Kolkata: This Durga puja, Bonbibi, the resident deity of the Sundarbans, protector of man and beast and all things living and non-living, will be invoked at the same pandal as Bengal’s most loved goddess. Theme artiste Pradip Das is bringing a slice of the Sundarbans to the Behala Club puja pandal in Kolkata to show the daily struggles of the honey collectors, crab catchers, and fisherfolk of the delta region through photographs and maps.
These are pictures of women and men who have been attacked by tigers and survived to tell the tale. Some of the scars from the attacks would be laid bare in the photographs, though the faces would not be shown. Some of the places where tigers have attacked dwellers have been highlighted in the maps that would be displayed at the pandal.
“Behala is today an urban sprawl. It was not always so cut off from the primate parts of West Bengal like the Sundarbans. The idea behind ‘Aranyak’ or the theme behind this pandal was to bring a sense of the beautiful and dreadful Sundarbans delta to the city,” Das told ThePrint.
At the pandal, one would get to know the stories of faceless delta dwellers like Krishnapada Mandal and Mohammad Jolil Borkondas. Mandal’s father was taken away by a tiger when he was asleep. And Borkondas, who wandered in the jungles as a kid and grew up to be employed by the forest conservation committee, saw a pair of burning eyes looking at him on his way home from work one day. Borkondas screamed and villagers came running with sticks. But long after the tiger had left, Borkondas kept screaming. It is such stories that the pandal hoppers would get to hear at the Behala Club Durga puja this year.
“And they would get to know about Bonbibi,” Das said.
Of man-eaters and protectors
Das said he is fascinated by the story of Bonbibi, who is worshipped by both Hindus and Muslims of the region. “I do not know of any other place in the world where such a thing happens. But the reality of Sundarbans, where islands disappear in tides, new islands are formed, and tigers share habitation with honey collectors and fisherfolk makes the legend of Bonbibi such an enduring one,” he said.
Of Islamic origin, Bonbibi was first mainstreamed by Amitav Ghosh’s 2004 novel The Hungry Tide and has since been a subject of much interest among researchers, academics, and writers.
Das will not directly show Bonbibi at the pandal but said that the deity’s presence will be felt once you enter it.
With Durga puja only a few days away, Das and his team have been spending sleepless nights trying to give shape to their abstract theme.
“Not everything will be shown at the pandal. Neither pictures of tigers nor any idols of Bonbibi, but the presence of both will be felt. There are recordings of survivors in the Sundarbans that will be played along with local music from the Sundarbans. There would be structures in the pandal that would resemble small temples and mosques like the ones you find at the Sundarbans, and there would be toy tigers placed near main idols,” Das said.
The endeavour, he added, is to bring a sense of the Sundarbans in such a way within a city puja pandal that the effect does not feel jarring.
Satanik Pal, who researches caste at the National University of Singapore, told ThePrint that bringing tribal deities like Bonbibi within the Smarta Puranic pantheon of mainstream Hindu gods and goddesses like Durga is not a new idea. “The absorption of tribal and folk traditions with the Brahminical fold has been a millennia-old practice. It is interesting that a sense of Bonbibi is being brought to a Durga puja pandal. I would say this is a testament to the resilience of Vedic Brahminism to be able to absorb these elements into practices of worship,” he said.
While theme pandals are common in Kolkata during Durga puja, the practice has not been free from controversies. In 2019, a recording of azaan was played at the Beliaghata 33 Pally Durga Puja pandal. A complaint was filed against the organisers, and the puja committee maintained that the aim was to promote secularism.
For Das, the only thing that matters is bringing Sundarbans alive at Behala.