Showing posts with label Local History. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Local History. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 5, 2025

Mādhāikhāler Bhadra Kali of Patharshon: A Living Folk-Shakti Tradition of Bamanhat, Cooch Behar

        



Courtesy: https://images.app.goo.gl/PwtGtQVvTjaftdrB9

Author - Biswarup Chatterjee.  


Introduction

     The district of Cooch Behar is not only known for its royal history, temples, palaces, and sacred water bodies, but also for its rich tradition of folk deities and regional goddess worship. Among these living traditions, the worship of Mādhāikhāler Kālīṭhākurāni, popularly known as Bhadra Kali of Patharshon, occupies a significant place in the religious and cultural life of the Bamanhat region under the Dinhata subdivision.

Located in the village of Patharshon, approximately between 26.12°–26.14°N latitude and 89.45°–89.48°E longitude, this deity is revered by people across different communities. The annual worship of the goddess is not merely a religious event; it is a grand social, cultural, and devotional gathering that brings together thousands of devotees and visitors from different parts of the district.

The deity is locally regarded as one of the important migrated or relocated forms of Kālīṭhākurāni in Cooch Behar. Her worship preserves memories of displacement, migration, faith, community identity, and the continuity of folk-Shakti traditions across the historical landscape of North Bengal and the adjoining regions of present-day Bangladesh.