Worshipping a Pat painting instead of Durga idol, Midnapore

We know about worshipping Durga in various forms, but do we know that some old landlord families in West Bengal worship Durga in traditional painting called Pat instead of the Goddess in an earthen idol?

The Chakrabarty family in Mirzabazar, Midnapore is one of them.

This Durga was first worshipped around 300 years ago, by the pious Rakhal Chandra Chakrabarty. He is also remembered as the founder of the famous Krishna (named Kalachand Jew here) temple. Both his Kalachand Jew and Goddess Durga are being worshipped till date. Only difference is, Kalachand Jew is given life in a stone idol which is worshipped daily while Goddess Durga comes only during the five day festival in a Pat painting. Why it is so? Simple reason is, the Midnapore royals, probably the Singh dynasty of Karnagahr permitted this Zamindar family under them to worship mother Goddess but did not permit curving of an idol. Since that era the family members paint the Goddess on a 5”/5” cloth frame. The Durga became associated with famous Midnapore Patachitra painting. Rakhal Chandra Chakrabarty was the first priest of the puja.

Following the schedule of Bengali Durgapuja, the Puja starts on the day of Sashthi, and the Goddess enters the temple on the next day, i.e. Saptami. The uniqueness also lies in her food. Except on Nabami, the ninth day of Navaratri, every day the Goddess is fed river fish and rice with other vegetarian delicacies, fruits and sweets. No, animal sacrifice does not take place here. They sacrifice pumpkins instead. On the last day, the Prasad or this sanctified offering has to have ridge gourd and catfish-both smoked.

 

Painting from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Medinipur_Patachitra_-_durga.jpg

Once during the era of royal regime, elephants were used in the procession to immerse this Pat painting into the river. The extravagance is reduced a lot, but the rituals follow the same tradition as it was three hundred years ago.