Living Past : An Album on Durga Puja Related Activities at Old Zamindar Houses in Bengal

During the stretch of the 7th month from April 2014, the project encompassed the history of the celebration of Durga puja in elite Bengali households or BonediBari pujo in Kolkata as well as in the districts of Bengal. One of the main reasons of our introspection of these particular household worships is to find out the intriguing relation of the celebration of Durga puja to the history of Calcutta (as was known erstwhile) — as it grew up from a native village area to the prosperous and dazzling capital city of British India. The social history of Calcutta is intrinsically related to the increasing grandeur of the festivity of Durga Puja and flourishing of clay-modelling business and the settling of artists and artisans, who were once mainly potters, in Calcutta. This publication is an outcome of the project under Lalit Kala Akademi, Ministry of Culture, Government of India which is titled as "Preservance and Digitising Art Activities During Puja Festival in Kolkata."