Durga Puja
Posted on : October 14, 2021Author : Sakti Biswas
Durga Puja holds a magical charm for the Bengalis and “all Bengalis” yearn for these very special 3-4 days of the year. The Bengalis are a soft people and Bengali language is even softer. Bengalis call it “Pujo” among themselves. Part of the Sharadiya Navratri (9autumn nights), it celebrates Maa Durga’s (Goddess Durga) victory over Mahishasura, the demon, signifying the victory of good over evil.
The Sabarna Roy Choudhury family has been celebrating Durga Puja since 1610 in its ancestral home at Barisha, southern suburbs of Kolkata. It is from this landholding family, the British purchased three villages in 17th century which bloomed into Kolkata. Bhabananda Mazumdar of Nadia district organized the first autumnal Durga Puja in Bengal in 1606. According to another source, in 1580, Raja Kangshanarayan of Taherpur, Nadia district, started it. The patrons Barisha & Nadia instances of Durga Puja were rich landholding families. Durga Puja is an exercise ofroyal proportions. You not only need money, you need lots of it; you also need battalions of volunteers for rituals.
Devotees worship Durga to gain positive energy, to cleanse their mind so as to attain purity and salvation. Roopam Dehi Jayam Dehi Yasho Dehi Disso Jahi [Maa Durga, please grant me (spiritual) beauty, (spiritual) victory, (spiritual) glory and destroy my (inner) enemies.] The clay idol of Maa Durga is made with a variety of soils. It also contains dust & soil from red light areas. This is done as a ritual tribute to the women on the fringe of society and their contribution in maintaining sanity in society. Mahishasur got a boon from the Goddess that he will get the same offerings as her. Accordingly, the villain also gets worshipped with all attendant honorifics. The following rituals form part & parcel of Durga Puja these days:
Mahalaya: It is the day when people offer water to their forefathers after taking holy dip in the river or any large water body early in the morning. Later in the evening, the Goddess starts from her abode in Mount Kailash. On this day, in the artisan’s district, eye of the Goddess is drawn and a formal Puja is offered to her. It is an emotional moment like when a human father sends off a daughter after marriage. It is also the day, when all ears are glued to the radio set for “Mahishasur Mardini”, a 9-decade old radio opera that sets the Puja mood.
Bodhana: Welcoming the Goddess to be a guest, on the sixth day of the festival.
Amantran & Adhivasa: Symbolic offerings, with each item representing a remembrance of subtle forms of the Goddess, on the sixth day.
Navapatrika snan: Bathing of the navapatrika (nine saplings or Kala bou with holy water on the seventh day. Durga puja is, in part, a post-monsoon harvest festival. The practice of including a bundle of nine different plants, tied to a banana plant, called navapatrika, as a symbol of Durga, was comprehended by this writer, as a child, that Kala bou was the wife of Ganesha!
Sandhi puja and Ashtami pushpanjali: On the cusp of the ending of the eighth day and beginning of the ninth dayis when the Goddess engaged Mahishasura in a fierce battle. This moment is marked by the sandhi puja, involving the offering of l 08 lotuses and lighting of l 08 lamps. It is a 48-minute ritual commemorating the climax of the battle. The rituals are performed in the last 24 minutes of Ashtami and the first 24 minutes of Navami.
Believe it or Not! The fish-loving Bengalis go totally veg on the Ashtami day!
The Goddess is then offered food (bhog). All partake in a veg thali comprising khichuri, mixed-veg curry, beguni, papad & sweets.
Homa and bhog: The ninth dayof the festival is marked with the homa (fire oblation) rituals and at the end of Navami symbolic immersion is done. A mirror is placed in a copper vessel full of water. The face of the Goddess is reflected in the mirror and symbolic immersion takes place.
Sindoor khela and immersion: The tenth and last day, called Vijaya Dashami, is marked by sindoor khela. Married women, who is not a widow, smear sindoor or vermillion on the feet of the Goddess and also smear each other with it. This is done with a prayer of blissful marital life for married women.
On the tenth day, Durga emerges victorious and Mahishasura pleads for life. The clay idols are taken for immersion in a river or large water body in colourful procession. Durga is believed to return to her home in Mount Kailash.
Dhunuchi naach involves a dance ritual performed with (frankincense burner). Dhakis (drummers) carrying drums create a din.
People distribute sweets and gifts, visit their friends and relatives on the tenth day, to touch the feet of the elderly relatives & non-relatives.
Big community Pujas start planning for the next year’s Puja right after the immersion day. Months before the start of Durga Puja, youth members of the community collect funds and donations, engage priests and artisans, help build pandals centered around a theme, which has risen to prominence in recent years. Today, Durga Puja has turned into a consumerist social carnival, a major public spectacle and a major arts event riding on the wave of commercialisation, corporate sponsorship and craze for awards. If you are looking to watch how the Puja is conducted according to Sanatan Dharma (true tenets}, search YouTube for Ramakrishna Math, Belur video of the Puja, which is also telecast live on the Puja days on DD Bangla.
You will be glad to know that our Priyamvada Birla Aravind Eye Hospital (MP Birla Group) recently conducted a free eye check-up camp in Kumartooli, the idolmaking area of Kolkata. It was reported that many artisans were having trouble in drawing the eye of the Goddess, as most of them become short-sighted. The eye camp identified many cases requiring phaco eye surgery that were done in the hospital for free. Others were given free spectacles and other forms of eye treatment & advice.
Genre of Pujo
At this point, we may dwell on various styles of worship: (a) Community Puja or Barwari Puja; (b) Barir Pujo or family-run Puja & (c) Housing-er Pujo or Pujas in gated communities.
- When a few friends were turned away from a family-run Puja, they felt insulted and started a baro (12) yaar (friends) Puja, the forerunner of today subscription+corporate sponsorship+political patronage powered Puja. Some barowari Pujas or community Pujas have grown so big and such powerful that pomp & splendour became the main theme and the Goddess or the religious message gets lost.
It has also given rise to a sub-type called theme-er Pujo or theme-driven Puja,
which isthe latest craze, with alI kind of creative Iicence that sometimes evokes consternation.
- Barir Pujo or family managed Puja is how it all started but as it requires fat moneybags and huge manpower, the Barir Pujo numbers are dwindling fast. Here Money is a lesser cause than manpower.
- Housing-er Pujo or Pujas in gated communities, may be the avatar that will survive in the long run. They do not block streets or flout norms. They got fat moneybags and adequate manpower and so far appear to be free of political influence.
We need also comment on the North &South Divide of Puja-organizers. South Kolkata is the new part of the city, mostly sleek & cosmopolitan where money does the talking. Pandals are big & arrangements are extravagant. But somewhere there is a lack of religiousness.
North Kolkata is the old city. Houses are old & many are dilapidated. Fund crisis is palpable. The only way they get attention is through sheer devotion and religiosity. Small pandals in narrow alleys are statements of art and hums with life.
National & international presence
Durga Puja proliferated across India and the world with Bengalis particularly and also because of the people of Odisha & Assam. It is because of the sincere diligence of the Indian diaspora, US States like Texas, Florida, New Jersey, Ohio and Massachusetts will celebrate October as Hindu Heritage Month, starting this year.
In Delhi, the first community Durga puja was organized near Kashmiri Gate, since 1910. More than 800 Durga Pujas are held in Delhi, with a few hundred more in Gurgaon and NOIDA.
In Odisha, Durga puja is fast turning out to be the most important festival of the people of the State. Durga Puja is a very important festival for Odissans, during the four days of the festival, the streets turn into a wonderland. People welcome the arrival of the Goddess by rejoicing themselves, eating tasty food, wearing new clothes, seeing different pandals across the city, family gathering and gift exchange. In Cuttack, also known as the Second Kolkata, the birthplace of Netaji Subhas Bose and Balasore, it is celebrated with no less enthusiasm than it is done in Bengal. The Odia diaspora celebrate it in Australia, where native Australians join in great numbers.
In parts of lharkhand, where Bengalis traditionally live in large numbers; in the Bengali State of Tripura and all over Assam, Durga Puja is the main festival.
Bengali and Odia publishers publish special editions for the Puja known as Pujabarshiki (Annual Puja Edition). These contain works of writers, both established and upcoming, and are more voluminous than the regular issues.
What was agamoni gaan (welcoming the Goddess) by rural bards in the yesteryears,
turned into Pujor Gaan, Puja-special song offerings on LP records and cassettes and now on CD & OTT set the Puja hype.
Dhaki
Nothing sets the tone of Puja like the dhakis, playing on large drums, dancing, with kansi (bronze plates) by young boys in the precinct of Puja pandals that even the agnostic can’t afford to not visit a pandaI and pay obeisance to the Goddess.
Elitist festival?
These are all the good things about the Durga Puja. But there is darkness just beneath the lamp. Millions, millions and millions or more are afflicted by yearly flood, which gets worse every September. They have taken shelter in the nearest school or relief camp. For them the Goddess brings no cheer. The dhakis (or drummers who set the festive tone) are mostly landless farmers and have nothing in common with the 6 feet plus, 150 kg farmers laying a siege at Singhu border demanding repeal of new farm laws. The emaciated look of the dhaki children playing the bronze plate will surely rob the joy of a discerning person. All these lend to the allegation that Durga Puja is an elitist festival.
Historical perspective
Till about the early part of the l8th century, Durga Puja remained a royal exercise & scattered in the countryside. Kolkata was a mere trading outpost of the firangis (foreigners with albino complexion), home to malaria and dysentery.
Then a series of political events disturbed the peace & prosperity of the self-sustaining tranquil life of rural Bengal. Nawab Alivardi Khan, the Turkish origin ruler of Bengal, had just assumed throne in Murshidabad, the new capital of Bengal, Bihar & Odisha. There was a power vacuum & turmoil. It has a Nagpur connection too. The Maratha freebooters invaded Bengal six times between August 1741 and May 1751.
Bhaskar Pandit, the General of Raghoji I Bhonsle, the Maratha ruler of Nagpur, discovered how easy it was to plunder Bengal’s rich countryside through lightning raids, riding swift horses. In April 1742, the Bargis (as they were called) crossed the Damodar River at Panchet, Burdwan district, and began looting villages. It became an annual affair and they started collecting taxes, until Nawab Alivardi Khan made peace by seceding Odisha to the Marathas. A lullaby of that time reads: “Khoka ghumolo, para jurolo, borgi elo deshe, bu/bu lite dhan kheyechhe, khajna debo kishe?” [The birds have eaten away the paddy, how do I pay my lagaan (taxes) to the Bargi?]
The English, who were then a trading class and political minnows, had dug canals (Maratha ditch) surrounding Kolkata, which deterred the Maratha horsemen. They also started raising an army. This assurance of respite from the Bargis attracted rich persons from Bengal’s countryside to settle in Kolkata. The Maratha ditches have since been filled up and are known today as Mahatma Gandhi Road, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road and Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Road.
In 1756, the English defeated the Nawab of Bengal, in the Battle of Plassey, and became the political masters of Bengal. The newly assumed importance of Kolkata ensured that this city becomes the seat of Bengali culture and Bengali awakening. Durga Puja became the main festival of Kolkata and Bengal and entire Eastern India.
An appeal
We all visit Puja pandals and make liberal donation in the daan peti (donation box). The amount goes to the already prosperous Puja organisers. How about splitting the amount between the God and that dhaki boy? The pandemic has made life difficult for all of us, the climate change has been very hard on the marginal sections of the society. When my mother was living, she would make small packets of rice and handover these to the dhakis who come to every house in the locality for tips on the day following immersion. She used to say “anna daan maha daan” (gift of rice is the best gift). This pleases Goddess Lakshmi (Goddess of prosperity) more than anything. The dhakis, who are poorly paid blessed my mom with silent tears of appreciation. That was the best Direct Benefit Transfer she could think of. My mother passed away six years back after a brief illness. She died in peace, in her sleep. She always asked for this kind of death.
We are hardly at home when the dhakis come. When I visit a Puja pandaI, I call a dhaki boy, with the brass plate, and put a currency note in his shirt pocket. I sincerely hope that our token support helps a poor family in a remote village, who yearn for this annual fortune, as much as we yearn for the Goddess to come to Earth.
— Sakti Biswas
(The writeup has been compiled from multiple sources with personal inputs from the author)
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