Durga Puja: What to eat first in a pujo thali, and the four sections of Bengali cuisine

We first find the mention of Durga pujo in the 1500s, when it was only observed by the zamindars (landlords) households of Malda and Dinajpur.

Technically, Durga pujo is a spring celebration but today what we see is the “akal bodhan”, or out of season, pujo, that is said to have been initiated by Lord Rama right before going into battle with Ravana. Thus began the autumnal celebration, with much gusto and fervour.

But pujo in Bengal was never just a celebration; it was always a socio-political event that marked the power struggle between people from various social strata. For the landlords in the village, it was a show of power and wealth, as the villagers would queue up outside their homes to get a glimpse and it remained like that for the longest time before the British set foot in Bengal.

The establishment of the Raj really catapulted the pujo in a more “modern” direction; like the one we see today. Bengal saw the zamindars rise to power in the 1700s, and as most of them owed their power and status to the British, they decided to use pujo as the backdrop to flex their financial capabilities. It was really Nabakrishna Deb who sowed the seeds of the modern Durga pujo after Robert Clive’s victory in the Battle of Plassey; and the British fully participated, as that cemented their position in Bengal.

In 1790, 12 friends decided to organise the first collective or public pujo, the “baro-yari” (pronounced barowari) pujo, that would go on to break social and cultural barriers. Given that Bengal had an underlying affinity towards Marxism, this move was a breath of fresh air for many as the community or sarbojanin pujo (universal festival) soon started taking over after the decline of the zamindars.

Be it zamindari or sarbojanin pujo, there are some commonalities when it comes to food—for example, be it the para’r (neighbourhood) pujo or pujo in richer circles, the tendency to swipe the kosha mangsho first remains constant.

Polishing off the luchi-aloor dom, maachh, mangsho with pulao, and mishti is usually followed by a bhaat-ghum (afternoon siesta).

For the uninitiated, a pujo thali will usually have luchi, aloor dom, shukto, chop-cutlet, bhaat, dal, bhaja, shobji, pulao, maachh, mangsho, chatni, papad, and mishti. Like the French, Bengali cuisine is eaten course by course.

Here’s how to enjoy a Bengali thali:

Begin with luchi and aloor dom, and work your way through chop and cutlets. Then move on to rice — at first, begin with shukto (in Bengal, we always start with bitters as they are known to improve digestion and increase hunger and taste), then dal, bhaja, and shobji (typically, we will eat vegetarian fare first and then move on to the non-vegetarian). For the next course, dig into pulao — first with the fish and then with meat. Once done, cleanse the palate with chatni and papad, and finally end with mishti and payesh.

According to Bhaskar Dasgupta, senior sous chef at Sonar Tori, Kolkata, “It is imperative that we understand the basics of the cuisine — it is divided into four sections, namely chabya (to chew), choshya (to suck), lehya (to lick) and peyo (to drink). Every Bengali thali will have dishes that follow this order."

Dasgupta adds that the cuisine has multiple layers in terms of complexity, and slow-cooking the dishes allows the flavours to mingle with each other.

"Bengali cuisine has been influenced by so many regions... Before the partition of Bengal, there was no distinction in terms of food — today, a bhorta gets termed as food from East Bengal and a malaicurry is a West Bengal classic, but earlier, we were one state, one palate. It is a cuisine that may not have travelled the world, but Bengal’s rich history has given us many wonders in terms of gastronomy,” Dasgupta says.

It is interesting to note that the 15th century texts mangalkavyas such as Dharmamangal and Padmapuran talked about the food in medieval Bengal; many of which are still relevant. There is clear mention of fish and meat in the texts — while the fish forms a part of the regular diet, the kosha mangsho in a pujo thali is generally derived from the ritual of animal sacrifice on Ashtami; and although, today, animal sacrifices are barely in practice, the tradition of serving meat (goat) has remained.

The final course of the sweet chatni and papad is also crucial — chatni which is derived from the word chatna is categorised under “lehya” and is used as a palate cleanser before moving on to the final course of desserts.

The popular dishes in Manik Gangopadhyay’s Dharmamangal included mutton, spinach, shukto, luchi and nadu. Narayanadeva, in Padmapuran, mentions a list of both vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes at Behula’s (Manasa mangal) wedding which also hints at the eating habit of Bengal during that era. The 18th-century text Annadamangal authored by Bharatchandra Ray also describes the different vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes prepared by the food deity Annapurna.

While non-vegetarianism was the order of the day in Bengal, legumes and vegetable curries were an addition of the followers of the Vaishnava sect who came to reside in this area, thus, adding to the already rich cuisine of Bengal.

Islamic rule in Bengal also added its own flair to the cuisine — from qalia and korma to pulao and kofta, these soon became a part of our lifestyle, and today, the craze for a plate of biryani during pujo is equivalent to basanti pulao and kosha mangsho.

To round off the meal, we rely on mishti (sweet), which is a Bengal specialty — be it gur (jaggery) er mishti, payesh, pithe or shondesh (a colonial invention because of the discovery of chhena), this plays a significant role in the thali, no meal is complete without it.

If after all this you’re feeling super full, there's a culinary fix for that too: do not miss out on the paan.