Asim Bando's KOLKATA BLOG

Saraswati Puja - 5 days to go. So, I went to Kumortuli to see the preparation of Saraswati idols last Saturday. I became overwhelmed to see so many idols of different types of goddess Saraswati there, some of them are really praiseworthy. -- A. B. -- A. B.

Old buildings and vendors at present College Street of Kolkata. -- A. B.

Today's the 67th Republic Day of India. On this occasion, a beautiful presentation of tableaus made by all the states of India are now being displayed on rajpath of the capital. The tableau of West Bengal was 'Baul' displayed just now. The baul songs of Bengal is the most ancient, rich and traditional culture emerged from the soil of Bengal. -- A. B.

A good numbers of bronze statues of Buddhist god & goddesses have been found by excavation at Mogolmari Buddhist Bihar. The third phase of excavation was started from 11th January'16 there. And many bronze statues of Gupta period have been found including the statues of Tara, Abalokiteswar, Saraswati etc. The statues are about 10-43 cm high. The state Archaeological deptt. will examine the statues in laboratory. Mogolmari is a place of Dantan block of Paschim Medinipur. Since 2013, excavation work is going on at Mogolmari in a phased way. The Buddhist Bihar has been found there which is now under conservation. But the excavation is still going on. And as a result, so many bronze statues have been found which is a great success of state Archaeological deptt. When the central power of Gupta dynasty was weakening, local zaminders emerged as strongest power and at that time, this vast area was formed as Buddhist Bihar. A Buddhist festival has been arranged t

Japan is one of those countries who still nurture the elements of Hindu religion and culture. For instance, the original form of Sanskrit language is still in vogue in Japan : it is called 'Beejaksharas' (etymology of alphabets) or 'বীজাক্ষর লিপি'. Moreover, 'Siddham Script' (সিদ্ধম লিপি) of 6th century is still in use there which is disappeared from India. There are schools in Japan where teaching of Siddham script along with Sanskrit is still in vogue. A milk product named 'Sujata' (সুজাতা) is there in the market. The story of 'Payas' (পায়েস) giving ceremony by Sujata to Lord Buddha is still very popular in Japan. The highest temple of goddess Saraswati is in Osaka of Japan. Hundreds of temples are there in Japan where goddess Saraswati and or Lakshmi are being worshipped. Besides these two goddesses, other Hindu gods like Ganesh, Indra, Brahma, Garud, Paban, Barun etc. are famous in Japan. Even deities forgotten in India are wors

On the auspicious occasion of Poush-Sankranti, Pithe-Puli (sweetcake) Festival of Rajdanga, Kolkata is now going on with enthusiasm as usual. Pic: Bartaman newspaper. -- A. B.

It is the month of Poush (পৌষ) in Bengal. Goddess Lakshmi is being worshipped in many household by many ways. Painted 'Lakshmi sara' (লক্ষ্মী সরা) is one of the main material of Lakshmi Puja. Lakshmi puja is use to perform to the clay idols, 'sara' or 'jhanpi' (ঝাঁপি) of goddess Lakshmi. The people of East Bengal (now Bangladesh) generally perform Lakshmi Puja by 'sara' or clay idols. And the people of West Bengal perform Lakshmi puja to a 'container of paddy' (ধানপাত্র) or 'ghot' (ঘট) of goddess Lakshmi. Some other people have family symbol of goddess Lakshmi who perform pujas to that symbol. In undevided Bengal, 'sara' was in vogue within the states of Dhaka, Faridpur and Barishal. After the partition, those artists of 'sara' art belonged to 24-Parganas and Nadia district. They used to paint there burnt convexed discs and declared it as 'Lakshmi sara'. Once upon a time, Acharya Brahmins used to pain

The traditional puppet play of rural Bengal is still the main attraction of Raas Bari of Mahendra Bhattacharya Road in Howrah. In the year 1897 Priyanath Ghosh Bagui had established Radha-Krishna temple. Since then a century-old puppet play organisation of south 24-Parganas comes to this Raas Mela and various dramatic plays (যাত্রাপালা) are use to perform here through puppets in the evening for four days. The pair of idols of Radha-Krishna made of Kashti Pathar (কষ্টিপাথর) are there inside the temple. From the day of Raas the idols of Radha-Krishna are being kept on the Raas manch (রাস-মঞ্চ) for the next four days. Each day in the evening, when the puppet play ends, the idols use to bring back in the Naat-mandir (নাটমন্দির) for evening prayers and finally use to lay in the main temple for the night. Decoration with puppets in the Naat-mandir is one of the important and attractive part of Raas here. The 10 Avatars of Sri Krishna are being showed outside the Naa