If you have jumped to this post, I would suggest to see Part 1, Part 2, Part 2A, Part 2B of Heritage Walk, Serampore.
This is the final part of my Serampore exploration, and by the end of Serampore we extended this trip to Seorafuli/Seoraphully which will be shared in a different post. In the 3rd part of the Serampore walk, the main attraction is Serampore Rajbari or Goswami Mansion, and this final part of the walk is more about us, the Indians.
Seal Mansion
Age 89 years
The building itself holds the year of foundation - October, 1931. It marks the fact that the building is 89 years of old, rather a new building considering most heritage buildings are of 200+ years old.
Proper history of the building is unknown. On my search of it on internet, I found some parted information with no strong evidence. It is been told that the Seal family member (Named ?? Motilal Seal) came here from Halisahar, and earned a fortune in the business of coal and built this beautiful mansion.
Serampore Rajbari /Goswami Bari / Goswami Mansion
Age 200+ years
The Goswamis are the descendants of one of the five Brahmin families whom Adisur, King of Gaur had invited to settle in Bengal for the propagation of knowledge. Lakshman Chakravarty is one the descendants, who was married to the daughter of Pandit Bheem Tarkapanchanan. Bheem Tarkapanchanan was descendant of Achyut Goswami, son of Advaitacharya Goswami, an ardent disciple of Sri Chaitanya.
Though Lakshan Chakravarty was living at Patuli, Burdwan/Barddhaman, his son Ramgobinda was brought up by his maternal grandfather, Bheem Tarkapanchanan at Santipur. Later Ramgobinda started using his mother's maiden name - Goswami after completing his studies on Bhagabhat.
Ramgobinda was traveling to Calcutta from Santipur by the river Ganges, with his pregnant wife. Eventually his wife delivered a boy at Srirampore, which was under Sheoraphuli Rajbari (also a part of Patuli based Bansberia Raj family). That time Raja Monohar Roy (who built Sarbamangla temple in Seoraphuli) was in the helm of Raj family, who was famous for his donation works. When Manohar Roy heard Parambhagabat Ramgobinda Goswami's son, Radhakanta born at his land, he wanted to donate that land to Ramgobinda. But Goswami did not take the gift but bought the land for one kari from Raja Manohar Roy. Thus Goswami family shifted to Serampore.
Harinarayan, the son of Radhakanta & grandson of Ramgobinda was the Diwan of Customs under the Danish East India Company and had laid the foundation of family's wealth.
But Goswami Mansion - or Goswami Rajbari as locals referred as, was built by Harinarayan's son Raghuram Goswami between 1815 to 1820. He was a Bania agent of the firm John Palmer & Co of Calcutta. He amassed a huge fortune and bought land properties in the districts and later on in Kolkata too. He even offered to buy Serampore from the Danes when the Danish East India company decided to leave Serampore for Rs 12 lakh, but the British didn't allow that.
Once the Goswami Rajbari had been completed, the family deities, Radhamadhav Jiu and Gopalji were transferred there along with an “ashtadhatu” (eight metal) idol of Radharani. The Radhamadhav idol weights 65Kg and the “ashtadhatu” idol weighs 45Kg. The idols are daily worshipped by the family. Gopalji statue is approximately 1200 years old. Daily puja starts at 4am with mangal aarati, followed by anna bhog at about 12 pm and sandhya aarati at around 6 pm. On my second visit during Christmas '20 I was able to attend the sandhya aarati.
The Goswami Mansion has two interconnected blocks - north and south. The north block is more magnificent with its driveway, ionic columns and cast iron gates. This portion of the house was turned into debottar property.
In the north block, Goswami Bari's unique feature is the Chandni/Naatmandir in front of the Thakurdalan - it's huge in size (120 x 30 sq ft). This spot was originally a tank from which water was drawn for domestic consumption. Unfortunately, Raghuram’s oldest son, Atmaram, drowned in that tank, at the age of 5. This accident caused Raghuram to have the tank filled up, and the Chandni was constructed.
The floor is covered in Chunar stone. Sal wood was brought from Nepal for the rafters and beams on the roof. The Chandni is adorned with 24 Corinthian Columns, 32 feet in height and 5 feet in diameter were constructed upon which the roof rests. The Chandni was used for festive occasions, such as Durga Puja, Holi, and staging plays. However the condition of the mansion or the thakur dalan with the Chandni is not in a good shape today.
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| Goswami Mansion (2022 Durga Puja) |
Old Goswami House - home of Buri Durga
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| 417 Year Old Buri Durga Puja (2022) at Old Goswami Bari |
This is where Buri Durga is worshiped during puja days. There is another Durga puja being celebrated in Goswami Rajbari/Mansion but with much lighter tone. This is just nearby of the Goswami Rajbari.
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| Buri Durga Dalan, Old Goswami House |
The family Durga puja is of more than 400 yrs and Devi Durga is fondly called as Buri Durga. Family members from different places, locals and many visitors came to see this Banedi Barir Puja during September-October. The idol of Goddess Durga along with Lakshmi, Swaraswati, Kartik and Ganesh is placed under the Ekchala. The idol of Devi Durga is decorated with traditional Dakersaaj. Here Kumari puja (A little girl is being worshipped as Goddess Durga ) is performed on all four days from sashti to Navami. However the kumari puja of Maha Navami is the most colourful one.
Ras Mancha of Goswamis
Another beautiful structure and an extension the thakurdalan of the Goswami Palace, the Ras Mancha is now in very bad shape - trees and their roots completely roved up its seven pinnacles. Real estate took away the beauty as it is completely surrounded by new buildings.
Goswami Courtyard House
I found this location on a map in the Survey report by the Serampore Initiative of the National Museum of Denmark (August 2010, by Flemming Aalund & Simon Rastén). Initially I thought it could be the old Goswami house, but it is quite close to Goswami Mansion.
Later on Google Maps, I found two locations which can be Goswami's Courtyard house - 22.758383, 88.338770 or, 22.75810304361139, 88.33979002868766
Home of Raja Kishorilal
Age: 110 years
Kishorilal Goswami's Building at the bank of the river - now under Vivekananda Nidhi
Kishorilal - the grandson of Raghuram, was a lawyer at the Calcutta High Court and also a member of the then Bengal Assembly. The British Government awarded him the Raja title.
Raghuram's son Gopikrishna had five sons - Krishnalal, Nandalal, Kishorilal, Rajendralal and Radhikalal. Krishnalal had a clash with his father and disinherited therefore. Kishorilal had anticipated that there might be some disintegration of the family, and started construction of his own palace. Eventually after the death of Nandalal in 1908, the family started disbanding. Kishorilal shifted to his own palace at the bank of the river in 1910 and remaining two sons of Gopikrishna - Rajendralal and Radhikalal continued to stay in the main Goswami Mansion.
If you compare the two Goswami residencies, House of Kishorilal is in a better shape. As we had a talk with a member of Goswami family, his grandmother had donated this building to Vivekananda Nidhi thinking this organization is related to Belur Math. However this organization is not related to Ramakrishna Math & Mission and Goswamis have taken a legal step to keep the property to them.
Dol Mandir, Chatra (দোল মন্দির, চাতরা)
Age more than 300 years
Also known as Gouranga Temple, Kashiswar Pith, Doltala Mandir (গৌরাঙ্গ মন্দির, কাশীশ্বর পীঠ, দোলতলা মন্দির)
It is a temple of Lord Krishna, built by Lord Chaitanya's disciple Nityananda nearly 500 years back. Maha Prabhu Chaitanya visited the temple and his footprints are preserved at the site. A popular site for playing holi where fairs and food shops are built up during the festive season. Durga Puja is also organised in front of the temple.
Viashavite Kashiwar Pundit laid the foundation stone of this temple in 1522 (or 1680 - debated). It has three peaks, following the architechtual trend traikutak.
You can read more about it - here.
Charghat, Chatra
Here four shiva temples are recognized as four Maheswar of Serampur - Rameswar, Bhootnath, Tarakeswar and Baneswar. It is a quite small compound, but well spaced at the bank of the river.
Ukil Bari
100+ yr of Durga Puja
Building of 200yr+ Das family
This is another old colonial building located at Duttapara Chatra, Serampore. This is the family home of Das family, many of them were advocates and hence the name Ukil Bari.
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| Ukil Bari / Das Bari's Durga Puja (October, 2022) |
Being a personal property it is not recommended to visit this house on a usual day, you may not be welcomed.
12 Shiva Temples of Bangihati
বাঙ্গিহাটির দ্বাদশ শিব মন্দির
There are 12 Shiva temples at Bangihati, at the west most part of Serampore, near Delhi Road. From Serampore Rly Stn it would take nearly 20 minutes by auto.
Legend says Zamindar Rudraprasad Choudhury was childless and was going to Kashi (= Benaras) as pilgrimage by boat to ask Biswanath's (Shiva) blessings. When his boat came to the river of this area at night, he got orders from Lord Shiva in dream, to build 12 temples of Shiva at Bangihati and main priest will be Dinanath Chattapadhyay, an honest bramhan living in Ariadaha. In the next morning Choudhury babu started to locate Bangihati by foot. The wheel of his car was stuck into the soil and he decides to built the temple in that place thinking that the incident may be the direction to the spot.
The temples are made of Chun & Surkii. The shiva lingas were made of touchstone rocks of Jaipur. The doors were made of Segun woods. Dinanath was invited to be main sebayit and Rudraprasad gave him good amount of land and made him 'Chakrabarty'. Soon a locality was created.
The temple was completed in Shakabda 1724 i.e. 1802 A.D. as says on the main gate.
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| Touchstone made Shiva-Linga - they are still bright |
There is some controversy that actual history of the temples are more than just 200 years. Many believe that it's more than 300 or 500 years old. May be the temples were there, and Rudraprasad re-founded them.
The temples are now in a bad shape, though Kalidas Chakrabarty, of Dinanath's heir had some renovation in 1978 (Bengali year of 1385).
This is the end of Serampore town heritage walk. In the next part we will visit Seoraphuli.
Info sources:
https://dailynewsreel.in/ancient-shiva-temple-of-serampore/
Serampore Goswami Bari's Durga Puja celebration - https://www.itihaserhaatchani.com/2021/12/serampore-rajbari-serampore-goswami-bari-bonedi-barir-durga-pujo.html
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