Durga who has only the head!

Where? In the village named Gomai in Galsi tehsil, Bardhaman district, West Bengal

When did this Durgapuja start? Some say it was about four hundred years ago, some say it was about three hundred ago, something supernatural happened in this village. 

A rich businessman called Gobinda Roy went to take a dip in his house pond. Suddenly he saw a beautiful lady in the middle of the pond. She was exquisitely beautiful, but only her head was visible. Roybabu was surprised - why and how it is possible for someone to bathe like that. Village ladies those days didn't go far from home and hence an unknown lady's using someone's else's pond was impossible. Curious Roybabu looked straight at the lady. As soon as their eyes met, the lady vanished like a blitz. 

The incident shocked him. He stood perplexed for some time, then took a bath and returned home. Same night he saw a lady in her dream - the same one whose head he saw in the morning. She assured the scared man, "Don't be afraid. Worship me as Durga making the idol of only the part of my body you have seen in the morning." 

The man had seen only the head. He started Durgapuja in his home making the head the Goddess. Another version of the story tells that the first idol made was the complete form of Durga, irrespective of the Goddess' order. But before the puja began, the idol broke on its own. Only the head remained intact and that was the way the Roy family began worshipping a bodyless Durga. 

Durga here does not have any of her children as well. The puja is done following Devibhagabat but without Chandipath or recital of Chandi. Both vegetable and animal sacrifice is done here. Pumpkin, Sugarcane,  banana and goats are sacrificed. The Goddess is fed only luchi, fruits and sweets, not rice. Other unique rituals are lighting 108 lamps on Navami day, doing Aarti only once a day, and moving the Goddess's head through the village on a palanquin before immersion. After immersion, the ladies of the family wait there to watch Brahminy kites flying on the horizon of the village. This signifies the Goddess's returning home from her fathers place at the end of Puja.