Bonedi means old and established; bari is a house. The bonedi bari are the great family houses of old Calcutta, most of them in the north of the city, built by merchants, agents of the East India Company and landowners who grew rich in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. For many of these families the Durga Puja was the most important event of the year, and a good number still hold it, in the same house, in much the same way.
If the big community pujas are the city’s festival, these are its living history: smaller, quieter, and run by families who remember the names of the ancestors who began them.
The thakurdalan
A bonedi bari puja is held in the thakurdalan, the hall of the gods: a raised, pillared hall on one side of the inner courtyard, open to the courtyard so that the household and its guests can gather to watch the rites. Many have tall columns, arches and chandeliers, and in some houses the idol is made in the courtyard itself, by the same family of image makers every year.
The idol is usually in the sabeki style, with the goddess and her children together under a single arch, the ekchala, and dressed in daker saaj. Some families still dress the goddess in their own jewellery.
Every house its own rules
Each family follows its own customs, handed down from the founder, and no two are quite alike. Some cook the bhog themselves, some follow Vaishnav rules with no sacrifice of any kind, and some offer the goddess dishes that appear nowhere else. At Chhatu Babu–Latu Babu’s house the goddess is flanked by two companions, Jaya and Bijaya, and in a few old family pujas the lion at her feet has the face of a horse.
For a long time the Sovabazar Rajbari released a blue-throated nilkantha bird on Dashami, to fly to Mount Kailash and tell Shiva that the goddess was on her way home. Once the bird became a protected species the custom changed: the family replaced it first with a clay bird, and in recent years with paper lanterns.
Some of the best known
- Sovabazar Rajbari, in Shobhabazar: Raja Nabakrishna Deb held his first puja here in 1757. Two branches of the family now hold separate pujas, the boro taraf and the chhoto taraf.
- The Sabarna Roy Choudhury family in Barisha: their puja traces itself back to 1610, and several branches of the family hold pujas in their own houses.
- Chhatu Babu–Latu Babu’s house on Beadon Street, the family of the merchant Ramdulal Dey: the puja is said to date from about 1770.
- Rani Rashmoni’s house in Janbazar, home of the family of the woman who founded the Dakshineswar temple.
Visiting
Many bonedi bari open their courtyards to visitors during the Puja, at least for darshan, but they are family homes first. Go in quietly, take off your shoes before stepping onto the thakurdalan, do not touch the idol or the ritual items, and ask before photographing family members or the rites. Some houses keep fixed visiting hours, and the busiest times are the Ashtami anjali and the evening arati. Several of these houses are close enough to walk between in an afternoon, which makes north Kolkata the best place to start.