Old Shree Vrideshwar Nath temple Bhagalpur

After three years….

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Once again, I visited old Shree Vrideshwar Nath temple in Bhagalpur, popularly known as Budhanath Mandir. The purpose of visit was to meet a dear friend, journalist Ujjawal Ghosh. The temple is located near a tributary of river  Ganga and the main river Ganga is also seen from there. During the last three years it has been developed as a tourist place. However, thin attendance of devotees was seen in temple and majority of people were visiting there, along with families and friends, for picnic. Even Muslim families were seen and by crossing tributary, they celebrated their day across it in a developed area. Preparations are also going on to organise a fair there. Some notices on walls indicate that attempts of some illegal land deals and encroachments may be taken place there. Cleanliness, both inside the temple and outside, was poor. In the manner a man, with chandan tilak on his forehead, was seen shouting against the chief priest and his 'dabang’ safai men, it has raised doubts over the effectiveness of ban on liquor consumption in dry state Bihar. This was the present as I has seen there. And the past of the temple was glorious as I had gone through the books. Great Bangla novelist Sarat Chand Chattapadhyay, eminent Bollywood actor Ashok Kumar , his younger brother and great singer Kishore Kumar and many other famous personalities belonged to this silk city of Bihar, which itself was known during mythological time of Mahabharata as Anga state and for Vikramshila University during ancient period. Everyone knows about 'Devdas' and his beloved sweetheart Chandramukhi, who belongs to Bhagalpur, but only a few know that when Sarat Chandra was in Bhagalpur, he spent a good time in premises of Budhanath temple imagining plot of his stories. Due to poverty, Sarat Chandra passed his early life in Bhagalpur at the house of his Mama (maternal uncle) along with mother. It was due to poverty Sarat Chand could not continue his education despite passing entrance examinations for admission in TN Collegiate College in 1894. Bhagalpur is not only mentioned in his famous novel Devdas, but also in many others.During his 20 years staying in Bhagalpur, Sarat Chandra created some endearing characters which were  based on his friend Rajendranath  Majumdar or Raju of Bhagalpur including Indranath of  Srikanta or Lalu of Chhelebelar Galpa, published three months after his death in 1938….

------------- ( senior journalist Ramesh singh)