Dharmouatsahini Sabha

Dharmouatsahini Sabha – A Community Durga Puja in the Dharmatsahini Tradition

Dharmouatsahini Sabha is a Sarbojanin Durga Puja committee in Kolkata whose name resonates with one of the most important stories in the city’s festival history. The word “Dharmatsahini” is most famously attached to the Bhowanipore Sanatan Dharmatsahini Sabha, credited with organising Kolkata’s first community (barowari) Durga Puja in 1910 at Balaram Basu Ghat Road, Bhawanipur — a milestone that took the goddess out of the zamindar households and into the public street.

The present Dharmouatsahini Sabha listed in the archive should be understood as a distinct neighbourhood committee rather than the historic 1910 institution itself. Publicly indexed detail specific to this committee — such as its founding year, past themes, and award record — is limited, and it does not appear to maintain a widely indexed official website. As with many para pujas, its living history is preserved locally rather than in published form.

What the name signals, however, is continuity of spirit. A “Dharmatsahini” (“she who upholds dharma”) committee evokes the original ideal of a puja open to all, organised by residents for the collective, and sustained by voluntary participation. In a city where the barowari movement grew from a single 1910 initiative into thousands of neighbourhood celebrations, committees carrying such names are reminders of that founding impulse.

For visitors, the most reliable account of this committee’s annual pandal, idol, and theme will come from on-the-ground pandal-hopping during the festival. Documenting smaller committees such as Dharmouatsahini Sabha within a wider archive helps preserve the full, democratic spread of Kolkata’s Durga Puja beyond its headline pandals.

• Type: Neighbourhood Sarbojanin Durga Puja
• Heritage note: Name evokes the 1910 Bhowanipore Sanatan Dharmatsahini Sabha, Kolkata’s first community puja
• Public records: Limited; listed as part of the Durga Puja pandal archive