From the courtyards of rajas to the streets of a whole city.
Festival of the Goddess Durga at Calcutta, a 19th-century print. Photo: Louis-Henri de Rudder / After Alexei Dmitriyevich Saltykov, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
The grand autumn puja took shape among landholders and kings, among them Raja Krishnachandra Roy of Nadia. Many early dates come from family tradition.
Durga on her lion fights Mahishasura: a 19th-century Kalighat painting. Photo: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Raja Nabakrishna Deb's puja in north Kolkata, traditionally dated to the year of Plassey. Its thakurdalan still holds the puja.
Durga in the thakurdalan of Sovabazar Rajbari, an old family puja. Photo: Biswarup Ganguly, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Merchant families competed in splendour, inviting Company officials and hiring famous singers. These houses are today's bonedi bari.
Festival of the Goddess Durga at Calcutta, a 19th-century print. Photo: Louis-Henri de Rudder / After Alexei Dmitriyevich Saltykov, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
At Guptipara, by tradition, twelve friends pooled money for a puja of their own: the first puja owned by a group, not a family.
Night crowds on the pandal trail in Behala. Photo: Snehangshu36, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Neighbourhood committees began pujas open to all, regardless of caste or means. Bagbazar Sarbojanin dates to 1918 or 1919.
Durga with her family, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesha and Kartik, at Maddox Square, Kolkata. Photo: Biswarup Ganguly, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
New neighbourhoods built their own pujas after independence, and Kumartuli's potters made images for all of them.
Idols take shape in a workshop lane at Kumartuli, north Kolkata. Photo: Pinakpani, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Pandals became public art, each built around one idea: a village craft, a social issue or an imagined world.
A theme pandal built around Bengal's folk culture. Photo: Himadri8991, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
UNESCO inscribed Durga Puja in Kolkata on its list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Durga at a Kolkata pandal, 2025. Photo: Pramanikshreya, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
How Durga Puja grew from zamindari and rajbari pujas to barowari and sarbojanin community festivals, theme pandals and UNESCO heritage status in Kolkata.
The history of Durga Puja in Bengal ā Next story: How Kumartuli makes the goddess All photo storiesMusic: Sitar sample yaman, Tito Dutta, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.