Shyama Sangeet and ghost stories for Bhoot Chaturdashi and Kali Puja night

Bengal tells a story about Ramprasad Sen, the eighteenth-century poet who more or less made Shyama Sangeet what it is. He loved Kali Puja night. On one of them, the story goes, he did the puja and sang until morning, then walked into the Ganges with the image, still singing, and died as she went under the water. Wikipedia files it plainly as a folk story, and dates his death to around 1775. It has lasted two and a half centuries anyway, because it says something true about these songs: they are sung all night, to a mother, by people who have no intention of stopping.

The songs travelled further than the poet. In 1923 the English writer Edward Thompson, quoted on Wikipedia's Shyama Sangeet page, wrote that he had heard one of them from coolies on the road and workers in the paddy fields. That is still the right way to hear them: late, at home, with a lamp lit, rather than in a concert hall.

This year the two dark nights come back to back. Bhoot Chaturdashi is Saturday 7 November, Kali Puja is Sunday 8 November. We would give the first night to ghost stories and the second to the songs.

Saturday 7 November: Bhoot Chaturdashi

The night before Kali Puja, Wikipedia's page on the festival says, West Bengal and Bangladesh believe the dead come down to visit their loved ones, and fourteen lamps are lit around the house for the fourteen forefathers of the family. The Bengali Wikipedia page adds the fourteen greens, choddo shaak, eaten on the day. It is the one night of the year a ghost story counts as observance.

▶1:08:41Play: Jokaburir Doho

Jokaburir Doho

THRILLER LAND

A THRILLER LAND story billed for Bhoot Chaturdashi. Ranajoy brings his family back to the village house after twelve or thirteen years to sell it; his old uncle will not agree, and the reason is the family's own goddess, who grants what is asked and takes something in return. 69 minutes. Start here.

▶ Play hereWatch on YouTube · THRILLER LAND

▶1:05:41Play: Godrobonga

Godrobonga

THRILLER LAND

Also billed for Bhoot Chaturdashi: an old curse on the zamindar house at Nandipur, a Santhal apadevata behind it, and Maitreyi trying to lift it from the Sinha family. Written by Antara Biswas, on THRILLER LAND, 66 minutes.

▶ Play hereWatch on YouTube · THRILLER LAND

▶38:53Play: Bhairab Tantrik-er Golpo

Bhairab Tantrik-er Golpo

Mir Afsar Ali

Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, read by Mir and Anujoy on Goppo Mir-er Thek (episode 61), 39 minutes. The shortest of the four and the oldest writing. If you liked it, our Taranath Tantrik guide is the next step.

▶ Play hereWatch on YouTube · Mir Afsar Ali

▶1:07:07Play: Muktobenir Kule

Muktobenir Kule

THRILLER LAND

The bridge into Kali Puja: the legend of Budho Dakat, a dacoit chief and devotee of Kali, and of the Dakat Kali, and of his rise against British rule. THRILLER LAND, 67 minutes.

▶ Play hereWatch on YouTube · THRILLER LAND

Sunday 8 November: Kali Puja and the songs

Kali Puja is a night puja. Drikpanchang's Kolkata page for 2026 puts the amavasya from 11:27 am on 8 November to 12:31 pm on the 9th, and the nishita, the midnight hours of the puja, from 10:55 pm to 11:46 pm on the 8th. If you are far from home and want to be listening at the same minute as Kolkata, the clock below does the sums.

Ramprasad made it a genre of its own and, as the Shyama Sangeet page tells it, it went on through Kamalakanta Bhattacharya and many others to Tagore and Nazrul. The first track is the man himself.

5:28

Mon Re Krishi Kaaj

Atlantis Music

Ramprasad Sen's song, sung by Dohar, the folk group Kalika Prasad Bhattacharya and Rajib Das started in 1999. Five minutes, on Atlantis Music. Begin the night here.

▶ Play hereMore in the Pujo mood

5:40

Ekbar Nacho Maa

DOHAR FOLK

Dohar again, with Kalikaprasad's name on it. Past 4.4 crore views on YouTube: it and the next song are the two most viewed of the songs we carry billed as Shyama Sangeet, and they are neck and neck.

▶ Play hereMore in the Pujo mood

4:59

Thakte Dis Re Maa

Keshab Dey

Keshab Dey. The other of those two, also past 4.4 crore YouTube views. Five minutes.

▶ Play hereMore in the Pujo mood

5:38

Bhebe Dekh Mon

Aalo | আলো 🪔

Arijit Chakraborty, from Aalo's Shyama Bandana. A slower one, for after the lamps are lit.

▶ Play hereMore in the Pujo mood

5:59

Dub De Re Mon Kali Bole

Aalo | আলো 🪔

Arpita Dey, on Aalo. Six minutes.

▶ Play hereMore in the Pujo mood

4:32

Kalo Meyer Payer Tolay

Aalo | আলো 🪔

Subhankar, on Aalo's Shyama Bandana; it sits in our Nazrul mood as well as the Pujo one. Five minutes.

▶ Play hereMore in the Pujo mood

4:11

Shyama Namer Laglo Aagun

Asha Audio

We end with Shaan singing Nazrul Geeti, from the album Khuji Taare. The surprise on this list, and it works.

▶ Play hereMore in the Pujo mood

Ramprasad's story ends at the river at dawn. Yours can end more quietly: the last song, the lamp burning down, and the city still loud with crackers outside. That is Kali Puja night in Kolkata too.

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