In the old houses, the Goddess still comes home to the courtyard.

In an old Bengali house, the uthon is the open courtyard at its centre. It is where the household gathers, where the Goddess is received each autumn, and where the year’s Puja is remembered long after the immersion.

UTHON gathers what these families choose to share — photographs, rituals, the bhog cooked in their kitchens, the history of each house — so that children, grandchildren and relatives far from Bengal can find it in one place. Durga Puja in Kolkata was inscribed by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2021; the family Pujas are among its oldest roots.