Bandel India
4
Cruises availables
At departure or passage at this port
Frequently Asked Questions
Alongside the bank of the Hooghly, with a gangway landing, often among washerwomen, fishermen and children who come to look at the ship. Distances are short: a few minutes take you from the gangway to the shrine's forecourt.
It is a piece of Portugal rooted in India for more than four centuries. Portuguese merchants and Augustinian missionaries, allowed by the Mughal emperor Akbar to settle on the Hooghly, founded here in 1599 one of the first Christian communities in eastern India.
The main shrine of the call and one of the oldest Christian places of worship in Bengal. The first church burned in 1632 when Mughal troops took the town, then was rebuilt on its ruins and dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary. John Paul II raised it to the rank of basilica in 1988.
It is a votive offering. The story goes that a captain whose vessel escaped a storm after a prayer to the Virgin presented it. Planted in Bengali soil before the shrine, it is now one of the most photographed objects on the site.
Everyone, and that is what strikes visitors most. Hindus, Christians and Muslims mingle without anyone finding it odd: families light candles, tie ribbons of intention and photograph the captain's mast. Travellers grasp something essential about India here.
Like a peaceful fair. Garland and sweet sellers set up along the enclosure wall, pilgrims converge on the statue of Mary with candles in hand, and it is easy to sit in the shade watching families in their best clothes go by.
Everyday rural Bengal: ghats where people bathe, grey boats loaded with hay, temples whose bells ring out across the water, and crows commenting on it all from the rooftops. For many travellers this is the strongest memory of the call.
Depending on the ship's programme, the former European concessions strung along the river: Dutch, French and Danish trading posts whose buildings survive, weathered by the monsoon. Narrow roads pass banana groves and ponds covered in water hyacinth, meeting bullock carts and village markets.
Because this arm of the Ganges was, long before Calcutta, the region's great commercial avenue. Every kilometre of bank keeps a trace of it, from the European trading posts to the ghats still in daily use.
As in any living place of worship: cover up, stay discreet inside, and ask before photographing people at prayer. The basilica is first of all a pilgrimage site, and visitors are welcomed on that basis.
