From Vijayanagar to Jabalpur: The Deb Family Saga

During my visit to Kolkata for the 2013 Durga Puja, I became curious about the festival's origins in India. To my surprise, I discovered that the first organized Durga Puja in Kolkata was held in 1757. This inaugural celebration was hosted by Raja Nabokrishno Deb at Shobhabazar Rajbari to commemorate the victory over Siraj-ud-Daulah, the last Nawab of Bengal, with the assistance of the British army led by Lord Clive.

Durga Puja 2013 at Rajbari

Interestingly, my ancestor, Balaram Deb, and Raja Nabokrishno Deb shared a common father, Sri Ramchandra Deb. While visiting the Shobhabazar Rajbari, we encountered an elderly gentleman (seen left) who recounted the historical context of the Puja. He explained that we were Kshatriyas of the Bharadwaj gotra, one of the seven gotras sent eastward from the Vijayanagar Empire around 800 years ago to prevent the conversion of Hindus to Islam.

Rajbari Shobha Bazaar Kolkata

Our ancestors established themselves in West Bengal and became Zamindars of Sutanauti village. In the mid-17th century, the Portuguese established a trading outpost in Sutanuti, followed by the Dutch, who constructed a canal near the present Central Business District. The old Fort William was built in 1696 to protect the English settlement.

Gun carriage Factory Jabalpur

The city gained notoriety in 1756 when Siraj-ud-Daulah captured the fort and, according to British accounts, suffocated 43 British residents in the Black Hole of Calcutta. Robert Clive recaptured the city for the British in 1757. To celebrate this victory, the first community Durga Puja was organized in 1757, with Lord Clive in attendance.

Following this, Balaram Deb relocated from Kolkata to Fatehgarh and was granted land holdings. However, during the 1857 Hindu-Muslim riots, the family moved to Allahabad and later to Jabalpur in 1904 when the British established the Gun Carriage Factory there.