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Pujo Parikrama

Mahalaya · Debipaksha begins

Mahalaya

Wednesday, 29 September 2027

4:00 am · Mahishasuramardini on the radio

Dates for this year are provisional until the panjika is confirmed.

Mahalaya closes Pitri Paksha, the fortnight for remembering ancestors. From dawn, people gather on the Ganga ghats for tarpan, offering water and mantras to those who came before them. The same morning Debipaksha begins, and Ma Durga is believed to set out from Kailash for her parents' home on earth.

The dawn broadcast

Akashvani Kolkata (All India Radio) · 4:00 am–5:30 am

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Hear the recording

Mahishasuramardini

Saregama Bengali

More Mahalaya songs

Why Bengal wakes at four

  1. It first went on air from the Calcutta radio station, today's Akashvani Kolkata, in the early 1930s; accounts differ between 1931 and 1932.

  2. Bani Kumar wrote the script, Pankaj Kumar Mullick set the music, and Birendra Krishna Bhadra recited the Chandi and narrated the story.

  3. In about an hour and a half, Sanskrit verses from the Chandi weave through Bengali devotional songs and narration.

  4. For years it was performed live in the studio; the recording heard every Mahalaya today has been played since 1966.

  5. In 1976 Akashvani replaced it with Durga Durgatiharini, voiced by Uttam Kumar; listeners protested and Birendra Krishna Bhadra's version came back.

Tarpan at the ghats

From early morning, people offer water and mantras to their ancestors at the Ganga ghats; these are some of the best-known in Kolkata and Howrah.

  • Babu Ghat

    Strand Road, near BBD Bagh

  • Bagbazar Ghat

    Bagbazar, North Kolkata

  • Jagannath Ghat

    Just north of Howrah Bridge, Kolkata side

  • Ramakrishnapur Ghat

    Howrah

Make an Agomoni cardMa is on her way home. Send a card to the people you'll see this pujo.

Sources