Excursion to Sihar: Hriday's Village

For those willing to venture a few miles beyond Kamarpukur, the neighboring village of Sihar holds deep biographical significance. This was the native village of Hriday Mukhopadhyay, Ramakrishna's devoted nephew and personal attendant for many years at Dakshineswar. Hriday was an ambiguous figure in the Ramakrishna story: utterly devoted and practically indispensable in the saint's early years, but later dismissed from Dakshineswar under murky circumstances. Ramakrishna frequently visited Sihar, and walking its lanes offers an extended glimpse into the rural network of family and devotion that sustained him. Due to its distance, a cycle-rickshaw or auto-rickshaw is recommended for this detour.