Rajbarir Durgakatha
“Singhabari’s Durga puja is celebrated every year keeping in mind every followed rituals by the residents of the house. As said, long time back the Owner of the house had a dream of Goddess Devi Durga in form of Singhabahini Mahisa Mardini, from then the puja got celebrated & worshiped every year in the house keeping in mind the said rituals & following the traditional bengali culture. As time progressed, there came some changes. The old glimpses started fading away keeping in pace of time & busy schedule of the 21st century, but there were no such remarkable changes in the family traditions & there way of celebrating the Durga puja, which we often call in bengali as “Bonedi Barir puja†& depicting the cultures followed by every Zamindari houses of North Kolkata. Keeping in mind of the rituals even now a days, on the eve of Ratha Yatra, the wooden structure used for making the idol is worshipped & 1st layer of clay & mud are being put up to make the start of the idol making. During the puja days on the day of “Shasthi†there takes place the very first ritual of beginning of the puja commonly known as “Bodhon†commonly known as the invitation of Goddess Devi Durga in form of worship & on the early morning of “Saptami†we have the “Kolabou†establishment rituals. It is said that all the family members of “Singhabari†gather together just before the start of the puja days in huge numbers. Even the family members who reside abroad also eagerly wait year long for the puja days to commence & to be back home & to be with their respective family members keeping aside their busy schedule just to divine themselves in the happiness of those four days & the memories they carry back to cherish for a year long. On the last day of puja known as “Dashami†we find a ritual of giving a freedom of flying a “Nilkontho birdâ€. one of the birds are set free on the day of immersion while the other one is let out after the immersion. Due to government restriction now only a clay form of Nilkontho immersed along with the idol. We find a ready atmosphere on the day of “Mahalayaâ€. The lights & the Centre focus lamps are lit up of the “Thakur Dalan†the place where the idol of Devi Durga is worshipped in holy form. The lights of the “108 Diyas†refelcts over the face of Devi Durga which comes out to be a septacular view to the viewers of “Sandhi Pujaâ€. In the rhythmic sounds of “Dhak†& “Dhunuchi Dance†everyone seems to be joyful, from the old generation to the newer ones. We “Baishnabghata Paschimpara Sarbojonin Durgotsav†would like to take this opportunity to depict this culture as our said theme on the eve of Durgotsav 2017.
Baishnabghata Paschimpara Sarbojanin Durgotsab