বাংলায় পড়ুন
Durga Puja the ceremonial of the mother goddess, is one of the most important festivals of India. Apart from being a religious festival for the Hindus, it is the occasion for a reunion and traditional culture and customs. While the rituals entail ten days of fast feast and worship, the last four days- Saptami Ashtami, Navami and Dashami with much enjoyment and grandeur in Bengal. Durga is worshipped twice in a year, once in autumn (sarodiya) and another during the Spring(Basanti), both are the period of rejuvenation. It is also called Navaratri. The nature of the puja has changed over time, but the excitement of the people centering the puja remains almost the same. The first grand Durga Pujawas celebrated in the late 1500s. Flocklores says that the landlord or zamindars of Dinajpur and Malda initiated the first Durga Puja in Bengal. According to another source raja kangshanarayan of teharpurorganized the first sarodiya Durga puja in the month of autumn in 1606. The first Durga Puja in Kolkata is 1610. Lakshmi Kanta Mazumdar founder of Sabarna Roychowdhuri family linked with the selling of three villages to East India Company which is now known as Calcutta with time other Hindu kings have also joined the practice of performing the puja in their household and the puja is spread to Gaur, Rajmahal, Murshidabad and Krishna Nagar.This is how Durgapuja became a most important festival for Bengal.
The origin of the community puja can be credited to the twelve friends of Guptipara in Hoogly who collaborated and collected contribution from local residents to condact the first community puja called baroari. By twelve friend in 1790. It was 90 kilometers from Kolkata.
