Asim Bando's KOLKATA BLOG

async="" crossorigin="anonymous" src="https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6973460484243747"> Today, I would like to tell about the 340 years old Durga Puja of Serampore Goswami family's traditional Durga puja. Their house is a royal palace (Raj Bari) built about 300 years ago. Serampore is a town of Hooghly district of West Bengal, India. This town is located near Kolkata. It is a very old town, occupied by Dutch during British raj in India. This royal palace of Goswami family is situated on the bank of river Ganges near ferry ghat. When I entered at the house, seen the big structure at the middle 'chandni' or 'Naat Mandir'. It is made of 24 corinthian columns and occupied 130×30 feet area. I stood under this 'chandni' and found the 'Thakur Dalan' (where the deity offered puja). Its floor is made of marble. Its outer walls and pillars are well-decorated with cement plast...

       235-year-old Danish tavern and hotel at Serampore, a former colony of Denmark in West Bengal, has been resurrected from the ruins and is now set for rebirth as a riverside cafe. It will also have a bakery, handicrafts shop and lodging facilities and has been inaugurated today at 3:30 pm.         A Danish colony flourished by the river Hooghly between 1755 and 1845, when Denmark handed it over to the British. The location was Serampore, about 25km from Kolkata and on the western banks of the Hooghly river. The town was then known as Frederick's Nagore.         Apart from the tavern, the St. Olav's Church near the said tavern has also been renovated with Danish help.         The cafeteria in the said tavern will be able to accommodate about 60-70 people. Of the 6 rooms, 3 will be Riverview 'heritage rooms'.          Known as Denmark Tavern, the original lo...

      "Letter Town" (অক্ষর শহর) is another name of Serampore. This town and its 'Serampore College' is the witness of nineteenth centuries renaissance.             Serampore Mission Press - the effort of Mahatma William Carey and obviously the second oldest college of Asia 'Serampore College' played unforgettable role in the history of India's educational culture. It was the beginning of India's book printing history. Not only the Sanskrit translation of Bible, text books in Bengali and in other regional languages, dictionaries and other kind of books used to first publish from Serampore and circulated in the whole country. Oldest periodicals of India like 'Samachar Darpan', 'Dik Darshan' and 'The Friend of India' used to publish from this small town too. Indian epics like 'Ramayan' by Krittibas, 'Mahabharat' by Kashiram Das too published for the first time from Serampore. Bengali letter invento...

Today I went to Serampore to observe Viswakarma puja there. -- A. B.

In the year 1834 on this day, William Carey died at Serampore near Kolkata. This is the tomb of him in the graveyard at Serampore. -- A. B.

In the year 1852 on this day, first Bengali monthly magazine named 'Jnanarunodaya' was published from Chandrodaya Press at Serampore. Krishna Chandra Karmakar, son-in-law of Panchanan Karmakar (founder of first Bengali font) was the founder of this Monthly and its joint-editor were Jadunath Chattopadhyay & Kalidas Moitra.