For 225 Years, Hindu Family Worships Muslim Pir Along with Durga Puja

The Nandi family in Pandua, Hooghly district, uses Durga Puja as an opportunity to honor and give thanks to a pir, or spiritual advisor, since they feel his blessings have transformed their life for many generations.

After the puja is over on Mahanavami, the family gives the bhog prasad—a Hindu feast of blessed food—to one pir first and shares it with the rest only after he has finished eating as a sign of respect for the original pir.

The family continues a tradition started 225 years ago, on Vijaya Dashami, when Shah Alam 2 was the Mughal Emperor of India and Babar Ali Khan was the Nawab of Bengal under the rule of the East India Company, led by Lord Richard Wellesley. A dargah is a shrine or tomb built over the grave of a revered figure in Islam.

The Nandi family tradition states that two brothers, the family's forebears, received two mohurs (gold coins) from an unidentified pir who advised them to start a company at a time when they were fighting for their lives in extreme poverty. The brothers, Kuber and Sankar Nandi, hurried to Calcutta in an attempt to turn their life around after investing the cash in a company that sold edible oil and betel nuts.

The locals go in large numbers to celebrate Mahanavami, a unique occasion that transforms into a family get-together, believing it to be an example of inclusion and social harmony.

The identity of the pir who aided our ancestors remains unknown. However, we have continued the custom since our forefathers started it as a thank you, according to 54-year-old Abhijit Nandi, an editor at a Calcutta publishing business.

A few decades after the mohur incident, the Nandi family, who built an estate at Jamgram in Pandua, started the puja.

According to family archives, the custom of inviting a pir and performing Durga Puja dates back around 225 years. Nandi said, "It seems that the next generations learned of the pir's benefits and chose to keep thanking the goddess.

He said, "We are grateful that our ancestors were such outstanding examples of inclusivity." This is the reason the event is well-liked. Numerous Muslims come to our puja and take part in the festivities.

Following the completion of Mahanavami's puja on Monday, the bhog prasad was first given to a pir who had been summoned from a nearby hamlet. He was respectfully asked by the family to take bhog prasad during lunch. Only until the pir had done eating did the others begin to eat.

"Such cases prove that the Almighty has no religion," said Partha Chattopadhyay, a historian and Bengali literature instructor at Balagarh Bijoy Krishna College.

"It's a wonderful thing that a large portion of our society still practices and feels this way in real life. He said, "Religion is only a notion that many people understand incorrectly to create distinctions.