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Śrī-Caitanya-caritāmṛta
grāma to establish their businesses and homes all over Calcutta. They were known as the Saptagrāmī mercantile community of Calcutta, and most of them belonged to the Mullik and Sil families. More than half of Calcutta belonged to this community, as did Śrīla Uddhāraṇa Thākura. Our paternal family also came from this district and belonged to the same community. The Mulliks of Calcutta are divided into two families, namely, the Sil family and De family. All the Mulliks of the De family originally belong to the same family and  gotra . We also formerly belonged to the branch of the De family whose members, intimately connected with the Mohammedan rulers, received the title Mullik.
In the  Caitanya-bhāgavata ,  Antya-khaṇḍa , Chapter Six, it is said that Uddhāraṇa Datta was an extremely elevated and liberal Vaiṣṇava. He was born with the right to worship Nityānanda Prabhu. It is also stated that Nityānanda Prabhu, after staying for some time in Khaḍadaha, came to Saptagrāma and stayed in the house of Uddhāraṇa Datta. The  suvarṇa-vaṇik  community to which Uddhāraṇa Datta belonged was actually a Vaiṣṇava community. Its members were bankers and gold merchants ( suvarṇa  means “gold,” and  vaṇik  means “merchant”). Long ago there was a misunderstanding between Balla Sena and the  suvarṇa-vaṇik  community because of the great banker Gaurī Sena. Balla Sena was taking loans from Gaurī Sena and spending money extravagantly, and therefore Gaurī Sena stopped supplying money. Balla Sena took revenge by instigating a social conspiracy to make the  suvarṇa-vaṇik s outcastes, and since then they have been ostracized from the higher castes, namely, the  brāhmaṇas ,  kṣatriyas  and  vaiśyas . But by the grace of Śrīla Nityānanda Prabhu, the  suvarṇa-vaṇik  community was again elevated. It is said in the  Caitanya-bhāgavata ,  yateka vaṇik-kula uddhāraṇa haite pavitra ha-ila dvidhā nāhika ihāte : there is no doubt that all the community members of the  suvarṇa-vaṇik  society were again purified by Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu.
In Saptagrāma there is still a temple with a six-armed Deity of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu that was personally worshiped by Śrīla Uddhāraṇa Datta Thākura. On the right side of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is a Deity of Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu and on the left side Gadādhara Prabhu. There are also a Rādhā-Govinda  mūrti  and  śālagrāma-śilā , and below the throne is a picture of Śrī Uddhāraṇa Datta Thākura. In front of the temple there is now a big hall, and in front of the hall is a Mādhavīlatā plant. The temple is in a very shady, cool and nicely situated location. When we returned from America in 1967, the executive committee members of this temple invited us to visit it, and thus we had the opportunity to visit this temple with some American students. Formerly, in our childhood, we visited this temple with our parents because all the members of the  suvarṇa-vaṇik  community enthusiastically take interest in this temple of Uddhāraṇa Datta Thākura. In the Bengali year 1283 one  bābājī  of the name Nitāi dāsa arranged for a donation of twelve  bighās  of land for this temple. The management of the temple later deteriorated, but then in 1306, through the cooperation of the famous Balarāma Mullik of Hugalī, who was a subjudge, and many rich  suvarṇa-vaṇik  community members, the management of the temple improved greatly. Not more than fifty years ago, one of the family members of Uddhāraṇa Datta Thākura named Jagamohana Datta established a wooden Deity of Uddhāraṇa Datta Thākura in the temple, but that Deity is no longer there; at