Durga’s Ancestral Abode: A Walk Through Kolkata’s Bonedi Bari Puja

In almost all our memories, a visit to Nani’s home was filled with days of pampering and affection. For Bengali and large parts of Assam And Orissa, this is the ethos of Durga Puja.

The whiff of autumn brings our beloved married Goddess-daughter Durga home to her mayka with her four children – Ganesh, Laxmi, Saraswati and Kartikeya. Typically starting on the 6th day of Navratras, the celebrations are a heady mix of rituals, music, food, theatre, and, of course, clothes—especially sarees and dhutis.

Since the declaration of Durga Puja on UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage, visitors and tourists have flocked to Kolkata from far and wide. The entire city turns into an art gallery, with artistic and thematic renditions of the Goddess along with the architectural splendour of the pandals. Awe-inspiring in both size and scale, it is easy to overlook the spiritual and personal context of the Goddess amidst the phantasmagoria.

But tucked away into the cobbled alleys and pathways of certain boroughs of Kolkata are the centuries-old Pujas of the ‘Bonedi Bari’.. or zamindari families. These private homes are open only at this time for public viewing of the puja, though access to the dalna where the Goddess resides is only for family members.

The word ‘Bonedi’ is taken from the Urdu word ‘Buniyadi ‘, which means foundational—it’s a perfect match as most of these families are the founding families of the city of Kolkata. Many traded actively with the East India Company and were the elite natives of that era. In fact, one of the Zamindari Families, the Subarna Ray Choudhury of Behala, hosts its 400-year-old puja in the same courtyard where they handed over the land deeds of three villages that went on to form the city of Kolkata.

This puja, I decided to brave the muggy weather and take a walk in the oldest borough of Kolkata—the northern flank, which hosts more than ten bonedi bari pujas.

The structure of the traditional home is similar—a narrow entrance opens up to a four-sided open-to-sky courtyard. On the east side is the Thakur dalan ( or platform ), which is the seat of the goddesses from Durga in Autumn to Kali in early winter to Saraswati in spring. This is a preordained system of worshipping the many forms of the Goddess and has remained constant over five centuries.

Our first stop was the Sovabazaar Rajbari – Durga Puja began here in 1757 – the then Raja Naba Krishna Deb was a close collaborator of Robert Clive ( he had just won the battle of Plassey against Siraj-ud-Daula )

And both Robert Clive and Warren Hastings were invited to attend the Family Puja.

The celebrations have been unbroken since then, with family members congregating during this season to celebrate the deity. During these four days, she is adorned with the family jewels, which are then packed away for the coming year. What is even more interesting is that the idols have been made by the same lineage of idol makers since the puja was first started.

As commoners are not allowed on the Dalaan, it is impossible to get a close-up of the idol—but we managed. Do note that the Goddess is seated on a lion with a horse-faced face. The story goes that the artisans had never seen a lion, and they created an idol based on their understanding of the description of the lion in the Devi Puran.

After a few twists and turns deep into the alleys, we reached the magnificent home of Ramdulal Dey ( Deb), a Bengali merchant of the 17th century who became a millionaire by trading with America. The first import from the USA to India was a shipload of ice.

An interesting fact is that because of the volume of trade, the second-oldest consulate in the USA and the oldest in India was opened in 1792 under the orders of President George Washington.

The house today is known after the names of his sons, Chhatu Babu and Latu Babu—it still maintains its brick red colour. The descendants formed a trust in the early 1900s to perform the 250-year-old puja, and unlike many other bonedi families, the Deb family still maintains a comfortable lifestyle.

The Naat Mandir, where the Durga Puja is held, is well maintained, with corridors running all along, and can easily house 400 guests. A heritage property now, it can be rented for weddings and other traditional ceremonies.

With every twist and turn of narrow lanes, Ma Durga led us into her multiple homes — the Hatkhola Dutta Bari of Nimtala, where the Goddess has been worshipped since 1761. Unlike other Bonedi families, the Duttas were nationalists – one of the daughters was the mother of Subhash Chandra Bose. Their nationalist tradition continues in their Bisarjan ( immersion of Durga into the river ) ceremony – A popular Bengali nationalist song is sung, and she is said to be floating into the waters.

The Mitters’ of  Dorjipara(tailor’s hub) were once jewellers to the nawabs of Murshidabad. With the fall of Siraj ud Daula, they escaped to Kolkata and built their fortune on trading block-printed fabrics. The 200-year-old puja is now entirely managed by the female heirs of the family – an interesting aspect of their puja was that the entire floor was covered in beautiful Alpona ( rangoli specific to Bengal made with ground rice paste ) in elaborate designs, perhaps a throwback to their printing blocks from the past.

The traditional way of saying goodbye to the Goddess on Bijoya Dashami was to set free a pair of Nilkanth birds ( the Indian blue-throated roller ), considered a symbol of Lord Shiva, to guide the Goddess back to her abode in Kailash. However, families adopted various means to signal her departure with the bird coming under the Protected Species Act, including setting alight Chinese lamps painted with Nilkanth.

This tale would be incomplete without the mention of the Daw Bari of Jorasanko. Established in 1835, the Daws were gun suppliers to the gentry. Their Durga Puja started in 1867, and the bisarjan ceremony is marked by firing from a gold pistol—a tradition that continues today.

As the Goddess and her children say goodbye to their earthly abode amidst the cries of ”asthe bochor aabar hobe” – loosely translated as we will be there the coming year .. there is a sense of hope, of renewal of centuries-old beliefs that as long as the Goddess is with us, we will find a way forward.