Friday

16


August , 2019
Boshi Sen’s house awaits to become a place of historic interest
14:42 pm

Anup K. Gupta


Sarada Devi used to come to Bishnupur on her way to and from Joyrambati to Dakshineswar and Calcutta and stayed in a few occasions in the house of Bashiswar Sen, popularly known as Boshi Sen, near Garhdarwaja in Bishnupur. Today, the house where Sarada Devi stayed lies in a dilapidated condition and awaits maintenance
and renovation.

An eminent Indian scientist and agriculturalist, Boshi Sen passed from St. Xavier’s College, Calcutta and was introduced to Ramakrishna Order by his friend Bibhuti Bhushon Ghosh. He was intimately associated with Swami Sadananda, also called Gupta Maharaj, a direct monastic disciple of Swami Vivekananda.

As per the wish of Sarada Devi, Boshi Sen decided to open a philanthropic centre in his house to carry out welfare services. Accordingly, he executed a deed and created a trust in the name of Shri Shri Sarada Devi with some important members including his wife, Gertrud Emerson Sen and late Gokul Chandra Ghosh, former Head Master of Bishnupur High School. The deed declared the property as the said trust’s property in memory of Sarada Devi and also declared that after the death of the executor and his wife, the house would be a permanent place for keeping sacred relics and mementos.

After the death of Boshi Sen, his wife, Emerson Sen looked after the work of the trust. Unfortunately, after her demise, the house was totally neglected and this place of historic interest assumed a deserted look. The varandha where Sarada Devi took her mid-day meal is lying in a dilapidated condition with a plastic sheet over the thatched roof top. We wonder where the valuable rosary of Swami Vivekananda, which was bequeathed to Emerson by Sister Christine, is being kept now.

It is learnt that the local administration has taken initiatives in renovating a number of local temples to beautify Bishnupur and its surroundings. Researchers and devotees of Ramakrishna and Vivekananda have brought this issue to the notice of concerned department of the state government and  to a few elderly sanyasis of Ramakrishna Mission.

As the members of the trust are no more, the local administration must take over this house belonging to the trust and hand it over to Ramakrishna Mission. In order to make this house a place of historic interest, the roads leading to this house should be repaired and adequate electric lights should be arranged. A notice board with the history of the house will attract tourists.

The house of Sridam and Kanaila Dasgupta is located near Boshi Sen’s house. There is an old temple in this house where the deity of Damodar (Lord Vishnu) is worshiped every day for centuries. During the early days of Raja Raghunath Singha Dev, Srinivas Acharya, the great devotee of Sri Chaitannya, had distributed an old hand written manuscript of Vaisnab Shastra from the courtyard of Sridam Dasgupta’shouse that has now been renamed as Sree Nivash. Similarly, the railway department has made a small temple around a jackfruit tree under which Ma Sarada used to wait and sit in Bishnupur station. Many are waiting to see the house of Boshi Sen being reinstated to its former glory and re-emerge as a centre of welfare activities as desired by Ma Sarada.

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