Phullara Devi Temple, Attahas (Labpur)

01Attahas, the great laugh

Attahas means a loud laugh, and the name suits a peetha of the lips. The Stotram’s line: at Attahas the lips fell, the Devi Phullara, the Bhairava Vishvesh. The Phullara temple stands a short way from Labpur, on the Ahmadpur–Katwa line, with the Kandor river near. Many say it was the lower lip. Across the district line, at Dakshindihi in Ketugram block near Katwa, another Attahas temple is also worshipped as this peetha, and the Bardhaman tourism office lists it so. Shakti Peetha lists differ, and pilgrims of both districts keep their own.

02The pond of blue lotuses

Behind the temple is a large pond. The village tells that when Shri Ram was to worship Durga before the battle with Ravana and needed 108 blue lotuses, Hanuman gathered them from this pond. A ten-day fair is held at Magha Purnima. Labpur is also the birthplace of Tarashankar Bandyopadhyay, the Bengali novelist, born here in 1898, who wrote of this Rarh country of red soil and of the Devi’s village.