Bonedi bari pujas: the family pujas of old Kolkata

Before there were pandals there were houses. A bonedi bari puja is held in the thakur dalan — the pillared hall of an old family mansion — by the family that has held it, in many cases, for well over two hundred years. The Sabarna Roy Choudhury puja at Barisha and the Shobhabazar Rajbari puja in the north are the two most often cited, with claimed dates of 1610 and 1757 respectively.

Each house has its own rites, its own idol style and its own rules, handed down rather than standardised. Some make the idol in the ek-chala form, all five figures under a single arched frame. Some paint the goddess a colour no community puja uses. Some perform rites nobody else performs at all.

Quiet. There is no lighting installation, no sound system and often no crowd to speak of — a courtyard, a family, a priest, and a handful of visitors standing at the back. After three hours in an Ashtami queue it is a physical relief.

Many houses receive visitors and are genuinely pleased to; a few do not. There is no city-wide list and no ticket. Several walking-tour operators run bonedi bari circuits during the five days, which is the easiest way in if you do not know anyone.

You are in somebody's home. Ask at the door rather than walking in. Take your shoes off where everyone else has. Ask before photographing anything, and accept no as an answer. Do not go in the middle of a rite and start moving around for a better angle.

Go in daylight. Most household rites happen in the morning, and a courtyard at eleven in the morning is exactly what you came for.