Celebrated between the seventh and tenth day of the waxing moon in the month of Ashwin, the five-day festival of Durga Pooja (Prayer ofthe Goddess Durga) is a major religious-social event in the State of West Bengal. The Pooja coinciding with the festival of Dussera in the rest of India, is also the time for family reunion sand for meeting friends.Durga Pooja became popular in Bengal in the middle of the 18th century. It is believed that Maharaja Krishna chandra of Nadia,a contemporary of Nawab Siraj-Ud-Daullah, popularised the autumn festival. Celebration of the Pooja at that time was exclusively for the zamindars or feudal lords. Today it has become People's Festival.