Art & Culture · 21 Oct 2026

Barowari Durga Puja history

Consider the following milestones in the history of Durga Puja in Bengal:

  1. A community (barowari) puja organised by twelve friends at Guptipara in Hooghly district
  2. The Sabarna Roy Choudhury family's puja at Barisha
  3. Raja Nabakrishna Deb's puja at Shobhabazar Rajbari, known as the "Company Puja"
  4. The Bagbazar Sarbojanin puja
A2-1-3-4
B3-2-1-4
C2-3-1-4
D3-1-2-4
This question is based on: The Patron Returns: Who Owns Durga Puja When the Money Changes Hands?
Take this in full test mode → Instructions for 21 Oct 2026
About this question

Why in news

An Indian Express Explained feature traced how Durga Puja's funding has come full circle, from private patronage to public celebration and back. The peg is the Adani Group's 2026 Rs 2-crore grant programme, which pays Rs 10 lakh of each grant directly to the artist.

Why for UPSC

UPSC likes chronology questions on cultural institutions. Here the sequence maps a clear shift from private household patronage (bonedi) to community subscription (barowari and sarbojanin).

Prelims summary

Durga Puja's patronage has moved through four stages: aristocratic houses (Barisha, about 1610; Shobhabazar Company Puja, 1757), neighbourhood subscriptions (Guptipara barowari, 1790; Bagbazar Sarbojanin, 1919), brand sponsors from the 1990s and direct corporate grants in 2026.

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