Durga Puja, a major Hindu festival, is usually held in the month of Ashvina (September-October) for 10 days. Durga Puja celebrates the success of the goddess Durga over Mahishasura, the demon king.
In various parts of the world, Goddess Durga is worshipped. Celebrations in India, whether in West Bengal , Bihar, Assam, Tripura or Odisha, are often strong and spiritual. It is easy to note how different parts of the country celebrate the same Durga Puja differently.
Prince Rama's invocation of the goddess before going to war with the demon king Ravana. This autumnal ritual was different from the conventional Durga Puja, which is usually celebrated in the springtime. So, this Puja is also known as 'akal-bodhan' or out-of-season ('akal') worship ('bodhan'). 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.
Basanti Puja & Durga Puja in Bengal
It is believed that King Surath performed the first ever Durga Puja in Spring after getting instructions from Sage Medha. The legend in Markanda Puran states that King Surath had lost his kingdom and wandered in the forests where he met Samadhi Vaishya who also had lost kingdom. In the jungle, they met Medha Muni who on request suggested them to perform Basanti Durga Puja to get back their lost kingdoms. King Surath and Samadhi Vaishya, thus, performed Basanti Puja and got back their kingdoms. This started the ritual of performing Basanti Durga in Basant season or Chaitra Month.
Basanti Puja Rituals
Basanti Puja RitualsThe rituals of Basanti Puja are similar to those of Shardiya Durga Puja. The only difference is in the ‘Ghat’ (Kalash or earthern/metal pot) for ‘Bodhan’ (awakening Goddess Durga) is not used in Sashti puja because this puja is performed on time when it is meant to be done. ‘Akal Bodhan’ or ‘untimely awakening of Durga’ is done on Sashti during Shardiya Durga Puja.
Grand Durga Idols with the idols of Goddessess Saraswati and Lakshmi and idols of Gods Ganesha and Kartik are worshiped on Sashti, Saptami, Ashtami, and Navami. Kumari Puja is also done on Ashtami where little girls are given importance by worshipping them and by offering them a variety of foods, clothes, sweets etc. The Idols are then immersed in water on the day of Dashami. This is called ‘Bisarjan’- a ritual representing farewell to Goddess Durga and her family.
The first grand worship of Goddess Durga in recorded history is said to have been celebrated in the late 1500s. Folklores say the landlords or zamindar of Dinajpur and Malda initiated the first Durga Puja in Bengal. According to another source, Raja Kangshanarayan of Taherpur or Bhabananda Mazumdar of Nadiya organized the first Sharadiya or Autumn Durga Puja in Bengal in c 1606.
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 local 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 the 19th century Bengal contributed vigorously to the development of Hindu Bengali culture.
The research paper further indicates that "high level British officials regularly attend Durga Pujas organized by influential Bengalis and British soldiers actually participate in the pujas, have prasad, and even salute the deity, but 'the most amazing act of worship was performed by the East India Company itself: in 1765 it offered a thanksgiving Puja, no doubt as a politic act to appease its Hindu subjects, on obtaining the Diwani of Bengal'. (Sukanta Chaudhuri, ed. Calcutta: the Living City, Vol. 1: The Past) And it is reported that even the Company auditor-general John Chips organized Durga Puja at his Birbhum office. In fact, the full official participation of the British in the Durga Puja continued till 1840, when a law was promulgated by the government banning such participation."
In 1911, with the shifting of the capital of British India to Delhi, many Bengalis migrated to the city to work in government offices. The first Durga Puja in Delhi was held in c. 1910, when it was performed by ritually consecrating the 'mangal kalash,' symbolizing the deity. This Durga Puja, which celebrates its centennial in 2009, is also known as the Kashmere Gate Durga Puja currently organized by the Delhi Durga Puja Samiti in the lawns of Bengali Senior Secondary School, Alipur Road, Delhi.
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. Traditional clay image of Durga or pratima made of clay with all five gods and goddesses under one structure is known as 'ek-chala' ('ek' = one, 'chala' = cover).
There are two kinds of embellishments that are used on clay - sholar saaj and daker saaj. In the former, the pratima is traditionally decorated with the white core of the shola reed which grows within marshlands. As the devotees grew wealthier, beaten silver (rangta) was used. The silver used to be imported from Germany and was delivered by post (dak). Hence the name daker saaj.
The huge temporary canopies - held by a framework of bamboo poles and draped with colorful fabric - that house the icons are called 'pandals'. Modern pandals are innovative, artistic and decorative at the same time, offering a visual spectacle for the numerous visitors who go 'pandal-hopping' during the four days of Durga Puja.
Source : Sri Ma Sarada Devi writer: Subhash Basu