Durga and her divine entourage will be harboured on top of trucks and ferried to myriad Puja venues across the city but 260km from here at Gauripur in Dhubri district, a 400-year-old tradition will be practised with the idol made of kuhilla (a pith plant which grows on water), escorted on a royal palanquin.
The Gauripur royal household makes sure the reed goddess, from the start of the Puja, is escorted from the Rajbari and taken to the field of the iconic Mahamaya temple in the same manner as their ancestors.
This year, the royal household will carry the goddess from the temple premises on a palanquin to the bank the Gadadhar nearby. From there, she will be taken on a boat upon which devotees will offer obeisance in a special ceremony.
The kuhilla goddess will be taken to Mahamaya temple again, where the idol will be worshiped for the next four days. People from neighbouring places, including Bengal, visit Gauripur for the event.
“This is the tradition which we practise every year. The idol is carried on a palanquin like a bride in a pompous procession. The Belboron ceremony is also performed on the river bank. This is our heritage, a symbol that we wish to carry and continue in the days ahead. Earlier, the procession used to be accompanied by elephants and horses. But now things have changed,” said Probir Barua, a descendent of the royal household.
The Rajbari’s idol is nearly five feet tall. It was made by Karen Malakar, an artisan whose family has been crafting reed idols for the royal household for more than a century.
Preparations for a kuhilla idol take time. The reeds need to be dried in the sun for 10 to 15 days. The reeds need to be dried in the open. It needs to be skinned for its interior stem which is then used in idols.
Gauripur Rajbari boasts of names like Pramathesh Barua, the first actor to play Devdas on celluloid, folk singer Pratima Pandey Barua, the first female elephant catcher and an expert in the art of lassoing elephants Parboti Barua and pachyderm expert Prakatish Barua.
The Rajbari’s history dates back to the 8th century. Somewhere in the 14th or 15th century, Narahari Rai, one of their ancestors, a minister at the royal court of Mithila after an altercation with the king, came to Assam. He was soon acquainted with Biswa Singha the Cooch Behar king and made an administrator in the royal court. After the division of the Cooch Behar kingdom there were some changes.
In 1620, Mughal emperor Jahangir bestowed the title of king to Kabi Shekhar, a descendent of Narahari Rai. Over time, the charm and influence of royal families is on the wane but the Gauripur Rajbari of Dhubri district is trying to keep alive its once-splendid Durga Puja celebrations with complete adherence to its unique traditions and rituals.
“In the 1600s, the Puja came into being in Gauripur, probably one of the oldest in Assam. Traditionally, both Hindus and Muslims used to work together to make the 10-day celebration a grand one, but sadly, things have changed over the past few years,” added Barua.
According to local folklore, one day while bathing in the river, Shekhar saw two suns in the sky and from one of them, a woman emerged and began to walk on the river. Shocked at the sight, Shekhar followed the woman and saw her riding a tiger near a cave.