The History and Origin of the Durga Puja Festival & Shopping
Durga pooja is something that is the best part of me being a Bengali. There is so much to talk about Bengali culture and history.
Durga Pooja is around the corner and let's talk about the history and celebration and this year's shopping.
Durga Pooja Shopping Inspiration Durga Puja the ceremonial worship of the mother goddess, is one of the most important festivals in India.
Festival Wear For EverybodyApart from being a religious festival for the Hindus, it is also an occasion for reunion and rejuvenation, and a celebration of traditional culture and customs.
While the rituals entail ten days of fast, feast, and worship, the last four days—Saptami, Ashtami, Navami, and Dashami—are celebrated with much gaiety and magnificence in India and abroad, especially in Bengal, where the ten-armed goddess riding the lion is worshipped with great passion and devotion.
Mythology
Durga Puja is celebrated every year in the Hindu month of Ashwin (September-October) and honours Prince Rama's devotion to the goddess before going to war with the demon king Ravana. This fall ritual was different from the conventional Durga Puja, which is usually celebrated in the springtime.
Find Festival Essential Thus goes the story of Lord Rama, who first worshipped the 'Mahishasura Mardini' or the slayer of the buffalo demon, by offering 108 blue lotuses and lighting 108 lamps, at this time of the year.
Origin and History
The origin of the community puja can be credited to the twelve friends of Guptipara in Hoogly, West Bengal, who collaborated and collected contributions from residents to conduct the first community puja called the 'baro-yaari' puja, or the 'twelve-pal' puja, in 1790.
The baro-yaari puja was brought to Kolkata in 1832 by Raja Harinath of Cossimbazar, who performed the Durga Puja at his ancestral home in Murshidabad from 1824 to 1831, notes Somendra Chandra Nandy in 'Durga Puja: A Rational Approach' published in The Statesman Festival, 1991.
"The baro-yaari puja gave way to the sarbajanin or community puja in 1910, when the Sanatan Dharmotsahini Sabha organized the first truly community puja in Baghbazar in Kolkata with full public contribution, public control, and public participation.
Now the dominant mode of Bengali Durga Puja is the 'public' version," write M. D. Muthukumaraswamy and Molly Kaushal in Folklore, Public Sphere, and Civil Society. The institution of the community Durga Puja in the 18th and 19th century Bengal contributed vigorously to the development of Hindu Bengali culture.
The traditional icon of the goddess worshiped during the Durga Puja is in line with the iconography delineated in the scriptures. In Durga, the Gods bestowed their powers to co-create a beautiful goddess with ten arms, each carrying their most lethal weapon. The tableau of Durga also features her four children—Kartikeya, Ganesha, Saraswati, and Lakshmi.
Popular rituals that will help you understand Durga Puja better
Bengalis prefer to believe that this is the time when Goddess Durga arrives at her parental home on earth from her bridal home in Mount Kailash. And she arrives with her children in tow – Ganesha, Kartikeya, Lakshmi, and Saraswati. Even though Durga is worshipped in her demon-slaying pose, she is therefore seen flanked by her children.
The goddess and her children are depicted along with their animal mounts. Myriads of rites and rituals take place during the five days of the actual Puja, extending from Sochi (the sixth day of Navaratri) to Dashami (the tenth day, Vijayadashami or Dussehra). Here are a few of the most popular rituals.
Bodhon
The actual Durga Puja begins on Sosthi. It is believed that this autumnal worship was initiated by Rama to seek the help of the goddess in defeating Ravana. Hence the goddess has to be specially invoked through the ceremony of Bodhon, which is performed in the evening.
Nabapatrika Snan
Nine plants, of which the banana plant is the most visible, are tied together to form the Nabapatrika (nine leaves). They represent the nine forms of the female power Shakti – Brahmani (banana), Kalika (colacassia), Durga (turmeric), Kartiki (jayanti), Shiva (wood apple), Raktadantika (pomegranate), Sokrahita (ashoka), Chamunda (arum) and Lakshmi (paddy). Nabapatrika is taken for a bath (Snan) in the river (Ganga in Kolkata) after which she is wrapped in a sari and placed next to Ganesha. As the leaves of the banana plant are most prominent, the Nabapatrika is popularly called Kola Bou (banana bride). The Nabapatrika Snan takes place on Saptami (the seventh day).
Anjali
While the priests perform the rites and rituals associated with the worship of the goddess, everyone else gets to pay their respect through Pushpanjali (floral offering made with cupped palms) or Anjali for short. Anjali takes place on all three days – Saptami, Ashtami, and Navami. The auspicious hour for Anjali, always in the morning, is announced beforehand. It is customary to fast until you have offered the day’s Anjali.
At the scheduled hour, everyone bathed and dressed in new clothes, gather in front of the goddess, clutching a fistful of flowers along with bel leaves. They repeat the mantra after the priest and throw the flowers at the goddess in the end. Three rounds of floral offerings take place.
Kumari Puja
Kumari Puja takes place on Ashtami (the eighth day). A pre-pubescent girl is selected to be worshipped as the living incarnation of Durga. Dressed in new clothes and decked up with floral ornaments, she shares the stage with the goddess. One of the most popular destinations to see the Kumari Puja is Belur Math, the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Order founded by Swami Vivekananda.
Sandhi Puja
It is at the juncture when Ashtami ends and Navami begins that Sandhi Puja happens. It marks the moment when Goddess Durga emerged in her angry Chamunda form to kill the demons, Chanda and Munda. One hundred and eight lamps are lit.
The priest utters the mantra. And the drummers (dhaki) break into a frenzied beat. Earlier, it was customary to make an animal sacrifice too. But it has been largely discontinued and vegetables are symbolically sacrificed.
Dhunuchi Naach
One of the riotous but fun-filled rituals takes place on Navami (ninth day) evening. Clay pots are filled with burning charcoal. People take it in their hands and start dancing to the beating of dhaak. Those more experts, hold the clay pots on their heads, sometimes even holding a pot by their teeth. Earlier a forte of men, dhunuchi naach is also performed by women now.
Sindur Khela
Traditionally, Hindu women, whose husbands are alive, wear the vermillion mark on their forehead. On Dashami, the goddess is bid farewell before being taken out for immersion in the river. One of the rituals includes Sindur Khela where married women (but not widows) offer vermillion and sweets to the goddess.
After that, they smear each other with the vermillion. Photographers go click happy during this ritual. Of late, some women have started to question the custom of not allowing widows to participate in the festival.
Bisarjan
The goddess and her children are taken out in a procession for Bisorjon or immersion in the river, indicating her return to Mount Kailash. Even today, some of the old households (bonedi bari) follow the custom where the idols are placed on a bamboo platform and carried on the shoulders of men.
But most carry the idols on a truck up to the river bank. Then the idols are placed on a boat and taken to the middle of the river for immersion. West Bengal Tourism and many private tour operators arrange for boat cruises to observe the immersion ceremony.
Bijoya
This marks the end of the annual festival. Young people touch the feet of elders. Elders bless the young. Men of the same age perform Kolakuli, a kind of hugging gesture. Special sweets, especially Naru or roundels made with coconut and jaggery, are distributed. Earlier, it was the women’s job to make different kinds of savories and sweets at home to be distributed during Bijoya.
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