Durga Puja In Shobhabajar Rajbari:
Durga Puja is the foremost and most colorful religious, social and cultural festival of Bengali Hindus. Shobha Bajar Rajbari Durga Puja is one of the most prominent among the traditional Durga Pujas of Kolkata’s aristocratic families. It is also called as a Bonedi Bari puja.There is a lot of history associated with this puja.
Foundation:
King Nabakrishna Dev royally inaugurated Durga Puja at Shobhabazar in the year of the British victory at Palashi. British rulers like Lord Clive to Lord Hastings attended the puja initiated by Nabakrishna Dev. Maa Durga is worshiped in two houses simultaneously at Shobha Bazar Rajbari premises.These houses are known as (Barabari )and (Chhotabari) respectively.
Having no sons, the Maharaja adopted Gopimohan, the son of his elder brother Ramsundar Dev. Later he had a son of his own. This is King Rajakrishna. After Nabakrishna’s death, his two sons Gopimohan and Rajakrishna became equal partners in Nabakrishna’s property in a Supreme Court case. Gopimohan got the old palace on the north side of Raja Nabakrishna Street(Boro bari) and Rajakrishna got the new palace on the south side(Choto bari) .The descendants of Gopimohan are the eldest and the descendants of Rajakrishna are the youngest.
Rituals of worship:
For more than 250 years The Durga Puja festival of Shobhabazar Rajbari is the oldest one in Kolkata. Amidst the competition of the variety of other types of Durga idols of today, the Durga idol of Shobhabazar Rajbari is relatively simple, based on traditional themes.During Durga Bodhan, an altar is placed in the Thakur Dalan and the goddess’s pot is placed. From that day till the day of Puja, Chandipath, Vedas, Ramayana are played in the Thakur Dalan of the house.Here Goddess Durga is invoked in the form of a daughter. The idol is made as a single structure which means it can not be detouched.In the older days ,silver foils used to arrive from Germany by post to decorate the idols.According to that custom, the dacoratoin is called as Daker Saj.On the junction of Ashtami and Navami,Sandhipuja is performed by lighting one hundred and eight lamps .At the beginning and end of the sandhi puja earlier, there was a cannon fire. That cannon is kept in Shobhabazar Rajbari . Now, Sandhipuja starts and ends with the sound of guns instead of cannon.In ancient times, the practice of animal sacrifice was practiced here, which has disappeared over time, now rice, vegetables and various sweets are offered to the deity. There are
more than 12 types of sweet and salty food among which red sweets and white sweets are the main one.
Ritual of abandonment: The abandonment of Shobhabajar Rajbari is also especial.the deity’s Bisharjan takes place in the afternoon on ‘Dashami’ in Ganga. The family follows the tradition of Kanakanjali during the abandonment of the idol of Durga.There was also an interesting ritual to fly the Indian roller birds meanwhile the Bisharjan. But due to Government restrictions ,now it has been stopped. So they Royal family now make a statue of Indian Roller made of clay,they uses the bird as a massenger to Shiva,based on their belief .
