About Baranagar Local in Baranagar, Kolkata

Baranagar 500 years and more!

Welcome to the local website of Barahanagar, also spelt as Baranagar or Baranagore. "Dekha hoy nai chokkhu melia / Ghar hote shudhu dui pa felia / Ekti dhaner shisher upore ekti shishir bindu!" - Rabindranath Tagore [We seldom cared to see the beauty at a few paces from our doorstep; a tiny dewdrop glittering on a waving stalk of paddy!]

The history of Baranagar would take us back more than five hundred years. On his way to Puri, Sri Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was moving along the Ganges downstream from Barrackpore, a sweet reading of the Bhagavata Gita entered his ears, while looking for its origin, he found a brahmin in his cottage reading the Gita, his cheeks flooding with joyous tears.

Mahaprabhu resided at the hut for a few days, consulted spirituality with the Brahmin; namely Sri Raghunath, listened to his reading of Bhagavata, and portrayed him the title of Sri Bhagavatacharya. The place was later discovered by well-known Sri Sri Ramdas Babaji, and now famous as Baranagar Pathbari, the wooden sandals of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is been kept here. Apart from this, lots of antique scripts of Rup Goswami, Sanatan Goswami, Krishna Das Kabiraj, Kabi Ballav has been kept in Sri Sri Gouranga Grantha Mandir. (more reading….) The first kali temple was established in 1782 at Baranagor Bazar. In mid 1800 era, another four kali temples were established besides the bank of river Bhagirathi, namely Sidhheswari Kalibari (1845) and Joymitra Kalibari (1850-51) both at Kutighat, Pramanik Kalibari (1852-53) and the most famous Dakshineswar Kalibari (1855). Baranagar, this is that holy place where Narendra Nath Datta (Swami Vivekananda) met Sri Ramakrishna (1836-1886) and started their enchanted spiritual journey.

This is the place where Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) established his ever first ashram Baranagar Math (1886) near Ratan babu burning ghat; officially known as Sri Ramakrishna Maha Samsan, where Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa was cremated. Baranagar Math is the First Monastery of Ramakrishna Order.

Apart from Swamiji, Swami Brahmananda (1863-1922) aka Rakhal Chandra Ghosh, Swami Turiyananda (1863-1922) aka Harinath Chattopadhyay, Swami Advaitananda (1828-1909) aka Gopal Chandra Ghosh, Swami Trigunatitananda (1865-1914) aka Sarada Prasanna Mitra, Swami Akhandananda (1864-1937) aka Gangadhar Ghatak, were the most renowned Disciples of Ramakrishna dev associated with this math. Baranagar Math is that very place from where Swami Vivekananda set out for His historical Bharat Parikrama in 1889. Alambazar Math Baranagar (1892) is the Second Monastery of Ramakrishna Order.

After Swamiji, next spiritual leader associated with baranagar was Sri Sri Sitaramdas Omkarnath (1892-) formerly known as Probodh Chandra Chattopadhyay, distinguished himself not merely as a saint, a hermit of the holiest hue, but as an incarnation of divinity. In 1973, the Master resolved to form a new sect after his own idea of Divine Life and established Akhil Bharat Jaiguri Sampradaya.

Omkarnath Mission is an international human welfare unit of the central organization Akhil Bharat Jaiguru Sampradaya Mahamilan Math Kolkata 108) established by his Holiness Ananta Sri Thakur Omkarnathjee Maharaj. "Dutch gentlemen had homes here in the seventeen century. Sir Streynsham Master (1678 to 1681 East India Company Agent) who visited the area in 1676 spoke of the hog factory where about 3,000 hogs a year were slaughtered and salted for export. The name of this township Barahanagar (Baraha = Pig, Nagar = Land) may be originated from this.

Later it became the centre for the extensive jute trade, manufacturing gunny bags. A major road parallel to the river Hooghly connects Baranagar bazaar with Dakshineswar." Since last 100 years Baranagor is well known as a place of education, more than 35 schools are running here, among them Baranagar Rameshwar Vidyalaya (estd. 1835) is the oldest, among others Rajkumari Memorial School for Girls (1865), Baranagar Victoria High School (1866), Kutighat Mahakali Pathsala (1906) are also older, Baranagar Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama. Apart from these schools there is the world famous academic institutions Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) and National Institute for Orthopedically Handicapped (NIOH) are operating here. Baranagar Peoples Library (1876) is serving as a general library for the last 130 years.