Burdwan, Oct. 10: The Durga of the one-time Burdwan royal family has been a refugee, without a temple or space of her own for 25 years, but she may get a home before the next Pujas if MLA Rabiranjan Chatterjee keeps his word.
The goddess here is not made of clay, but drawn on paat or a scroll. The patachitra Durga was commissioned by Mehtab Chand, one of the Burdwan kings in the 19th century. The family were tax collectors first for the Mughals and then for the British.
The Durga had a pride of place in the dalan (courtyard) in one of the erstwhile royal properties in Burdwan town, which is now the Burdwan Women's College. In 1991, the state government took over the courtyard to make a girls' hostel.
Since then, the blue-scroll painted Durga, which is over 150 years old, has been brought out, dusted and worshiped in one corner of a Lakshmi-Narayan temple, also donated by Mehtab Chand's descendents.
The idol is known locally as the Pateshwari Durga. The budget for the Puja, donated by the Mehtab Chand Trust, is Rs 5,000 at a time even locality pujas have a budget of several lakhs of rupees.
Chatterjee, the Burdwan South MLA and Burdwan Development Authority chairman, recently visited the puja. "It was heartbreaking. I will do everything I can to restore some of the glory," he said.
The MLA said he would first seek the assistance of state tourism minister Gautam Deb after Pujas to build a temple.
He said Burdwan town owes "everything" to the royal family and now that the royals are no longer able to financially sustain their heritage, it was up to the people and the authorities to do something about it".
"If the tourism department is unable to help us, I will use my resources as an MLA and the chairman of the development authority to ensure that something concrete is done so that the deity can be worshiped in her own temple the next Puja," he said.
Mehtab Chand's family had come from Punjab. The current titular raja of Burdwan, Pranay Chand Mehtab who is in his 70s, oversees the Puja on Ashtami and Navami. He lives in Darjeeling with his wife and their son lives in Canada.
"There is nothing left of the royalty now," Pranay Chand said over phone today. He reached Burdwan today. "There is nothing I can do to revive this Puja's glory. If the government or some other authority wants to do something, I have no objection," he said.
The royal family in its prime in the 18th century oversaw an area sprawling 13,000sqkm and paid hefty annual revenue to the British government.
Historian Nirodbaran Sarkar said the Durga Puja was conducted with pomp and show till the 1970s, after which it saw a decline.
"If you see the way the Puja is conducted now on a meagre budget of Rs 5,000 sanctioned by the family's trust, you can't help feeling sorry.... Its not really the royal family's fault, since they have very little left," Sarkar said.
MLA Chatterjee said the Burdwan royal house patronised the arts and following Independence, donated its main palace and a huge library to set up the University of Burdwan. "They have done enough for Burdwan. Its time we did something ourselves to preserve some of the heritage they have given us," he said.
