wealthiest families in the 18th century when they were granted land in the area in lieu of their holdings in Gobindapur, which they ceded to the British for the construction of the new Fort William after 1757.
The most striking aspect of the Ghosh family Durga Puja is its use of silver. From the ‘ek chala’ idols themselves to the backdrop to the throne on which the idols are placed, everything is wrapped in silver foil. Even the rituals are performed using silver utensils. This puja was once attended by the who’s who of Calcutta, but the most notable attendee would have been the mystic saint
Ramakrishna Paramhansa, who was venerated by Khelat Ghosh himself.
NB: Since most traditional homes are located in north Kolkata, it is obvious that the oldest Pujas are to be found there. However, there are several Pujas which go back at least a century scattered all over the city, though most of them are ‘sarbojanin’ (public) Pujas.
This Puja can be traced back to the late Sultanate period
The community development block of Keshpur in Paschim (West) Medinipur district is about 130 km from Kolkata by road. Not a conventional tourist destination, it is nonetheless special for a very special reason – a 500-year-old Durga Puja performed by a zamindar (landowner) family in an obscure little village called Arhrah.
Far away from the razzle dazzle of the usual Pujas, this Puja in Keshpur can be traced back to the late Sultanate period or the early 1500s, when local zamindar Bankura Roy invoked the goddess to defeat ‘foreign’ rulers from outside his fiefdom. It was a break from custom for the Shaivite family (worshippers of Lord Shiva), but it wouldn’t be the first.
According to traditional rituals, Durga Puja begins on the day of Sasthi, the sixth day of the new moon after Mahalaya (when the new moon phase begins). Sasthi is the day on which the ritual of ‘bodhan’ is performed, infusing the idols of Durga and her children Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kartik and Ganesh with life. But for the zamindar family of Arhrah, Durga Puja is a 15-day festival which begins before Mahalaya and ends with Dashami, the tenth day of the new moon.
Legend has it that Bankura Roy granted shelter to legendary poet Mukundaram Chakraborty (1500-51, honoured with the title Kabikankan or ‘jewel of poets’) in his estate when Mukundaram was driven out of his own village of Damunya in Bardhaman district. And it was in the zamindar’s ‘chandi mandap’ (worship hall) that Mukundaram wrote his immortal Chandimangal Kavya, a paean to the goddess which forms an integral part of Durga Puja.
Since Bankura Roy’s time, the family has passed through several ups and downs and now carries the last name Deb, granted to them as a title by the British. But the Puja has remained largely unchanged, with all the present descendants gathering annually for the occasion. With the passing of years, the family festival has also grown more public, with the entire village participating in the proceedings.
In yet another break from tradition, the goddess is served fish and mutton as ‘bhog’ (offering), which is later distributed among villagers. However, when it comes to the daily anjali (flower offerings), one of the most inclusive rituals of Durga Puja, only male members of the Deb family are allowed to take part, along with their wives, but only if the women belong to Brahmin families.
Regressive it may be, but the family has held onto the rituals for centuries. In yet another breakaway ritual, the terrible practice of ‘narabali’ or human sacrifice has long been replaced, but the alternative has remained a secret for years. All that is known is that at midnight on Nabami, the ‘chandi mandap’ is closed to outsiders, and the male members of the family enter an underground chamber along with the family priest to offer blood to the deity.
The Durga idol itself has 18 arms instead of the usual 10, and also features the ‘asura’ (demon) emerging from the ‘mahish’ (buffalo). However, once again breaking with tradition, there are no idols of Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesh and Kartik. Instead, they are all painted in patachitra (scroll paintings) and placed by their mother’s side. On all 15 days, the family priest reads from the Chandimangal – a tradition that dates all the way back to Mukundaram’s time.
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