Origin and Evolution of Durga Puja in Bengal

Durga is worshipped twice a year, once in autumn (Sarodiya) and another during the spring (Basanti), both are the periods of rejuvenation. It is also called “Navaratri”- new light for acquisition and preservation of power, a celebration of the victory of good over evil. The nature of the puja has changed over time, but the excitement of the people centering the puja remains almost the same. The first grand celebration of Goddess Durga could be tracked back to the late 1500s. Folklores say that the landlords or zamindar of Dinajpur and Malda initiated the first Durga Puja in Bengal. According to another source, Raja Kangshanarayan of Taherpur or Bhabananda Mazumdar of Nadiya organized the first Sharadiya or Autumn Durga Puja in Bengal in 1606. It was said that Kangshanarayan created a stir in his time by organizing Durga Puja and spending around eight lakhs at Teherpur, in Rajshahi District of undivided Bengal.

The first puja in Kolkata was organized in 1610 by Lakshmikanta Mazumdar, founder of Sabarna Roy Chowdhury family, the family linked with the selling of three villages to East India Company which came to be known as, Calcutta, decades later. With time, other Hindu kings also joined the practice of performing the puja in their household and the puja spread far and wide to Gaur, Rajmahal, Murshidabad and Krishnanagar. This is how Durga Puja became the most important annual festival of West Bengal and particularly of the Bengali Hindus.

The arrival and participation of East India Company got deeply intertwined with the country’s social fabric bringing a transformation in the character of the celebration. In “Important Historical Events”, 1766, J.Z.Holwell notes that “Doorga Pujah…..is the grand general feast of the Gentoos, usually visited by Europeans by invitation, who are treated by the proprietor of the feast with fruits and flowers in season and are entertained every evening while the feasts lasts, with bands of singers and dancers”. This participation of British official continued till 1840, when a law promulgated by the government for banning this sort of participation of the British officials. However, during that period with the increase of the affluent “babu” culture, the number of pujas started increasing in order to please the officials.

The origin of the community puja can be credited to the twelve friends of Guptipara in Hoogly, about eighty kilometers from Kolkata, who collaborated and collected contributions from local residents to conduct the first community puja called the “baro-yaari” puja or the twelve friends puja in 1790. The baroari puja was brought to Kolkata in 1832 by Raja Harinath of Cossimbazar, who performed the Durga Puja in his ancestral home in Murshidabad from 1824 to 1831. The baroari puja gave way to the sarbajanin or community puja in 1910, when the Sanatan Dharmotsahini Sabha organized the first truly community puja in Baghbazar in Kolkata with full public contribution, public control and public participation.

In the same year, a puja in Bhawanipore Basu Ghat Road also took place which in some account is also said to be the first Sarbojonin Puja. During this time, Kolkata being one of the vibrant plots of freedom struggle and partition, the most important and biggest community religious event was also used as images and reflection of the ongoing struggle. The Simla Byayam Samiti Puja started in 1926 with the front ranking freedom fighters of Bengal namely Atindranath Basu, Sarat Chandra Bose, Bhupendranath Dutta, Upendranath Bandhyopadhayay, Kiron Mukherjee and others.

Also Read: Triumph Over Evil: Goddess Durga through The Lens of Bengal

With time the nature of Sarbojonin Puja also started changing where comparison and competition cropped in with intervention of the corporate houses. Asian Paints Sarrad Samman came into form as the foremost corporate enterprise in 1985. For the first five years the contest took place in three categories- best image, best pandal and best lighting. With time the corporate enterprises has become countless with countless awards and contests. The exaggeration of this festival is not a new affair for the Bengalees, but what is new here is the dominance of the capitalistic enterprises into our lives and thus in the festival and celebration. The puja is now not an affair of the traditional “have” classes who were specially the upper castes, but now the new material “have” classes emerged to consume the puja.

Author::
Sudipta Garai
Ph.D (sociology)
Jawaharlal Nehru University
New Delhi