Maha Puja Samity

Maha Puja Samity – A Neighbourhood Durga Puja Committee

Maha Puja Samity is a Durga Puja committee in Kolkata, organised in the Sarbojanin (community) tradition that defines the city’s autumn festival. The name “Maha Puja Samity” — a society for the great (Maha) worship — marks it as one of the many local committees that come together each year to install the idol of Goddess Durga and open the pandal to all.

Publicly indexed archival detail on Maha Puja Samity — its founding year, past themes, and award history — is limited, and the committee does not appear to maintain a widely indexed official website or social media presence. This is typical of smaller para and samity-based pujas, whose history lives in the neighbourhood rather than in published records.

The “samity” (society/association) form is one of the common organisational shapes of Kolkata’s Durga Puja, alongside clubs and housing estates. A samity is typically a registered local association that plans the annual puja, manages subscriptions and sponsorships, and coordinates the rituals, pandal, and cultural events. Such committees are the backbone of the barowari movement, which since the early twentieth century has carried the goddess from aristocratic households into the open, public street.

Documenting committees like Maha Puja Samity within a comprehensive archive helps capture the full breadth of Kolkata’s Durga Puja — not only the headline pandals that win thematic awards, but the countless neighbourhood samitis whose celebrations are no less meaningful to the residents who sustain them. The richest account of any given year’s pandal is best gathered during the festive week itself.

• Type: Neighbourhood Samiti (society) Sarbojanin Durga Puja
• Public records: Limited; listed as part of the Durga Puja pandal archive
• Context: Part of Kolkata’s barowari / samity puja tradition