The ancestral estate

Arbelia, home of the Nag Chowdhurys.

Since Kamalakanta Nag Chowdhury cleared the forest here in 1542–43, Arbelia has been the family's home. This page brings together the house, its landmarks and deities, the letters sent from it, and the printed family tree kept there.

Nag Chowdhury family crest: a shield with a crescent moon and a resting bull, a flag above, flanked by tridents and cobras, over a banner reading নাগ চৌধুরী বংশ

The house

The Nag Chowdhury House

নাগ চৌধুরী বাটি, আড়বেলিয়া

Village Arbelia, Baduria police station, Arbelia post office, North 24 Parganas district, West Bengal 743437, India

Around the estate

Landmarks of Arbelia

The family mansion
নাগ চৌধুরী বাটি
Built by Kamalakanta Nag Chowdhury after he settled Arbelia in 1542–43, clearing forest and marshland to make the estate.
The thakurdalan
ঠাকুরদালান
The covered worship hall, also called the chandi dalan, where the family Durga Puja has been held since 1545.
The One-Rupee Gate
এক টাকার গেট
The Ek Takar Gate, built in the time of Rajmohan Nag Chowdhury of the 28th generation. It is the entrance to the garden.
The One-Night House
এক রাতের বাড়ি
The Ek Rater Bari, also from Rajmohan's time. Only its brick walls and arches remain, but with the gate it still carries Arbelia's heritage today.
The family pond
নাগ চৌধুরী পুকুর
Where neighbouring heritage pujas, including the Mather Bose Bari puja, immerse their idols at the end of the festival.
Bamun Bari
বামুন বাড়ি
Grew on land the family gave to their priests, the Bhattacharjees. The house is now about 200 years old.

The gate and the One-Night House today

A tall white arched gateway with paired columns, a lion and two standing statues on top, among palm trees, with a large old house seen through the arch — The One-Rupee Gate — The One-Rupee Gate, the entrance to the garden, with the house seen through its arch.

The roofless red-brick walls of an old house with a row of arched windows, banana plants growing inside, beside a village road — The One-Night House — The remains of the One-Night House, seen from the village road.

Looking through a brick doorway under an old wooden beam into the overgrown inside of the ruin, with banana and coconut palms and a brick arch — The One-Night House — Inside the remains: banana and coconut palms now grow between the old brick walls.

Family deities

Worshipped at the house

Lakshmi Janardan
Shridhar
Balaram Jiu
Buro Shiv

A carved wooden throne with a domed canopy, the deities resting on it under red and gold cloths with flowers — Lakshmi Narayan — Lakshmi Narayan on the family's carved wooden throne.

Four round black sacred stones in a row on a small wooden bed, each with tulsi leaves on top and wrapped in white cloth — Narayan Shila — Four Narayan Shilas, sacred stones of Narayan, resting on their bed with tulsi leaves.

A deity dressed in red and gold cloth on a white marble seat, with a small painted owl beside her — Family deity — A family deity dressed in red and gold on her marble seat, with a small owl beside her.

Buro Shiv: a large black stone Shiva lingam marked with a red and yellow tilak, flowers on its base, seen through the open wooden temple doors — Buro Shiv — Buro Shiv in his temple at Arbelia, seen through the open temple doors.

A white temple with two large red domes and a small spire with a trident between them, family members on the steps and in front — The Buro Shiv temple — The Nag Chowdhury Buro Shiv temple, with family visiting.

From the house

Letters and records

Family tree chart · 15 August 2025
The printed family tree of the Nag Chowdhurys of Arbelia
A printed chart of the family, numbering each generation from Kirti Nag, the first recorded ancestor, down to the 32nd generation. Beside many names it records the person's work, home and the family of their husband or wife.
Read the translation
Family letter · 22 October 2026
Vijaya Dashami greetings after the Durga Puja
On behalf of the Nag Chowdhury family of Arbelia, we offer our respectful pranam to our elders on Vijaya Dashami, and our loving good wishes and greetings to the young. May the blessings of our family deities, Lakshmi Janardan, Shridhar, Balaram Jiu and Buro Shiv, be showered on everyone, and may all be well.
Read the translation
Family tree chart · Photographed August 2025
The printed family tree
A large printed chart traces the family generation by generation, numbering each ancestor from the first. It opens: "Of the Saupayana rishi gotra and the royal Karkotak Nag lineage, 1. Kirti Nag", who was appointed Mahasamanta by the king of Gaur in the 8th century.
Read the translation
Family record · August 2025
The family history, as written by the family
Kirti Nag, of the Saupayana rishi gotra and the royal Karkotak Nag lineage, was appointed to the rank of Mahasamanta by the king of Gaur in the middle of the 8th century AD. According to the family genealogist Kashidas Thakur, the national history of Bengal and various Kayastha clan records, his forefathers were residents of the village of Kolancha.
Read the translation

The family chart

The printed family tree

The family's printed Bengali chart records 32 generations, from Kirti Nag to today. Open a sheet to see the original, or read the full English tree.

Scan of the printed Bengali family tree chart titled আড়বেলিয়ার নাগ চৌধুরী পরিবার, with handwritten additions

Sheet 5 — Purendranath's line, down to Sankha

Photograph of sheet 3 of the printed Bengali family tree chart

Sheet 3 — Surendranath's and Upendranath's families

See the family tree in English