Sikdar Bagan Sadharan Durgotsov Khuti Puja 2026: "Panche Panchaban" Banner Unveiled for the 114th Year
An HDFC Bank ATM kiosk on one side, a wrought-iron gate on the other, and in between — a square of blue tarpaulin, a priest cross-legged over a brass thala, and the whole business of inviting a goddess home. That was the scene on Sikdar Bagan Street on the morning of 16th August, as Sikdar Bagan Sadharan Durgotsov quietly, methodically, began its 114th year of Durga Puja.
There was no confetti cannon here, no drone shot waiting to happen. Just an elderly purohit in cream-and-white, working through coconuts, sweets, marigold, and a small mountain of flowers laid out on the platform in front of him, while behind him a freshly printed banner — glowing gold, ringed in string lights — did the talking. It read, in bold Bengali type: খুঁটিপূজা. Khuti Puja. And just below it, the number that matters most to this particular para: ১১৪ তম বর্ষ — the 114th year.
A Khuti Puja That Didn't Need a Crowd to Feel Significant
Laid flat on the pavement just in front of the platform was something you don't see at every para's khuti puja: a life-sized cutout of the Devi herself, painted in bold reds, yellows, and greens, complete with a stylised trishul rising from either side of her crown — a preview, in silhouette, of the goddess this street is preparing to welcome. Around her, garlands of marigold and tuberose waited to be strung up, and a pair of white cutout numerals — the shape of an "8" and a symbol resembling the Bengali digit for the coming celebrations — sat propped against the base, ready for their place in the decor.
The banner overhead did more than announce a puja. It carried the full lineage of the occasion — the date (১৬ আগস্ট ২০২৬, a Sunday), the committee's name, and the names of the two men steering this year's celebration from the top: Sri Kunal Ghosh, the committee's Vice Chairman, and the credited co-editor whose name shares space with his on the golden backdrop.
The Banner Comes Alive: "Panche Panchaban" Under a Tent on Sikdar Bagan Street
If the morning puja was quiet, the scene a little later — under a tarpaulin tent stretched across the narrow lane — was anything but. A cluster of committee members, local well-wishers, and at least one enthusiastic phone-camera in hand crowded around the season's freshly unveiled khuti, waving, cheering, one hand after another reaching out to touch the bamboo pole as it was formally revealed to the neighbourhood. Rangoli in pink, green, and yellow had been laid across the ground beneath it, and a fresh coconut sat waiting at the base — the customary marker of an auspicious beginning.
Mounted at the top of the khuti, ringed in marigold rosettes and flanked by a pair of hand-painted trident motifs, was this year's theme reveal: a rectangular panel bearing the image of the goddess herself, rendered in flat, folk-art colour blocks — mustard yellow skin, a crimson bindi, a crown outlined in white — with the theme's title inscribed above and below her in bold red Bengali script.
The theme for Sikdar Bagan Sadharan Durgotsov's 114th year: "পাঁচে পঞ্চবাণ" — "Panche Panchaban."
What Does "Panche Panchaban" Actually Mean?
It's a title that rewards a second look. Panchaban — literally "five arrows" — is the traditional name for the five flower-tipped arrows carried by Kamadeva, the god of love and desire in Hindu mythology, each said to correspond to a different sense through which longing enters the human heart. Panche, meanwhile, plays on the Bengali word for "five" itself, turning the whole title into a kind of internal echo — five, within five.
Taken together, the theme reads less like a literal narrative and more like an invitation to think in symbols: of awakening, of the senses, of the quiet arrows — sensory, emotional, sometimes invisible — that move a person, a season, or a city toward change. It's a fittingly poetic choice for a puja old enough to have watched Hatibagan itself change shape around it more than a hundred times over, and it sets up a season where the visual language on Sikdar Bagan Street is likely to lean into folk motifs, warm colour, and symbolic repetition rather than any single storybook scene.
Concept and creative direction for "Panche Panchaban" have been credited to Sri Bivas Mukherjee, while the Devi's form this year — the Matri Rupayan — is being shaped by Sri Sanatan Pal. Between the two of them lies the real work of the next several weeks: turning a golden banner and a painted khuti into a full pandal, and a flat cutout into a living, breathing Pratima.
114 Years on One of North Kolkata's Oldest Puja Streets
It's worth pausing on that number — 114 — because it isn't a small one. Sikdar Bagan Sadharan Durgotsov traces its roots back to 1913, which places its very first celebration more than a decade before India's freedom movement reached its most defining years, and firmly within the era when North Kolkata's now-legendary "sarbojanin" (community, as opposed to household) pujas were first taking shape as an alternative to the private Bonedi Bari worship of the city's old zamindar families.
Tucked into Sikdar Bagan Street, a stone's throw from Hatibagan More and barely a few hundred metres from Shyambazar Metro station, this puja has spent more than a century adjusting to a neighbourhood that has changed almost beyond recognition around it — cinema halls, sweet shops, and now bank ATMs sharing pavement space with a ritual that predates all of them. That contrast was written right into this year's khuti puja photographs: a goddess arriving, quite literally, in the shadow of a 21st-century banking kiosk.
Where Sikdar Bagan Fits Into a Busy North Kolkata August
Sikdar Bagan's khuti puja joins a genuinely crowded season of reveals across this pocket of the city. Just a short walk and a few days apart, we've already covered Wellington Nagarik Kalyan Samity's sweet-themed "Mishtanno Puran" on Princess Street, and further north, Brindaban Matri Mandir's 117th year opening on Sukia Street with its theme "Shoye Santosh." Together with Sikdar Bagan's own "Panche Panchaban," these ceremonies are proof that the old paras of Hatibagan, Shyambazar, and Shobhabazar are once again setting the pace for the season, long before South Kolkata's bigger-budget pujas even begin planting their poles.
For a running, updated record of how khuti puja has looked across every corner of the city this year, our Khuti Puja 2026 tracker is the place to keep bookmarked through the rest of August.
What Comes Next for "Panche Panchaban"
With the khuti now in the ground and the banner formally revealed, the next phase of the story moves off Sikdar Bagan Street and into the workshop — where Sri Sanatan Pal will begin shaping this year's Devi from raw clay and straw. Readers who want to follow that transformation from the very first layer of khar (straw structure) to the final touch of eyes being painted on can track it through our ongoing Kumartuli coverage, which follows the artisans behind pujas like this one all season long.
Follow Sikdar Bagan Sadharan Durgotsov Through the Season
The 114th year of Sikdar Bagan Sadharan Durgotsov is now formally underway, and "Panche Panchaban" has five weeks — give or take — to grow from a painted banner into a full pandal experience. For updates straight from the committee, their official Facebook page remains the most reliable source, and we'll be back on the ground as the bamboo structure starts rising on Sikdar Bagan Street.
Have photos or updates from this year's puja at Sikdar Bagan? Send them our way through our Contact page — community-submitted coverage is always welcome.
Image Credit: Sikdar Bagan Sadharan Durgotsov Committee
