KOLKATA'S OLDEST DURGA PUJA HAS A MUGHAL CONNECTION

The Sabarna Roy Choudhury family originally owned much of the land on which present-day Kolkata stands. This year marks the 413th edition of its celebrated Puja. It is a story that begins with a grant of jagir under Mughal emperor Jahangir

- Chanchal Mazumder

Right now, Kolkata is a city of Durga Puja pandals. Every street has one. Some are known for their grandeur, others for their antiquity, and yet if you had to choose a first among these equals, odds are you would pick the Sabarna Roy Choudhury family Puja.

Celebrated continuously since 1610, it is the oldest of the old extant Pujas. It’s also known for adhering to tradition instead of being swayed by new themes and fads every year.

But there’s something else that makes the Roy Choudhury family Puja special – it owes its origin to a land grant by Mughal emperor Jahangir, mediated through his general Raja Man Singh of Amber, the modern Jaipur.

Chapter Of History 

Not many people know their great-grandparents’ names. Fewer still can trace their ancestry beyond 5-6 generations, but the Roy Choudhury family is privileged in this regard. They now count 35 generations between the founder of the Puja, Lakshmikanta Gangopadhyay a.k.a. Sabarna Roy Choudhury, and the youngest living member. And Lakshmikanta himself was from the 22nd generation of Bengal’s illustrious Gangopadhyay Brahmin clan.

How the stars brought together the Badshah, the Raja and a Bengali court official to start the Roy Choudhury family Puja is quite a story. Lakshmikanta’s father Jiya Gangopadhyay was a renowned Sanskrit scholar who lived at Kali Kshetra (today’s Kalighat in Kolkata), says Devarshi Roy Choudhury, one of the thousands of Lakshmikanta’s 35thgeneration descendents. He says there are more than 20,000 of them spread around the world and he is joint secretary of the Sabarna Roy Choudhury Parivar Parishad.