Homecoming of the Goddess: Durga Puja celebrations and how it emerged into the 21st century festival

 As the sky turns blue and the sweet smell of the autumn air drifts through, the Bengali heart of the East Indian state eagerly waits for the biggest socio-cultural event – the homecoming of Goddess Durga. During the duration of the festival the state indulges in foods, drinks and cultural performances. Durga Puja (the celebration of the worship of Goddess Durga), although a religious event is highly secular in its contemporary form, with people from different communities taking part in the festivities. The Goddess Durga is worshipped as the divine and feminine power that destroys the evil (the demon Mahisasura) and also at the same time a loving and caring mother with her four children visiting her natal home once a year. She is simultaneously a great daughter and a wife. This form in which the Goddess is worshipped is unique to Bengal and stands apart from other mythologies about her elsewhere. From the 6th Century the Hindu Puranas began to integrate many non-Vedic goddess into the list of Brahminic deities. The Mahabharata and Harivamsa describes Durga as a fearless woman, who lives in the mountains and hunts for a living. She has companions who are ghosts and wild beasts. Her diet mostly consisted of meat and alcohol which were not Brahminic. It is in the Devimahatmya that she is integrated into the Brahminic tradition where she retains her original identity but is also a manifestation of Shakti. Over centuries the above process of inclusion of the goddess into the Brahminic tradition, also transformed her into a mother with four children. This form of the goddess was first found in Mukunda Chakrabarti’s Chandimangal; a ballad. These ballads were sung at auspicious occasions. The ballads got their basic stories from the Puranas though they often reflected and portrayed many local traditions and tales. In the Chandimangal she is described as a bad-tempered aggressive daughter of rich parents who scolds her husband for being penniless and depending on her parents. The couple fought over poverty and daily chores. Durga also despairs about the state of her home because of the wide range of wild animals in her home; the peacock, the lion, snakes etc. Agamani and Vijaya songs deals with the arrival and departure of Durga to and from her natal home respectively as well as marking the beginning and end of the festival. The songs tell the story of Durga who left her rich parents in order to be with Shiva. Thus, when she returns to her natal home, the Earth, it marks the beginning of the Puja which creates an occasion of universal joy because the daughter is now safe with her parents and does not have to worry about poverty or quarrels with her husband. Once she is with her mother, Durga asks her whether she had forgotten her daughter. The conversation also tells us that the people of Kailash (her natal home) knows about the conditions at her in-laws. Durga had also been asked whether she had a mother at all. Being embarrassed Durga (Uma) is forced to come home herself. This conversation between a young married daughter and her mother reflects the society in which these songs were written. The society back then was beginning to constantly push a woman’s feelings and desires to the private sphere. These songs were significant in the sense that it created a public hearing of a woman’s feelings and created an alternative religious and cultural sphere in an age dominated by masculine gods like Krishna. Vijaya songs are colored emotionally as it describes the parting of the daughter from the mother as she leaves her natal home and begins her journey to her husbands. She would come again but after a year, so the parting was always emotional. This narrative sharply reflected the condition of many daughters of that age as they left for their husband’s home, parted from her natal home, from their siblings, from childhood friends and memories. No other festival was able to portray the brutal uprooting of a daughter from her mother’s home into a stranger’s environment. The songs were thus successful in creating a domestic consciousness that transgressed religious boundaries and is one of the reasons that made this puja secular and universal in the future. The earliest public Durga puja dates back to 1583 by Kangsanarayan the Zamindar of Taherpur (Rajshahi), in 1610 by the Sabarna Chaudhuris and Raja Krishnachanda Raya of Nadia in the 1700s. The pujas were public in nature and were accompanied by night long celebrations of cultural performances. After the year of 1757 (Battle of Plassey) apart from being a political revolution was also a cultural one, with the establishment of the city of  Calcutta many eminent and rich Bengali families started living in the city along with their English counterparts. All these families were known for the grandeur with which they celebrated Durga Puja. They competed among themselves when it came to Durga Puja on who would spend the most wealth. At Jorasanko two families namely the Tagore and the Gandhabanik family competed against each other. Precious stones were imported from Paris and were engraved in the idol’s gold jewelry. During immersion however the Gandhabanik family took the jewelry off the idol while the Tagore immersed their idol fully adorned with gold. Such was the splendor with which the families performed this ritual. Nabakrishna Deb was the most well-known landlord in Calcutta who familiarized the public with the Durga Puja. Soon after the victory at Plassey in 1757 Nabakrishna appropriated some of the wealth of the Nawab and built the Durga Dalan at Shobhabazaar at a record pace of only three months. At the night of Krishna Navami, the Devi was welcomed and rituals, celebrations started from the next day. The Puja days were given a public touch as people from all class and castes were allowed to take part in proceedings, enjoy and have meals in the presence of the divine mother. The all-inclusive character of the puja also comes with a critique. When people came together to eat at these pujas, they were made to sit on different mats according to their castes. Thus, there was segregation within the inclusiveness. During the freedom struggle or the nationalist period, the image of Durga as a mother was popularized in the sense that she, Durga or the mother land is attacked from outside by demons and foreign intruders and it is the duty of her sons to protect her. Thus, the transformation of the goddess from the warrior to the mother of the home the ‘private’ who would be protected by males in the public sphere is complete. During this period the puja also became more common as anyone could organize a puja by collecting money from the residents. Thus, barwari pujo was initiated. The term barwari puja literally refers to a puja by twelve friends. The post-independence era saw the growth in clubs and communities in the city and slowly the barwari puja transgressed into the hands of these clubs which took up the duty of organizing the puja and also collecting money from the immediate community. Thus, it truly became a ritual of the public where everyone found an emotional connection and a true secular culture to this date. Gradually the state also took active interest in propagating the biggest sociocultural event of Bengal and giving it a global outlook. Today Durga Puja is celebrated in the whole of Bengal and Kolkata (Calcutta) becomes the hub and the personification of celebrations during the puja days. The population of the city multiplies and people engage themselves in various merrymakings. It has even transgressed national boundaries with the migration of the Bengali population abroad. Apart from Bangladesh, pujas are performed in the UK, Netherlands, the USA and other European countries. It has truly emerged as a globalized event but it still captures the tiniest emotions and has become a cultural identity of the Bengali household.

Manish Dutta

Intern

AGA