It was said that Sri Gopal Basu Thakur went to Kasi once and did ‘Purashcharan’ for around twenty one times. That is why the pundits of Kasi presented him with the title of ‘Thakur’. This is the story that went around the Basu House generation after generation.

According to tantrasastra ‘Purashcharan’ is a part of getting Initiation (diksha). After diksha, ‘Purashcharan’ is part of one’s duty. A mantra is said to be dead if the chant doesn’t go through ‘Purashcharan’.

‘Purashcharan’ is the amalgamation of 5 things which are chant (jop), oblation (hom), tarpan, installation (Abhishek) and Brahmin Seva.

At the time of Sri Gopal Basu Thakur (Sixteenthth Century) if someone spends a lot of money and performs ‘Purashcharan’ they were given special titles for that most of the times. At that time Sri Chaitanya had a strong influence over the people of Bengal (Bangladesh). Sri Gopal Basu Thakur was also a follower of Vaishnava faith. For him ‘Purashcharan’ was not compulsory. But Bengal was always a country of tantra. Lot of rituals of the Vaishnavas has parts of tantra in them. This influence can be found in the present times also. It was also said that Raja Rammohan Roy was a Vaishnava when he was young. It was also said that he did ‘Purashcharan’ for about 22 times. So it can be seen that the Vaishnavas used to worship multiple times and even perform ‘Purashcharan’ according to the scriptures. It can be inferred that there may be truth in the fact that Sri Gopal Basu Thakur performed ‘Purashcharan’ in Kasi 21 times and then received the title of ‘Thakur’ from there.

In the sixteenth century it was not clear as to whether ‘Thakur’ title was used hereditarily. It was also not known that if any of the sons of Sri Gopal Basu Thakur used the title ‘Thakur’. If we look at the historical evidences when we look at Malkhanagarh’s terracotta tablet we see “Sri Gobindo Choranashrito Sri Debidas Basu” written over it. Apart from that in Dhaka’s Narandiya we can see that in ‘Basu Bazaar’, ‘Devidas Basu’s Ghat’, ‘Devidas Basu Ghat road’ there is no mention of ‘Thakur’ in it. Even we can find ‘Gobindo Basu Lane’ in there which was named after his father Sri Gobindo Basu. ‘Thakur’ title cannot be seen in there also. However, if the legal papers of the Malkhanagarh’s Basu Thakurs are checked it can be found out that Devidas Basu Thakur and his descendants after that used the title ‘Thakur’ with their family name. Even the women of the house used the title ‘Thakurani’.

Many pundits are of the view that the word ‘Thakur’ was derived from the word ‘Thakkar’ which means god, again others used to say that the person who works in the army or give away lands are presented with the title ‘Thakur’. Even today in the West Indian societies ‘Thakur’ title was presented to the powerful and wealthy people.

In Bengal we see ‘Mitra Thakur’, ‘Das Thakur’, ‘Ghosh Thakur’ etc. in the sixteenth and the seventeenth century good Vaishnavas are presented with the title ‘Thakur’. Devidas was a loyal Vaishnava and it can be proved by looking at the brick name plate where it was written ‘Sri Gobindo Choranashrito’. He was also famous in the Bikrampur area as he was very wealthy and powerful. That is why out of respect the people in his society used to call him ‘Thakur’. After that his descendants also adopted the title ‘Thakur’.

Also many family members of the Basu house did not adopt the title ‘Thakur’. A prime example was the Nineteenth century writer Sri Girish Chandra Basu. Famous litterateur and poet Sri Buddhadeb Basu, child litterateur Sri Sunirmal Basu, famous politician and social worker Sri Satyananda Basu and many more didn’t use the title ‘Thakur’ with their family name. However, all of them are actually Basu Thakurs.