17th November 1980
am Bisarjan day. Went to Nakashi para to see Subir's old family home. It was left in 1973 though no one really lived there from 1957 onwards. The last Dp was done about then. I think the last Basanti puja @ 1923.
Thakur dalan-this was used for Dp only. Crenellated stucco work. On the back wall desings, false windows with 2 birds on top (nilkanthi). S told me that after bisarjan it was traditional for the menfolk to go on shikar (not a real one with guns) to find a white-breasted fishing eagle. This was considered auspiciuous.
In front of the thakur dalan is a courtyard filled with a rectangular tall pillared area. The roof has fallen in long ago but this area is what Subir calls the Chandni. It is an audience hall for jatras etc. My quess is that this was the prototype for the format of the Pathuriaghat houses, except that the Chandni is compounded into the second layer of pillars and the courtyard is left open like English/European mock classical style. There were signs of this in the whole of this complex, especially in one part which was added later cf this Chandni and Golapoti.
Thakur dalan-but this was used for all the other pujas-Kartik, Lakshmi, Basanti, Kali. Interestingly this family did Basanti puja much the same as Dp. The Roy family abandoned the house and Dp at the time of the abolition of the Landlords Act. S thinks that the landlords used to carry out all these pujas as there was little source of entertainment in those days and Dp was done to fill in a gap in the month of Aswin. No courtyard and flat roof and small balcony. The entrance way-musicians sat here and played cf the Ghose Pathuriaghat family. Tulsi hut/temple. Puja house for grihadevata. Living quarters-stucco. Kali bari-one on right is of clay, 500 years old. Keshub Sen, Vivekananda, Ramprashad-came here. Set up by a tantric sadhak and the image is called Siddeshwari. I was told that I would not find another image like this in the whole of India.
Krishnananda's image in Nabadwip-called Agameswari.
Siddeshwari-painted annually in Aswin (before Kp). To the left of this image is another replica image which is (I'm told) of stone. The story-organisers of the temple were planning to immerse clay image and replace it with stone one, but one of the orgamisers had a bad dream and consequently the clay image was kept and saved from bisarjan. Both images now exist in the same temple.
Jalangi river-now @ 200 yrds to North of Kali bari and @100 yards to North of Golapati para thakur dalan. Ghats on Jalangi.
Today I was told that most of the dhakis come from Murshidabad and Burdwan.
Next to the Roy family temples (3 temples) ws a very old kathamo with rusty nails leaning against a tree.
In the afternoon I went with S to the ghat to watch the bisarjan of Kartiks. Actually since the morning the bisarjan proper as S describes it which is of the ghatas takes place usually finishing by the late afernoon (one by one) so that the evening and night can be devoted to the appreciation of the procession of images going for bisarjan. I was lucky at this time to see the immersion of a Dp image which belonged to a family-an unusual arrangement, a promise or something. One thing is that the image was turned around several times (so that everyone can see? or so that the deity may lose its sense of direction?) then rushed down the steep slope and immersed. When it was in the water some kids came and pillaged the ornaments (I noticed that all the weapons had already been taken off). The kalabau was thrown in previously. This same process of turning the image around (in 7 circles?) was also done to the Kartik images, some above the water, some on land, before immersion.
S told me that all the images are taken to the rajbari in a sort of tour of the town and then immersed in the Jalangi one after the other at night. This is a tradition because I think prizes are awarded to the best images. Apparently artists would be given a brass bucket ( I saw one in front of an image in one of the sarvajanin processions). It was being held on top of a pole and being waved about. I was told that there were 100 images, I didn't see the bisarjan of the rajbari image-maybe it took place in the pond. It is a quiet affair anyway and although some people go to see it, the crowds at the pandals are larger by far.
The procession started at @7.00pm and lasted till 2.00am (the last and largest being Chasha para one. It is famous. Most of the images were carried by a team of men on bamboo poles and were illuminated by gas lights. You can do some dating by this process. Other images were on trucks and lit up by powerful searchlights.
The pace is fast-most of the bearers and drummers run down the streets, stopping occasionally to rest. The order is as follows: bearers (carrying the image and running), dhakis (generally 108, all running), gowaris (cowherdsmen who are expert with lathis-sticks-come yelling and shouting and leaping about throwing small fire-crackers sometimes hitting the ground with their sticks).
I was told that people in procession used to keep sticks in the lion's belly just in case of trouble. Clashes between rival pandals is not unknown and there was some trouble while we watched.
Incidentally, the afternoon procession for the bisarjan of the ghot (though there were other processions because after all Sapt, Ast, Nav, Dasami were all squashed into one day's Jp) similar noise, youths prancing about and interestingly throwing purple dust powder just like during holi.
I can understand why the chali is used-otherwise no one can see the image clearly. Most of the ones in this Jp were round. I was told that the immersion procession in Chandanagar is a relatively mild, slow-paced affair.
Jhnapi-conch-shell, red cloth over a bamboo frame, basket of Lakshmi.
19th November 1980 - Calcutta + Dutta family
20th November 1980 - Kumartuli
21st November 1980 - Calcutta State Archaeological Museum
22nd November 1980 - Krishnanagar + Nabadwip
23rd November 1980 - Krishnanagar + Shantipur
26th November 1980 - Mecheda + Tamluk
30th November 1980 - Krishnanagar