Durga Puja is held in many bonedi households in West Bengal. Guskara in Purba Barddhaman district houses a number of pujas of which Chongder, Patra and Majhi Bari deserves mention. Ofcourse, there are other houses where the puja is held but I shall elaborate on the Durga Pujas of Chongder Bari and Patra Bari in this post.
Previously, I have visited two household pujas in Barddhaman – Durga Puja of Chakdighi Baganbati and Durga Puja of Chaudhuri Bari, Amadpur. But I have never seen the Durga Pujas of Guskara. So, I decided to fix one full day for Guskara in order to visit the household pujas there. This year on the auspicious day of Mahastami, I boarded Shantiniketan Express from Howrah and reached Guskara at around 11:45 am. I hired a toto and my first destination was Chonger Bari.
The Durga Puja of Chongder Bari is very old. The present dalan is built more than 150 years back. The protima is built in the thakurdalan and kathamo puja is observed in Rathayatra. There are a number of unique things connected with this puja.
An oil lamp known as pran pradip remains lighted during the days of the puja and the same is kept inside a glass chimney. There are two ghats – Bhairavnath ghat and Shanti kalas just below the idol. These are never immersed. The hom is known as Sagnik hom which starts from Saptami and continues till Nabami. The fire remains lighted. Maa Saraswati is not wearing any mukut (crown) . Kumari Puja is held on Mahastami.
The old scripture of this family was written in Pali language. The puja is held according to shakta rituals. Previously there was a custom of animal sacrifice but now it was stopped. Instead vegetables are sacrificed. The goddess is offered both veg and non veg bhog including annabhog. Naibidya made of rice and sugar are offered. Batuk Bhairab is the kula debata (family deity) of the Chongders.
My next destination is Patra Bari. Before reaching there I decided to have a look at Kunur river which is a tributary of River Ajay. The toto driver took me near the river.
Patra Bari in Guskara houses a unique Durga – Pater Durga. The Durga Puja was started by Madhusudan Patra about 150 years back.
The puja is currently being held by the fourth generation of the family. The puja is held according to Shakta rituals and balidan is held during the days of the puja. A pumpkin is sacrificed on Saptami, a goat on Mahastami and a few goats on Mahanabami. There is no custom of Kumari Puja and dhuno porano here. I came to know that there was another puja of Patra family in Patra para but there the idol of Maa Durga is made of clay. The pat was drawn previously by Kartick Kumar Pal and presently it was drawn by his son Daresh Kumar Pal at a place called Debagram, about seven kilometres from Guskara. The canvas is made of cloth along with a mixture of clay. The background is blue in colour along with chalchitra. I was simply spell bound by seeing this Durga.
There are other places in Guskara where Durga Puja is held but due to shortage of time I simply took the image of Goddess Durga of Majhi Bari as I had to board the return Shantiniketan Express. In this connection I would like to mention that I stayed in Guskara for less than ninety minutes.
Special thanks to Shri Somnatheswar Chongder and Shri Prabhat Kumar Patra .
Going there: Guskara can be reached both by road and rail. The nearest railway station is Guskara.
Date of posting: 30th September, 2025.
Blog of Kinjal Bose 