Durga Puja 2026: Inside Bengal’s Oldest Family Pujo & The

Sacred Fish Bhog

Of Maa Durga

Family Durga Pujo Vs Pandal Puja

Public pandals dominate the image of Kolkata Durga Puja every single year, and 2026 will be no exception. The Durga Puja circuit in the city, from Santosh Mitra Square to Deshapriya Park, draws millions of visitors each year. The celebrations are so big that UNESCO inscribed Durga Puja in Kolkata on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2021, and its archives mention that the festival is transmitted by families, art centres and traditional media, among others.

Family pujos are the household half of that transmission. Manoj Kumar Bhattacharyya, a Tantra sadhak, and Thakurmoshai Nitai Chandra Bhattacharyya have managed all the rites at Hariharpur for the past three decades, and the family conducts the puja itself. While any pandal constructed for Durga Puja 2026 draws crowds, this pujo is built on inherited practice.

How Old Is The Hariharpur Pujo?

This Durga Puja's roots in Bengal date back to the sixteenth century, when Kansa Narayan of Tahirpur began a lavish puja that stayed a festival of the wealthy at first. Historian Rachel Fell McDermott of Barnard College found clear evidence of newly rich Hindus sponsoring grand Calcutta pujas from the 1790s. UNESCO's nomination file for Kolkata refers to traditional families that have conducted the puja for over 200 years. Against those records, a 650-year household tradition is best read as a family-held heritage claim rather than an archival fact. It still makes Durga Puja at Hariharpur one of the oldest continuing family observances reported in Hooghly.

Why The Goddess Has Four Hands Here

Most idols seen at Durga Puja pandals have ten arms. The Bhattacharyyas worship Chaturbhuja Durga, a four-handed form that goes back to the family's ancestral practices, with the order of the rituals differing as well. The family does not follow the traditional Chandipath, and instead, at every bhog offering, family members and the priest circle the idol three times, a practice called Devi porikroma. 

The Puja at this place follows the same triumph of good over evil, marking the celebration of Devi Durga's victory over the demon king Mahishasura, with worship beginning on Sasthi and images immersed on Bijayadashami. Hariharpur keeps that narrative and builds Maa Durga Puja around food, which is perfect for people celebrating Durga Puja 2026 and curious about bhog.

Which Fish Is Offered In The Durga Puja Bhog?

When Durga Puja opens on Shoshti, the family's bhog starts with a large fish, usually Katla maach, offered to the goddess alongside rice, shakbhaja and sukto. This practice runs from Shoshti until Bishorjon (immersion of the idol). Fish is not unique to just this place; there are other places around the state where fish is quite common as Bhog:

• Sovabazar Rajbari (Kolkata): Founded in 1757 by Raja Nabakrishna Deb, the bhog includes fried rohu fish and luchi alongside vegetarian items.

• Shibkrishna Daw Bari (Jorasanko, Kolkata): Fish is part of the Nobomi bhog, offered with reverence to Maa Durga.

• Janbazar Rani Rashmoni Bari (Kolkata): Linked to Sri Ramakrishna’s patron, fish offerings remain central to the puja rituals.

• Antpur Ghosh Bari (Hooghly): Daily offering of raw fish along with fruits, a practice dating back to the 18th century.

• Chilkigarh Kanakdurga Temple (Jhargram): Over 500 years old, it continues the tradition of offering fish to the goddess.

• Belur Math (Howrah): Unique among monastic institutions, it offers whole fried hilsa fish during bhog alongside khichuri.

• Kashimbazar Rajbari (Murshidabad): Offers hilsa, boal, rohu, and prawns, with a special spicy fish curry as a highlight.

Fish and mutton are offered within Shakta rituals in many traditional homes, and this practice has been documented in the sixteenth-century scholar Raghunandan's Durgotsava-tattva. The same piece says Vaishnava households customarily did not offer fish. Also, Bengal's Brahmins, unlike strictly vegetarian priests elsewhere in India, tend to add white-scaled fish to their diet.

What You Should Know About Katla

Before getting into that, a bit about why fish is integral to Durga Puja – it represents fertility, abundance, and auspicious journeys in Bengali culture. The ritual of Mach Jatra on Doshomi involves offering fish to Maa Durga before immersion, symbolising prayers for her safe journey back to Kailash. Shakta traditions, rooted in texts like the Kalika Purana and Devi Bhagavata Purana, legitimise non‑vegetarian offerings, distinguishing Bengal’s practices from vegetarian Navratri customs elsewhere.

The fish at the heart of this Durga Puja 2026 story, Katla (Catla catla), is one of India's three major carps. In 2022, FAO data placed it eighth among the top ten aquatic species, at over four million tonnes harvested, and noted that it was traditionally farmed in the ponds of eastern Indian states. Research has also found this fish to have the essential amino acids, making up 41 to 51% of total amino acids in freshwater major carps, including catla.

Bengalis eat it often, thus validating weekly fish consumption in West Bengal at 65.75% and daily consumption at 21.9%. Major carps account for around 54% of India's inland fish production, according to the Handbook of Fisheries Statistics 2025.

What Is Offered As Bhog

Here is the Durga Puja bhog sequence the family follows, laid out so readers planning for Durga Puja 2026 can see how the offerings change from day to day.

What Sets The Paramanna Apart

Paramanna is the family's sweet course: a rice pudding better known as payesh in Bengali homes, served with banana fritters. Slurrp describes the pairing as a household tradition of centuries that separates this Bhog from offerings at other pujos.

Why Rice Leads The Menu

Rice is the organising idea of the pujo, and of Durga Puja in this household. The family calls the main offering Annabhog, and because of this, the pujo is also known as Annapurna Puja, as every meal revolves around rice. Rice is usually accompanied by shaak (a leafy green stir-fry or jhol), a pairing that also appears in the shakbhaja and rice served on the first day at Hariharpur.

The Importance Of Gobindobhog Rice

As Durga Puja 2026 approaches, the rice behind Oshtomi's offering is integral to the state, known for its mouthwatering aroma, and is used in a variety of rice preparations like pauesh and khichuri. The family uses 20 kg of Gobindobhog rice, cooked and offered with fruits and sweets during Pushpanjali. Gobindobhog rice is a short-grain rice variety, which, aside from being aromatic, tends to be sticky too, with a sweet, buttery flavour. It received a Geographical Indication tag in 2017, and is mainly cultivated in the southern basin of the Damodar River in East Burdwan. The rice takes its name from the offerings made to Govindajiu, the family deity of the Setts of Kolkata. 

How Does The Sandhi Puja Offering Differ

Animal sacrifice was traditionally part of Sandhi Puja in many parts of Bengal, but the Bhattacharyyas offer sugarcane, white gourd and bananas instead at the Oshtomi-Nobomi junction, and the Balidan on Nobomi stays vegetarian too. For readers tracking Durga Puja 2026 rituals, this is the clearest example of how the family has kept the structure while changing the offering.

Who Shares The Feast On Doshomi?

When Durga Puja 2026 reaches Doshomi, the family's reported practice is to immerse the idol in a nearby water body in the afternoon, earlier than the evening immersions seen elsewhere in Bengal. The Narayana Bhog of rice, lentils and vegetables is then distributed among family members and invitees, which ends the festival. Manoj Kumar Bhattacharyya says neighbouring villagers have helped with the Visarjana since the beginning, and that the family invites them and treats the immersion as a celebration.

The Time Of The Durga Puja 2026 Bhog

This year, Shoshti falls on 16 October, with Oshtomi on 19 October, Nobomi on 20 October and Bijoya Doshomi, the immersion day in Bengal, on 21 October. Durga Puja 2026 therefore spans the full cycle the family follows, from the Katla on Shoshti to the Narayana Bhog on Doshomi. Panjikas can differ by a day for some rituals, so confirm the schedule with the family. This is a private household observance with invitees, so seek the family's consent before visiting.