Muzaffarpur Bengali community celebrates 119th year of Puja

MUZAFFARPUR: The Bengali community’s oldest Durga Puja in Muzaffarpur, the Baribhakti Prodayim Sabha, commonly known as the Hari Sabha Durga Puja Committee, has entered the 119th year of its celebrations this year.
Since its inception, the Puja committee has been organising the festivities exactly the way it started in the year 1900 by the Bengali community of Muzaffarpur. “We don’t have documents to prove when our ancestors started the Puja, but it has been passed from generation to generation that it was started in 1900,” said Ranjan Chatterjee, a former president of the Puja committee.
The rituals and method of worship, steeped in Bengali tradition, have remained the same.Even the artisans from Kumartuli in Bengal, who shaped the idols, come from the same family, which made the idols for the first Puja time at Harishabha Chauk.
“Continuing with the tradition does not mean that we are not changing with the times. We are moving ahead with the times and have embraced technology to celebrate the auspicious festival. This is why we have launched our website and made optimal use of latest technologies. But, we do ensure that the age old tradition is followed,” said Jainendra Kumar Das, president of the Hari Sabha Durga Puja Committee, Muzaffarpur.
“A lot of things in our celebration are the same as it was in early days. We are still following the old traditional rituals in offering prayers in the morning and in the evening,” Das added.
“Cultural functions like drama, dance, musical competition, felicitations to committee’s old-timers for their contributions and release of a souvenir would be added attractions of the puja celebration this time,” said Ujjwal Kumar Das, secretary of the organising committee.
Describing the idea behind the creation of the idols at the Pandal, executive member of the committee Ajay Kumar Ghosh said “Lord Mahadeva (Shiva) is on the top, while, goddess Durga is located just below her accompanied by goddess Laxmi and godess Saraswati on her left and right side. The idol Mahishasur has been made just below Maa Durga,” said Ghosh.
The pandal is spread over an area of over 6000 sq feet to accommodate the maximum number of devotees, said Goutam Sarkar, a senior member of the committee.