Forgotten village of Belpukur still nurtures tantra for Kali Puja
The Statesman | 20 October 2025Once upon a time, in every earthen home of this village, Kali Puja followed the rituals of tantra — not the temple pomp of city celebrations, but a raw, earthy devotion born from centuries of practice. “The difference now,” says an elderly villager with a sigh, “is not in faith but in light — the glow of LED bulbs has replaced the mysterious shimmer of the hurricane and hajak lamp.”
Belpukur, just six kilometres from Dhubulia Battala along the national highway, may appear like any other Bengal village at first glance — green fields, narrow lanes, and the soft chatter of life. But beneath that calm lies a layered history that stretches back to the days of Raja Rudra, the great-grandfather of Maharaja Krishnachandra of Nadia.
According to oral traditions, a tantric ascetic named Ramchandra Bhattacharya travelled from Konaksar village of ancient Bengal and settled under a bel tree near what was then a cremation ground known as Vishwapushkarini. It was here that he began his sadhana (meditation) on a panchamundi asana, a seat symbolising mastery over death. The Ganges then flowed close to this spot, though today only a narrow, sluggish stream called “Gurguri” remains as her faint memory.
It was under Raja Rudra’s patronage that Ramchandra Bhattacharya began the village’s first Kali Puja, and the tradition has endured for centuries. Later, when Maharaja Krishnachandra famously decreed the worship of 10,000 Kalis across Nadia, Belpukur too embraced that fervour. Since then, every year on Kartik Amavasya, nearly every household (200 to 250) in the village celebrates Kali Puja in the tantric mode — an unbroken ritual of devotion and identity.
The idol of Belpukur’s Kali is always Dakshina Kali — fierce yet compassionate. The descendants of Ramchandra Bhattacharya, now divided into the “Baro,” “Mejo,” and “Chhoto” family lines, still perform the rituals in their own ancestral homes.
Perhaps what makes Belpukur truly unique is the strange confluence of the esoteric and the devotional — tantra and Vaishnavism — coexisting in one sacred geography. For this village was also the maternal home of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Here stands the ancient temple of Madan Gopal Jiu, worshipped by Mahaprabhu’s grandfather Nilambar Chakraborty.
