Throughout the history of West Bengal, the famous Bashberia Hansewari temple bears the history of one of the old dynasty in India. This dynasty built a magnificent temple along with architectural masterpiece which still stands just beside the shore of Ganga in the district of Hooghly, West Bengal. They have a history of over 500 years of Durga puja and famous religious and cultural rituals. You may not found this history in any history book of west Bengal but Today I am going take you through the history of this basberia raj – how they built this precious temple and they are still standing to say you the hello message from the history .
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| Hanseswari Temple and Ananta Basudev Temple, Bansberia, Hooghly |
Bashberia Dynasty
This entire history started by the person “Debdutta” Who is a famous person form kannauj and use to practice Sanskrit in his time. On those days, the king of Bengal Adisur once invited him to stay in Bengal and to start practicing his Sanskrit literature. With the invitation from Adisur, Debdutta came in Bengal and started living here – At Patuli . According to history, this guy is initiated the Basberia dynasty here.
The 10th person form Debdutta was Kobidutta who was greatly impressed the king Laxman sen and He gave Kobidutta the title “khan”. The son of Kobidutta was Iswar dutta who had two sons – keshav and Vishnu. Later this person Vishnu dutta settled in Dinazpur. So, the dynasty of Dinazpur is also a descendant of this basberia dynasty. The 5th generation form Debdutta was Joya Nanda. He got the title “Majumdar” form the great king Shah Jahan and also got Jaigir of many Parganas. This person Joya Nanada had 5 sons and the eldest son of Joya Nanda was Raghabendra or Raghab Majumdar according to the title. Since no other sons did not have any sons and died at very early age , Raghobendra became the owner of all the properties and wealth of the father Joya Nanada. In The year 1649 Raghobendra got the title as well as the designation of “Chowdhury” form the great king Shah Jahan. In the next year, he again got another title and designation “Majumdar” and got lakhraj of huge properties of 21 Parganas of Bengal (Arsa, Haldaha, Mamdanipur, Panjnaur, Boro, Shahapur, Jehanabad, Shaistanagorc, Shahanagore, Raipur Kotwali, Paonan, Khosalpore, Moiat, Bux- bunder, Havilishahar, Paikan, Mozzaferpore, Hathikanda, Selimpur, Amirabad and Janglipur.) of total 700 square miles of area. However, all of these pargans were belongs to the Saptagram Government in those days. So, to make easy administration of those aeras Raghab Majumdar built the Bansberia palace in the shore of Bhagirathi River (The north east side of Saptagram). Due to huge big bamboo forest and a great palace here, the name was bansabati and after that the name changed to Bansberia. However Raghabendra used to stay at Patuli and this home used as an administrative building so that he can run a transparent administration and ruler ship of the whole areas. Ragobendra had three sons – they were Rameswar, Basudev and Mathuresh . Mathuresh died at very early age. After a few years of together ship, Rameswar and Basudev planned to stay separately so they separated their ancestor’s properties too. According to the wealth divide policy on those days Rameswar got 2/3 of whole properties and rest of the properties allotted to Basudev i.e. 1/3. After this deviation Rameswar came at Bashberia after leaving his home at Patuli and started living here. Now Basudev had two sons and they were – Gangadhar and Monohar . They too devided and separated their property and Manohar started living in Sheoraphuli . However, Gangadhar don’t have any child and so all property again back to the grandson of Monahar( Name – Gangadhar) and he went Bally (which is now a town in West Bengal near Howrah) . So the dynasty of Bali and Sheoraphuli is also the same dynasty of Bansberia.
Zamindar Rameswar Roy
The king and Zamindar Rameswar was a very expert guy. On those days some of zamindars used to pomp taxes of their landed properties but was getting illegal authority and access form those assets . Mr. Rameswar caught them red handed and removed them from their property . When this great news reached the door of the king of Mr. Aurangzeb Alamgir – he became very happy for his good and great work, The king Alamgir gave him the title “Raja Mahasoy” . Not only this title, had he also given Rameswar the “pachparcha” (Which is actually a collection of five dresses and it was a thing of great respect on those days). Along with this Alamgir also gave ownership of more 401 bigha of land and 12 Pargans. This title and prizes was by genetically ownership of these Bashberia family and dynasty members.
No doubtly you can see and feel Rameswar was a great king on those days of Bengal. He was not only a king , he was a great ruler , powerful man and we will also see how ambitious and kind full person too. After the ownership of such a large assets he started to fulfill his own dreams. On those days Bengal and its people were much feared of “Bargis” – The so called Maratha soldiers . After achieving such an amount of land Rameswar planned to do something which could save the properties and assets of Family and administrative buildings of dynasty. He digged cannel around the whole building and the king’s palace and also appointed military forces for their safety and security. Along with this he also built a fort and installed cannon . Over the time fort destroyed but the tower of the fort is still standing there.
Thus Rameswar saved the place and its people but his ambitions still remain. He started building a temple which is still standing today and the name is “Ananta Basudev Temple” , According to the text written on the walls of the temple we could know this was established in the year of 1679. The temple is still standing today and carrying the interests and passions of the King Rameswar that he was a fond of god, he was lover of god, his respect and karma towards people and god. His interests and knowledge regarding Ramayana , Mahabharata , Kinnor-Kinnori , The battle of Kurukshetra , The puja and culture of old ancient days etc. This temple contains a Vishnu( However this statue is very new the old statue lost somewhere) statue and this is being worshipped daily. Since Patuli, King Rameswar was the 1st to start the traditional Durga Puja and Kali Puja at Basberia palace. This tradition and rituals is still maintained and obeyed today.
“That’s why the durga Puja of Basberia Temple is still considered as a one of the oldest Durga Puja of West Bengal. Every year over 1000 people far from distance come to see this temple and their family Durga puja.”
Ragu Deb Roy Mohasoy
Rameswar died leaving four sons and they were – Raghu Dev, Kama Dev, Mukunda Dev and Ramkrishna. Just after the death of Rameswar, all four sons divided all the properties and left Bansberia. According the asset and wealth divide policy on those days Raghu Dev got the 50% of total wealth of Rameswar and rest of the half distributed into other three brothers. Mukunda Dev started living in Sivpur and Ramkrisha went at Rajhat . Kamdev got premature death. Since Kamdev died, all the assets of Kamdev again went back to Ragu Dev and he stayed at Bansberia and started continuing his administration. He became the owner of Raja Mahasoy.
Raghu dev was a not only a great king, he was also a kind hearted, noble man. On his day Murshid Quli Khan was the president of Bengal. He was very strict king on those regarding collecting taxes form Zamindar. Ragu Dev cleared the debt of many zamindars of Bengal on those days. He started reforms all the toles as well. He also spent time and money to protect his man and his kingdom form Bargis.
However Ragudev Roy also got premature death. After his death His son Govinda Dev got the rank of king of Bansberia kingdom. He got the Thrown at very early age so, he don’t have very great idea and experience managing the royal affairs. However, he managed all the things and administration very efficiently.
Raja Nrisingha Deb Roy
The King Govinda Dev Roy died too very premature age. On that day, his widow wife, Queen (Rani) SatyaSundari was carrying his son in the womb. At this point the whole situation got very complicated and tough for the wife . All the hell busted upon the young widow queen of the dynasty of Bansberia. The family of king is now witnessing the cloud of sorrows. However, just after three months (In December, 1740) Rani SatyaSundari gave the birth of the next ruler – The king Nrisingha Dev Roy. With his birth all happiness of life just arrived to the royal family again.
It is always said that happiness never lasts long and the same thing happened with the royal family. There was a rule on those days that, if a king died in a condition when he has no children then all of his properties will be snatched, forwarded and distributed to the other kings. The same thing happened with this royal family. When the news of the death of the king Govnda Dev Roy reached to the President and Nawab Alivardi khan, he immediately authorized other parties to take away the Govindadev’s properties and lands –
The king Chitrasena of Bardwan took ownership of whole Arsha parganas.
The King of Nadia Maharaja Krishna Chandra also took the Halda Parganas(Which is now in Bangladesh) .
Thus, over 80% of properties are taken away by various rulers of Bengal on those days and the queen lost of all of its wealth. Only rest of the 20% of properties still in hands of her. In this tough time of Rani SatyaSundari, the proud and glory almost collapsed and it started getting very hard to continue such a big administration and with such a human resources. So, most of the forces and kingmen left the palace. The palace remains with sorrow of losses.
However, within the dark days, the next would be king and ruler is now busy in study and leaning. The boy Nrisingha started learning the whole Vedic, science and literature, Ramayana, Mahabrarata and all. After completing his study when he is became capable to manage the royal affairs, he started concentrating to recover his old assets and properties. After the massacre of 1770 warren Hastings became the Governor General of West Bengal and started his administration here. King Nrisingha Dev got a chance to recover all his lost properties as well. He immediately went to the door of Hastings and told him all the things regarding the lost empire. Soon, Hastings told the department for a quick look and detail investigation. Though Hastings morally supported and also wanted to give Nrisingha his lost empire but his hands were tied and he was not so powerful. After a long try Hastings was successful to get him back all the land which belongs to 24 Parganas. According to the statistics it was 9 out of 21 Parganas get recovered from old empire.
After recovering the lost empires, Nrisingha dev started more study and research on Vedic things specially Tantra. He started practicing tantra and wants to go to the deep root of it. Later we will see the study and hard work on tantra put an effect on building this Hanseswari temple. No matter how happy the life of the king at this stage his family was not happy at all because king did not have any children after two decades of marriage. This is mainly due to the yogi mentality of the king. However, the 2nd theory suggests that the 1st wife of Nrisingha Dev Roy was unable to Concieve and that’s why the Queen Satya Sundari decided to give him a 2nd marriage.
2nd marriage, Queen Shankari and Soyangbhova
Queen Shankari was the 3rd child of very average man Bhogirath Singha , who used to live in Midnapore( The present address is Gopal Nagar , Mandal Ghat Pargana , District – Midnapore , 30 min distance form Kolaghat railway station , West Bengal) . On those days mostly the laws of Purana and other ancient rishis views towards Hinduism was considered as a law of Hindu family as well as Bengali society. So, in order to reproduction purposes the mother decided to give her 2nd marriage. After getting approval from all family members including the 1st wife the mother arranged marriage with the girl Shankari. 12 years old Shankari became the queen of the royal family. Some day in the November in the year 1785 the king Nirsingha dev Roy got marriage form the 2nd time with a big party.
Shankari started getting his early education on literature, mathematics and scripts and the husband Nrisingha started to fulfill another of his dream i.e. a temple named “soyangbhova” . Sometime in the year of 1788, the work for this temple gets completed and the king established it with a small party. Unfortunately, this temple collapsed due to lack of care, supervision and on time maintenance.
In the year of 1788, when Lord Cornwallis came in west Bengal and appointed as a General Governor, the king again got a chance to gain access to old assets once again. However, Lord Cornwallis had very limited power and authority over the transfer and regain of his lost land. Depending on the situation on those days King Nrisingha dev did not move anymore and left the idea of getting back lands form occupation. Back in home, Queen Satya Sundari became very sick and the queen Shankari is trying pregnant with the child of King Nrisingha Deb Roy. After a long wait the Queen Satya Sundari took its last breath leaving two wives and son.
Practicing Tantra
Just after mother left the earth the king too wanted to leave this materialistic world. At this point Nrisinghadeb realized that his pending karma and work are done and now it is the time to think for Mokhsa. With this dream the king went kasi( Which is now Baranasi) . November, in the year of 1791 Nrisingha Dev started his journey for Kasi after giving all the details and authorizing duties to his wife and queen Sakari. At kasi Nrisingha practiced, learned, studied and gathered huge knowledge on tantra and its process. However, this was not the 1st time journey to Kasi of the king; he went kasi several times before this.
At kasi, Nirsinghadeb get fame not only as a tantric, he too got fame as a tantric guru as well. People form far distance states from all over the India and aboard started coming to him. With the help of Joy Narayan Ghosal( who was the family member of Bhukoilash Royal Family in Khidirpur, Kolkata ) Nrisingha translated “Kasi Khanda” . In 1794, when Kasi Khanda published in a Bengali version, Nrisingha Dev became a famous man. One by one more books also written by Nrisingha dev. Thus the tantric days were going extremely well for Nrisingha Dev in Kasi. It is reported that NrisinghaDeb saw adyashakti Kali in a dream and also received the instructions to build a temple of Maa Kali at home. After this dream he soon left Kasi and back to home on 1799.
Project Hanseswari temple / End of Nrisingha Era
Back form kasi , Nrisingha wanted to fulfill his dream to build the temple for Maa Kali. So, started his painting, designer’s architects, measurements, bringing stones etc form around to start his project Hanseswari. In the year of 1801, the labours, mechanics, architects, painters etc started their work. In behind, the king also started teaching his 2nd wife and queen Shankari regarding future plans, strategies and roadmaps of their family. Since Queen Shankari too failed to get pregnant with Nrisingha Deb roy they decided to adopt a child. So, after a long thinking Nrisingha Deb adopted one of his Nephews and named him Koilashdev (Original Name was “Ramratan”. He was grandson of Ramkrishna and Ramkrishna was son of Rameswar, which we have written before).
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| Hanseswari and Ananta Basudev Temple living side by side |
However, the god has some other things in mind. While the work of construction of the Hanseswari was going on at full phase, the great king Nrisingha Dev took his last breath. He was not alone in his journey of death; he took the 1st wife too. They died leaving only two men for their kingdom – Koilash dev and Shankari. The era Nrisingha comes to an end. We probably could not describe Nrisingh Dev any more. He was more than judgment. He was actually above judgment. We have seen him as a writer, a translator, a monk, a family man, a king, and a diplomat, a lover of two women and an world icon. We have seen him as a great yogi and tantric. We have seen how he recovered the lost lands of past generations; we have seen how he maintained the culture and traditions of the royal family. We have seen him how to fulfill the dreams of a mother. The main part of sorrow is that he could not fulfill his dream but he send the message of Hanseswari to the queen and allotted this duty to queen Shankari.
Queen Shankari
Just after sending the last good buy message to husband, Shankari concentrates to complete the uncompleted agenda of his husband along with maintaining all traditions, pujas , rituals of the royal family. All these were no easy job for this two people (It is one and only Queen actually and another one is too small to help i.e. Koilash dev). But maintaining these entire things queen never felt tired. She took about a decade and ultimately completed the whole temple with a smile. Queen decided to set year 1814, the bath day as a celebration day for his Hanswari Temple and the establishment of the adyashakti goddess. On the stone of this temple today it is clearly written the date and the mark of her husband in a Sanskrit Sloka –
“This temple is the home of fourteen Sivas in the as fourteen mokhsa doors. It is established by King Nrisingha Dev Roy and his wife queen carried out the instructions to complete the great Hanseswari.”
One started and the other one completed, one initiated and the next ended. Thus the glory of the royal family of bansberia once again took its own greatness form of the past. We have seen Nrisingha dev to see a dream we are now looking at his wife who is fulfilling this dream. Like many other great works Hanseswari Temple seeds its mark on the shore of Ganga. People throughout the country had come here to see the great work, this jewel of the architecture. Some of them are - Ramakrishna Paramahamsa Dev, Swami Vivekananda (As a Narendranath dutta), Swami Sivananda , Bijoykrishna Goswami etc. It also reported that Rabindra nath Tegore came here once and impressed with the temple and sent instructions to copy all the wall paintings and architectures to the great artist Nanda Lal Basu . Mr. Nanda lal came here to obey the Biswakabi's order along with the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Apart than the Hanseswari project, queen Shankari had lot of other duties. Immediately after completing the temple queen was in a rush to get Koilashdev married with the girl named “Tara”. We have seen so far everything were going right except the person Koilashdev . Just after getting married, koilashdev did not understand the Royel system to manage affairs, assets, lands, properties. He started an extravagant lifestyle. Brainwashed by some corrupted British friends Koilash failed to understand own mother and reached at court against her mother, who brought him up. Unfortunately, the judgment went against queen Shankari. But the queen did not give up hope and she filed cases in upper court however, things went more complicated. At this point, due to some well wishers , luckily everything got settled and somehow the queen got some relief. Koilash Dev got the shares of his assets but due to some lavish lifestyle, again all assets got back to the Queen and for the Hanswari. One day koilash Dev finished selling all of his properties for his costly lifestyle and reached the door of mother once again.
The end
If we study the history in detail, we will see Queen Shankari was clearly responsible somewhere for all this tragedy and conditions of son Koilasdeva and what he is today. However, she was always a strong woman. She was always a person who believes in work and action. Queen Shankari once completed the dreams of her in-law mother and then for husband and then son and now for grandson Devendra. Queen Shankari easily spotted the difference between the son and grandson. She spotted a similarity with husband Nrisingha Dev Roy and extreme difference with Son Koilashdev – though both were not actually legitimate son of Nrisingha Dev. With Debendra Dev, queen Shankari once again wanted to transfer her ideology of this royal family. The goals and strategies of how to manage the ruler ship and zamindar affairs. Wherever the queen goes she takes him, teaches him, tell him the story of ancestors. She always ready to give her the royal love and royal touch as well. And fortunately Debendra Dev was very fond of Ranima Shankari too. Debadra Dev was not just a ruler he was famous for his wishdom , knowledge and great work too. He had a very attractive personality as well. Maharshi Debendranath Tagore was a great friend of him as well. Debendra Dev was very good friend of many British people and they used to come here as well. His knowledge and wisdom spread his name throughout the country. He was very high qualified and have capability. So, we can say he was the perfect ruler and king of this Banshberia royel family.
So far we have seen all the work of Rani Shankari . We have seen her as a dream fulfiller of her husband and then in a role of mother for his son and grandson. We have seen her great responsible woman for her family as well. We have seen to say last good bye to Koilash Dev and now it is the time to say Good Bye to Debendra Dev as well. It was April month in the year of 1852, Debendra Dev died leaving three sons – Purnendra , Surendra and Bhupendra.
However, together mother and grandson completed all their pending work for family including the marriage of all daughters of present and past generations. We probably never saw such a kindful and great worker like Queen Shankari in the History of Bansberia Dynasty.
The Journey did not end here, after saying the good bye message to grandson Debendra Dev ranima did some reform work for the Hanseswari temple for the sake of the future. She protected the temple with a big wall and trees, flowers and more and made this Hanseswari temple a more than a heaven. In the same year, 1852 in October month just before Dipanwita kali puja the great Queen and Ranima “Shankari” took her last breath on this earth at the age of 80. Before leaving this earth, Queen Shankari distributed his wealth among all the family members.
Today, the two temple Hanseswari temple and Ananta Bausdev Temple today is still standing in Basberia, Hooghly district in the state of west Bengal and carrying the memory of all family members. There royal family is no more royal but they are still living there. The old home, forts almost all destroyed. The Archaeological Survey of India today is taking care of this temple today. The story of this Hanseswari temple is now printed in a book and is being sold near the temple. If you want to know the history you can buy this book and you will know the story. Like I said before, the temple is completely made form the idea of tantra which was provided by the King Nrisingha Dev Roy. The shatchakra theory is perfectly implemented in the Temple. The way kula kundalini works is here now. May be in some another blog I will explain the kula kundalini theory behind the bansberia temple. There are 13 towers in the temple. The temple is 70 feet in height that is almost like a 5-6 story building. The temple construction timeline was in between 1801 to 1814. The god is maa kali here and she is complete made out of Neem wood (which was brought by King Nrisingha Dev form Kasi) and Blue color.
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| The Deity of Hanseshwari Temple |
The temple today is a famous place for sightseeing form Kolkata. There are more than 300 years of Durga puja is still worshiped ever year. Most of the royal family members left this place but some are still here to stay the story of their glorious past.
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