Kartik Nama: Chinsurah's connection with the warrior god

I. Household and Popular celebrations

The image of Kartik in Choto Shil Bari's thakurdalan

On the cold evening of 17th and 18th November, when the rest of the suburbs grow empty by 8 and people retreat under warm shawls and blankets, Katwa, Bansberia and Chinsurah shimmer in light and festivities. They celebrate Kartik, marking the end of the several pujos celebrated between goddess Durga's departure and the year's end.

Kamarpara's Sharanan Kartik

Kartik has an interesting history in Bengal. In Tamil Nadu, he remains a popular god, but in Bengal, he remains quite low in the pecking order of fame. He comes with his mother during Durga Puja, and his worship isn't something mainstream Bengalis are very enthusiastic about, for Kartik is traditionally the only god who without fail brings festivities into Red-Light areas at midnight, and brings a sense of hope in households wishing for a child. Sometimes, worshipping him comes with embarrassment and tease. Mischievous people were known for secretly leaving Kartik idols before front doors, while families victims of their pranks had to worship him. 

Creation of Kartik idols, Rayerber

But this is not the case in these three towns. Traditionally, Kartik is welcomed here with great gaiety and pomp. Bansberia is most well known for its 3 day long celebrations, followed by Katwa. Chinsurah's fame for Kartik pujo is not widely known, but it is almost equally old.

Chinsurah however stands out because of the fact that Kartik thakur is celebrated in the town in bonedi households too. Bonedi households across Gangetic Bengal usually limited their celebrations to forms of Shakti, or Krishna. However, these rich merchant families desired male heirs for the continuance of family businesses and firms. In the day and age of zamindars, diwans and banias, having daughters didn't call for much celebration, since they wished for sons to take over their businesses, or carry on their family name. However, these wishes weren't always fulfilled. Wishes thus transitioned to prayers, answered by none other than Lord Kartik himself. Thus began grand Kartik Pujos around two centuries ago, which quickly trickled down to the popular level. 

Kartik of Dhar Bari, Kamarpara

Choto Shil Bari, Gobordhon Shil Lane, Kamarpara

Today, Chinsurah's barowari (public) Kartik pujas and their grand processions remain popular, but the the warrior god continues to be worshipped in thakurdalans tucked away in narrow alleys of Chinsurah. The Sheal family of Boro Sheal Bari built a majestic Thakurdalan to welcome him, way before Durga Pujo began here. The family lore still recalls how the warrior god blessed the family with sons, in whose name the family continued grandiose celebrations. Adhya Bati, Choto Seal Bari, Haldar Bari, and Dhar Bari too have been celebrating it for generations, some of them for more than a century.

Boro Seal Bari, Seal Goli

Haldar Bari, Shandeshwartala

Adhya Bati, Panchanantala, Kamarpara

 Added to these are the barowari local pujos, who celebrate Kartik in various forms. to some he is a 'raja' (king), to some he is a 'babu' (Babu Kartik), to some a warrior (Lorai Kartik), and some see him as a son of Shiva. He is also worshipped as 'Sharanan'. With modern times, 'theme pujo' hasn't entered the stream as strongly as in Kolkata's Durga pujo, but Kartik has surely gained newer forms and styles.

A popular form where Kartik is worshipped alongside Shiva and Ganesh

At present, atleast a hundred pujos are celebrated in Chinsurah. The oldest ones are in Kamarpara, Shandeshwartala, Thakurgoli, Khirkigoli, Rayerber, Kanakshali, Panchanantala, and most notably Golabagan.

Golabagan's Lorai Kartik for instance is being worshipped for the past 171 years. But if he's a warrior, how can he fight with just a bow and an arrow? Asked a generous British commissioner who gifted him with a Shield and a sword for better combat around a century ago. These still continue to hang on his waist.

a frew glimpses of the decorations and tableaux of the shobhajatra

The puja is conducted on the 17th of November every year. The next day, just like neighbouring Chandannagar's Jagadhatri Puja, Kartik too comes out on the narrow lanes of Chinsurah with his entourage, followed by lights, bands, dance performances, and the famous sawng (সঙ) of Chinsurah. Babu Kartik makes rounds with a silver shawl and pearl necklaces adorning his bare chest, while Golabagan's Lorai Kartik defends the town with a burning arrowhead (Agnibaan). Locals flood streets, and the elderly gaze at the celebrations from their bedroom windows, verandahs and rowaks of their houses. Not as grand as Chandannagar's Jagadhatri pujo Sobhajatra, this procession is somewhat of a family entertainment for Chinsurah's people. Even though it gets competitive, commercialised and more crowded with each passing year, Kartik pujo remains close to the hearts of Chinsurah's citizens.

II. Kartik in colonial visual culture: Reflections of a bygone society

Left: 'A Babu with a hookah', from the collection of Sir Monier-Williams, Bodleian Library, sourced from Wikimedia Commons, Right: 174 year old Babu Kartik of Hochkhana goli, Thakurgoli, Chinsurah. Notice the common attire for babus. Infact the Babu Kartik of Markanda Goli always dons a black border dhoti just like in the painting on the left.

On the left is a Kalighat Bazaar painting, while on the right is one of the figures of Kartik in an old barowari pujo in Chinsurah. See the the eery resemblance? When I began to notice the similarities, it did strike me as a very interesting instance of continuity, and made it a subject worth exploring, for it definitely meant some story of interaction and connection at popular level.

But of all gods why Kartik?

Kartik's traditionally not-so-popular status in Bengal made him an easy target in popular art and culture, his image reflecting contemporary society and its trends. The presence of a young male god with a lesser known mythological and popular backstory meant that his identity could be easily invented and reinvented.

left: Kalighat pat of Kartik, Right: image of kartik in Adhya Bati during Durga Puja; notice the
similarities in the hat, the Albertian haircut, English leather shoes and the hats.

As mentioned above, Chinsurah in the 18th & 19th centuries witnessed the settlement of numerous merchant families from Saptagram, who soon became the town's elite populace. They were the ones begun Kartik Puja in Chinsurah, which gradually found popular expression in 'barowari' festivities.

Meanwhile in Kalighat, the babus of Calcutta became popular subjects for lampooning at the hands of patuas. Alongside creating satirical images of babus, they painted gods such as forms of Shakti, Vishnu, Shiva and even Kartik, who also began to 'imitate' babus in the sartorial aspect. At the same time, other forms of popular expression such as pantomimes (sawngs), famously said to have originated in Chinsurah, also took the same approach, mocking the elite residents in town. As Sumanta Banerjee explains, clay modellers alongside moulding images of deities for festivals, also made idols for 'sawngs' as caricatures, often of the urban elite. If one were to map all of these popular artistic expressions on a timeline, they would all coincide roughly in the same period- the second half of the nineteenth century (1850s-70s). The barowari pujas of Kartik, which began at the same time, took over the attributes of babus, and imitated their changing fashions. Thus in Chinsurah we find Kartiks ranging from those donning a fine dhoti and a shawl with gold and pearl chains (called Babu Kartik), to those with Victorian hairstyles, english shoes, hats, breeches and tunics.

left: Kalighat painting of a babu, 1845, Calcutta Heritage 1990, sourced from The Great Houses of Kolkata by Joanne Taylor; centre: Lorai Kartik of Golabagan, right: Kartik of Boro Seal Bari.Notice the shoes, the attire, and knee breeches and socks of the clay idols

Kartik continues to be a representative of everchanging notions of masculinity and men's fashion. At times he dons classical Greek wavy hair or a wedding 'topor,' or denim jackets, or at times even lying down in despair after being subjected to endless wardrobe changes. 

Present-day Chinsurah's Kartik Puja remains popular among its people. But unlike Naihati's Kali and Chandannagar's Jagatdhatri, he is almost unknown to people beyond the district. More importantly, the history of the inception of this celebration is extremely obscure. Very few records and archival material throw light on it, and considering the widespread transmission of visual models of mockery and masculinity across mediums, there has been little research on this field. 

Babu Kartik, Markanda Goli, Chapatala

As the sun sets, lights, and bamboo scaffoldings go up on the day of the procession, crowds descend on narrow winding streets to see the many forms of Kartik, most of them blithely unaware of his past, and equally oblivious of what the future holds, and most importantly what he represents. Is he a god of bygone ages when sons were preferred over daughters and treated like kings? Is he a way of keeping stories of bonedi households alive? Is he a symbol of the opulence of the colonial-era elite? Or the god of the masses, who could be used as a medium of expression against a hegemonic class of babus without any chances of causing offense? What do these forms mean today, especially at a time when taking offense for "hurting Hindu sentiments" and "mocking gods" has become a recurrent point of concern in religious festivals these days? Who gets to draw the line between celebrations, art, satire, and devotion? 

What however remains clear is that despite birth and death, glory and decadence, fashion and mockery, and elite and popular expressions, the warrior stands proudly, waging a war against time with his tiny metal bow and arrow, in an everchanging suburban town.

Lorai Kartik, Shandeshwartala