Bringing the Goddess To Earth (Flower Market to Kumartuli - Life By The River Walk)

Overview

Bengali artists, nay even the Raj-era painters, have given us the gift of some of the most evocative vignettes of the Hoogly River and the life around it. The lifeline of millions of souls in the city, the Hoogly is the very metaphor of this city of amazing contrasts. Fifty-four ghats line the river, bristling with history and heritage, and worthy of a tour by themselves. Each has its own purpose…a bathing ghat, a ceremonial ghat …even a sacred one for the last rites of the city’s dead. A boat ride in a traditional nouko, from Prinsep Ghat, offers a new perspective to the city line and the iconic Howrah Bridge. One of the oldest recreational areas in Calcutta Prinsep Ghat was named after noted Anglo-Indian scholar and antiquary James Prinsep. It was the ghat of choice for the embarking and disembarking on journeys on the river for all royal British entourages.

Why you will love it

• Delving into Kolkata’s riverside lifestyles
• Exploring  one of the city’s oldest religious traditions
• Following the scents of the earth by the Hoogly

What you will experience

The Hooghly, a distributary of the Ganges is integral to the very identity of Calcutta. It gives and sustains life for the millions that depend on it. From the wrestlers who exercise on its soft clay to the boatmen who ferry people across, from the flower sellers who need the water to keep their produce fresh to the boys who throw magnets and retrieve coin offerings from its bed. Join us in exploring this visual, aural and olfactory riot from the flower bazaar to the clay idol makers’ den, Kumartulli, from the Howrah Bridge to the cremation ghats – it’s the buzz of life.