Birinchi Baba has returned. Not in a brand new Satyajit Ray movie however in Bengal’s social-media conversations and memes, due to a name by the Bageshwar Dham’s chief priest, Dhirendra Krishna Shastri, to maintain non-vegetarian meals away from close to Durga Puja pandals.
“I’m interesting to the Hindus of Bengal that in Navratri, even if you happen to don’t maintain the idols of the Goddess, don’t promote non-veg close to the idols,” Shastri stated throughout a go to to Kolkata through which he was seen hobnobbing with high state ministers.
That was sufficient for Bengalis to achieve for Ray’s Mahapurush and its magnificently confident godman, Birinchi Baba.
“Birinchi Baba again,” one social-media consumer wrote.
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“Reminds of Satyajit Ray’s Kapurush O Mahapurush. Keep in mind Birinchi Baba?” one other requested, whereas others supplied shorter verdicts: “New age Birinchi Baba!” and “Birinchi Baba… does exist.”
“Kichhu mone pore jacche, Birinchi Baba,” learn one other put up, loosely translating to: “Reminds of one thing, Birinchi Baba.”
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The comparisons arose as Shastri’s enchantment added gasoline to an issue sparked by an obvious Vishwa Hindu Parishad “advisory” issued on August 26.
“It’s the responsibility of Sanatanis to guard the sanctity of the idol and preserve cleanliness in and across the pandal,” Sanatan Sanskriti Sansad secretary Swami Nirgunananda reportedly stated. “If non-vegetarian meals is bought throughout the festivities, it ought to be restricted to designated areas away from the puja venue.”
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The VHP later said that it was not searching for to implement vegetarianism throughout the pageant.
Nonetheless, the controversy grew sharper as soon as once more when Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari shared the stage with Shastri and invited him to determine a centre within the state.
“Throughout Durga Puja, the federal government will work to guard the tradition of West Bengal and India. Baba Maharaj Ji, please open a middle right here. There also needs to be a Bageshwar Dham centre… That is the land of the saints. That is the land of non secular awakening,” Adhikari stated.
This led to 1 put up giving its personal timeline: Birinchi Baba was written by Rajshekhar Basu within the Nineteen Twenties, Ray made Mahapurush in 1965, and in 2026 the Bengal authorities welcomed Bageshwar Baba.
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“Every time one comes throughout or reads about these Babas, Satyajit Ray’s Birinchi Baba involves thoughts. With out fail,” one other consumer wrote.
In Mahapurush, Birinchi Baba claims he can journey backwards and forwards in time, that he knew the Buddha, Jesus, and Plato, and even means that Einstein required his assist with E=mc². Requested about Christ’s crucifixion, he corrects his devotee: “It’s a cruci-fact.”
The net comparisons could have begun with Birinchi Baba’s claims, however the controversy itself has centered on meals.
Fish holds deep cultural and non secular significance throughout Durga Puja, and the strictures on what to eat have seemingly touched a delicate nerve.
Fish and meat are a big a part of many Bengali Shakta traditions, whereas the pageant itself is widely known as an emblem of nature’s bounty and the enjoyment of a daughter’s homecoming.
When Durga Puja in Kolkata was added to its intangible cultural heritage listing in 2021, Unesco highlighted a pageant through which “the divides of sophistication, faith, and ethnicities collapse as crowds of spectators stroll round to admire the installations”.
“Birinchi Baba would have a subject day in right now’s Bengal,” one consumer noticed.
One other put it extra broadly: “A long time later, whether or not Agantuk or Mahapurush, Ray nonetheless feels remarkably related.”
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Again then, Birinchi Baba had a room stuffed with devotees. Within the trendy period, right now’s babas have political phases, tv cameras, hashtags and a military of meme makers towards them.
