Culture
Maharaja Naba Krishna Deb started the Durga Puja in Shobhabazar Rajbari in 1757. He set a pattern for the puja which became a fashion and a status symbol among the upcoming merchant class of Kolkata. The number of Englishmen attending the family Durga Puja became an index of prestige. Religious scruples fell by the wayside. The nautch girls were mostly from Muslim gharanas. The Englishmen attending the dance-parties, dined on beef and ham from Wilson’s Hotel, and drank to their heart’s contentment.
The Shobhabazar Durga Puja is split into two parts, near each other, but both the Pujas continue with their characteristic distinctions. Karttikeya is dressed in breaches worn by Englishmen. In most Bengali pujas Ganesha dons the traditional dhuti-chadar', but at Shobhabazar he is an idol worshipped by the Marwari ancestors of Jagat Seth; and Durga wears jewellery designed after the Mughals or Nawabs of Oudh.In earlier days Nidhu Babu and kabials like Anthony Firingee and Bhola Moira vied for attention with the nautch girls and baijis. As the non-Brahmin patrons of Sovabazar Rajbari were not allowed by tradition to offer annobhog or rice in any form, they offered homemade sweets to the goddess. For the past 250 years, generations of haluikars (traditional confectioners) from Bardhaman come down to the Sovabazar Rajbari and make lip-smacking delicacies like jibe gaja, khaja and nimki.
It was in the Shobhabazar Rajbari dalan (courtyard) that Swami Vivekananda was accorded a civic reception after his return from the Parliament of the World's Religions at Chicago.
Shobhabazar Rajbari is identified as heritage building by Kolkata Municipal Corporation.
Read more about this topic: Shobhabazar
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