The whole of Calcutta, is said to, throng Nabakrishna’s palace. Right after bodhan, food and clothes would be distributed among the poor, a practice that continued through the puja days. Around 1,001 animals were sacrificed in course of the festival. A cannon volley announced the beginning of Sandhi Puja, which was both signal and sanction for other households in the locality to start the ritual in their respective pujas. The same practice was followed for the immersion procession as well.

But what took centrestage was the feasting, the dancing and various other forms of entertainment. Missionary William Carey describes a Puja programme at Nabakrishna’s residence. “The majority of company crowded to Raja Nabkessen’s where several mimics attempted to imitate the manners of different nations.”

Not to be outdone by Nabakrishna, a number of other well-off babus started Durga Puja at their residences, which was attended by the British. They included Prankrishna Singha, Keshtochandra Mitra, Narayan Mitra, Ramhari Thakur, Baranashi Ghosh and Darpanarayan Thakur. On September 25, the Calcutta chronicle reported a post-Puja soiree at Sukhmoy Roy’s place. “The only novelty that rendered the entertainment different from last year was the introduction, or rather the attempt to introduce some English tunes among the Hindoostanee music.” After Nabakrishna died in 1797, his sons Gopimohan13 and Rajkrishna carried on with the Sovabazar puja with equal pomp.

The entertainment provided on such occasions to amuse the sahibs became the chief incentive for hosting Durgotsab. These “attractions” would also be publicised through advertisements in English newspapers.

This is what Prankrishna Haldar of Chinsurah brought out in the Calcutta Gazette on September 20, 1817.

Grand Nautches on Doorga Pooja Holidays:

Baboo Prankrishna Holdar of Chinsurah:
Begs to inform the Ladies and Gentlemen, and the Public in General that he has commenced giving a Grand Nautch from this day, that it will continue till the 29th Inst. Those Ladies and Gentlemen who have received Invitation tickets, are respectfully solicited to favour him with their Company on the days mentioned above; and those to whom the Invitation Tickets have not been sent (strangers to the Baboo), are also respectfully solicited to favour him with their Company.

Baboo Prankissen Holdar further begs to say, that every attention and respect will be paid to the Ladies and Gentlemen who will favour him with their Company, and that he will be happy to furnish them with Tifin [sic], Diner [sic], Wines &c., during their stay there.

The journals in those days gave extensive coverage to the amusements, with special reference to the attendance of the British guests. The Bengal Hurkaru on 12 October, 1829, reports on that year’s puja at Sovabazar: ‘t about ten o’clock Rajas Shibkrishen and Kalikrishen with their brothers had the great honour of receiving Lord Cambermere suit shortly after which came in Lord and Lady Bentinck with their suites, when ‘God save the King’ was struck up, and their Lordships were seated on a golden sofa, placed at the centre of the ‘nautch’ place.. .The nautches. . .greatly pleased their Lordships and her Ladyship.”

These “nautches” brought to town the best-known names among the bayaderes. A correspondent writes in Asiatic Journal in 1816: “...the chief singers Nik-hee and Ashroon, who are engaged by Neel Munee Mullik and Raja Ram Chunder, are still without rivals in melody and grace. A woman named Zeenut, who belongs to Benaras, performs at the house of Budr Nath Baboo in Jora Sanko. Report speaks highly of a young damsel, named Fyz Boksh who performs at the house of Goroo Persad Bhos.”
The British, as is evident, participated enthusiastically in such festivities. They had prasaad and did pranaam, often lying prostrate on the ground. The soldiers would salute “Goddess Doorgah”. Company auditor-general John Chips even used to organise Durga Puja at his office in Surul, in Birbhum district.

An idea of the Britishers’ impressions of the puja can be obtained from accounts left behind by diarists. Their observations on the customs were mostly unalloyed by explanations from locals.

Maria Graham, who published her Journal of a Residence in India in 1812, saw “moving temples” being “carried upon men’s heads” on October 25, 1810. The divinities, carried in procession with “musical instruments, banners and bareheaded Brahmins repeating muntras (forms of prayer)”, were being taken to be “bathed in the Hooghly, which being a branch of the Ganges, is sacred”. “The gods were followed by cars, drawn by oxen or horses, gaily caparisoned, bearing the sacrificial utensils, accompanied by other Brahmins, and the procession was closed by an innumerable multitude of people of all castes.” Ms Graham also received a printed card on the occasion from the Sovabazar address, which she has transcribed. “Maha Rajah, Raj kissen Bahadur, presents his respectful compliments to Mrs. Gram, and requests the honour of his company to a nautch (being Doorga Poojah) at nine o’clock in the evening.”

If the baboos vied with each other in drawing the big names to their respective pujas, the foreigners too looked forward to receiving the invitations. So Ms Graham “having never seen a nautch”, “did not decline the Maha Rajah’s invitation” and reached the ‘fine house at the end of Chitpore bazar” on the appointed evening. The welcome was elaborate:

“The host . led us to the most commodious seat, stationed boys behind us with round fans of red silk, with gold fringe, and then presented us with bouquets of the mogree and the rose, tied tip in a green leaf, ornamented with silver fringe. A small gold vase being brought, the Maha Rajah, with a golden spoon, perfumed us with ottur, and sprinkled us with rose-water after which we were allowed to sit still and look on.”

The entertainment on all three evenings was spectacular and Ms Graham took in every detail of the nautch. “The first dancers were men, whom by their dress, I took for women, . These gave way to some Cashmerian singers, whose voices were very pleasing.... I was sorry when they finished, to make way for a kind of pantomime in which men impersonated elephants, bears and monkeys.The best amusement we staid to partake of was the exhibition of a ventriloquist (the best I ever heard).” She also mentions “a masquerade, when several Portuguese and Pariahs appeared as Europeans, and imitated our dances, music and manners”.

But not everyone trusted their own judgment and depended on explanations from “natives”. Maria, Lady Nugent, wife of the then commander-in-chief in India Sir George Nugent, stayed in the country from 1811 to 1815. Her counsellor seems to have been her ayah who must have had her tongue firmly in cheek while explaining the nuances of the rituals. An entry in Lady Nugent’s diary; dated Friday, October 1, 1812, describes “Doorgah” thus: “She is represented by a figure made of painted mud, with large silver eyes, which a Brahmin, concealed behind her, opens and shuts continually.

A plantain tree is placed before her, for her eyes to rest upon; the effects of these silver orbs being supposed to be fatal to any human being; and my ayah assured me, whatever she put her eye upon would instantly die..”

The backlash and the decline

As wine and beef from Wilson’s Hotel became the toast of the nights of revelry, and entertainment took on cruder avatars with every passing autumn, resentment at the hedonistic perversions in the name of Durga Puja started building up in many quarters. Sarcasm at the state of affairs is dripping from a piece by Bhabanicharan Bandyopadhyay in 1823, entitled Kolikata Kamalalay: “Durga Puja in Calcutta is better described as a festival of chandeliers, lamps, poets, nautch girls, or even of the wife’s ornaments and clothes. (author’s translation)” The Calcutta John Bull of October 13, 1819, agrees: “The nautches, it must be confessed, have of late, acquired rather a bad name.”22 Sir Radhakanta Deb, son of Nabakrishna’s nephew and foster soil Gopimohan, is said to have incurred the wrath of the other Hindu gentry for inviting non-believing sahibs at his Puja feasts. Questions of racial propriety began to be raised. People were also becoming conscious of their rights and liberties and were no longer afraid to hold their own on the religious front, keeping tile British at arm’s length.

One act of defiance that became part of contemporary lore was that of Rani Rashmoni’s. The widow of Rajchandra Das carried on with the puja started by her father-in-law with increased splendour at her Jaanbazar address in north Calcutta. One year, a European gentleman complained about the dill during tile Nabapatrika procession to the river. She retaliated by bringing out an even noisier procession tile next day. A case was filed and she was filled Rs 50. The rani paid the fine but blocked tile road to thoroughfare, pointing out that it was built by her husband. The British were forced to negotiate with her and return the filled amount.

Intra-family strifes in the houses of tile noble also took their toll on tile pujas. All analysis of tile trend in Bengal Spectator puts the finger on “loss of money by litigation and other causes of an adventurous nature”, and tile fact that “The junior members of some of the native families are no friends of Heathenism.”

The Samachar Darpan reflects in 1829 how tile song and dance routine used to be “five times grander in the immediate past”. “Tile festivities are on the wane, without doubt (author’s translation),” it conchtded.

And with tile promulgation of a law in 1840 prohibiting Company officials from attending native social occasions, the interest of tile babus in hosting Durga Puja walled.