Durga Puja Of Sabarna Roychowdhury Family As ''Atchala''

BY A STAFF REPORTER: Sabarna Roychowdhury family's puja is known as 'First Durga Puja' in Kolkata. After being granted tax-free land of eight parganas by Emperor Jahangir, Ray Laxmikant Gangopadhyay Majumdar Chowdhury and his wife Bhagwati Devi started Durga Puja in Barisha in 1610 AD. Laxmikant Roy Majumdar was a famous zamindar of Bengal. He was associated with the powerful Mughal general Mansingh. They got the title "Chowdhuri" and their 'Gotra' was Sabarna. This puja is known as 'Sabarna Raychaudhuri Durgotsava'. 

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Sabarna Chowdhury's family hailed from Halishahar and later settled in Virati and finally moved to Barisha. Sabarna Roy Chowdhury's family was the family of the zamindar of Calcutta. On 10 November 1698 they transferred their rights over 3 villages named Sutanuti, Kalikata and Gobindpur to the East India Company for only 1300 rupees. Ram Chand Majumdar, Manohar Majumdar managed the deal with Charles Lair, Job Charnak's son-in-law.

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Sabarna Roychowdhury family's durga puja is 'Atchala'. Eight Durga idols are made in the puja of this house. All are made in almost the same way. The uniqueness of Pratima is that its movements are divided into three parts and there are pictures of ten different images of Mother 'Shakti' known as ''Dasamahavidya''. On one side of the idol is the image of Shiva and on the other is Rama. They are also being worshipped. Durga's color can be reddish or light golden as mentioned in ''Durga Bhakti Tarangini''. Asura's color is green which depicts evil and jealousy in him. Here 'Karkikeya' is dressed in royal style. Overall the image brings hope and prosperity to the worshippers. In the Sabarna family, Durga Puja is performed according to the rites and rituals described in Vidyapati's ''Durga Bhakti Tarangini''.