How Durga Puja of Bengalis turned into a social festival

The biggest festival of Bengali Hindus is Durga Puja. Usually the five-day festival begins on the sixth day of the bright fortnight in the month of Ashwin, from Shashthi to Dashami. These five days are known respectively as Durga Shashthi, Maha Saptami, Maha Ashtami, Maha Navami and Bijoya Dashami. This year Durga Puja began with Maha Shashthi on 28 September. Maha Saptami was on 29 September, Maha Ashtami on 30 September, Maha Navami on 1 October and the immersion of the idols will take place on Bijoya Dashami, 2 October, marking the end of the celebrations.

Where did the story of Goddess Durga begin? What is her history? From where did the concept of the Goddess emerge in that ancient time? Finding answers to these questions is extremely difficult. The festival has now developed as a combination of Vedic and folk traditions. Each ritual of Durga Puja has thousands of interpretations. Different mythological texts describe the same goddess in different ways. And Bengali Hindus have often mixed their own imagination with scriptural descriptions to create new myths and rituals. So it is impossible to provide a universally accepted account of Durga Puja and its practices. The saying ‘many sages, many opinions’ perhaps applies most aptly to Sanatan Dharma.

The most detailed account of Goddess Durga is found in Markandeya Purana’s ‘Devi Mahatmya’ (also known as Shri Shri Chandi). In other Puranas the goddess appears in other forms. But on hearing the name Durga, one image comes to our eyes: a goddess with ten hands holding ten different weapons, one foot on the lion’s back, the other on the shoulder of the demon. Around her are Ganesha, Lakshmi, Saraswati and Kartik. Those who follow the old style make paintings of many other deities on the backdrop behind the idol, while the modern ones simply hang a picture of Shiva above the idol. Over the years, this image has become the familiar form of the goddess to us.

The current Sharadiya Durga Puja is often considered the form described in the Ramayana. Let us briefly look at the story of Ram’s worship of Durga. King Ram of Ayodhya was the seventh incarnation of Lord Vishnu. During his exile of 14 years, his wife Sita was abducted by the demon king Ravana. To rescue her, Ram decided to kill Ravana. To succeed, Ram sought the blessings of Goddess Durga and worshipped her as the primordial power. Traditionally, Durga was worshipped in spring, but because of the war, Ram prayed to her in autumn for victory, though autumn was believed to be the season when gods slept, as days became shorter, nights longer and nights were associated with demons.

According to tradition, 108 blue lotuses are required in the Ashtami Sandhi Puja. Ram had arranged 108 lotuses, but Durga, testing him, hid one. Helpless, Ram prepared to pluck out one of his eyes as the 108th lotus, as his eyes were compared to blue lotuses. Pleased with his devotion, Durga appeared before him and blessed him with victory over Ravana. This untimely invocation of the goddess came to be known in Bengal as ‘Akalbodhan’. From then, autumnal worship of Durga began and spread across all Bengali regions. The spring festival, Basanti Puja, was originally the main Durga Puja, but in the enthusiasm of autumnal celebrations, it has nearly disappeared.

By blending Aryan traditions with Bengali creativity, Durga Puja has taken its present form. With the arrival of Durga, the destroyer of evil and mother of joy, the whole world rejoices. Though we call it Durga Puja, the worship is not for Durga alone. She comes with many others—good and evil, friend and foe, plants and animals. In the backdrop there is Shiva, at her feet the demon, with banana plant, owl, duck, mouse and peacock too. Through this mix of joy and sorrow, virtue and vice, people and nature, she reminds us of the path of life itself.

From mythological tales Durga Puja began, but gradually Durga has become like a daughter of our own house. An ordinary daughter, yet strong and commanding. This powerful daughter has countless names, countless forms. Since she is invoked in autumn, she is called Sharadiya. She is also known as Mahishasurmardini, Katyayani, Shivani, Bhavani, Adyashakti, Chandi, Shatakshi, Durga, Uma, Gauri, Sati, Rudrani, Kalyani, Ambika, Adrija and many more. Just as grandmothers call us by one name at home, uncles by another, parents by yet others, Durga too has many names, as she is truly a daughter of the Bengali household.

If we take the interpretation of Chandi, she is a war instrument, a female-shaped weapon created with combined powers for a special purpose. The myth-makers portrayed her as female because demons were thought to be tempted by women. Yet the household Durga, the folk Durga, has little resemblance with the mythological one. As the household daughter, she embodies all so-called feminine traits. Like our mothers who work with ten hands, Durga too fought with ten hands to kill Mahishasura.

All the gods armed her with weapons. She killed many demons. We know only of Mahishasura, but there were nine in all—Raktabija, Chanda, Munda, Shumbha, Nishumbha, Dhumralochana, Madhu, Kaitabh and Mahishasura. Each demon symbolises the bad people in society—thieves, robbers, liars, the jealous, oppressors of women, the dishonest, killers, fraudsters and the cruel. They are all evil and harmful to society. Remembering Durga once a year is our way of seeking to destroy such forces of evil.

Just as we cannot imagine life without family, husband, children and relatives, we imagine Durga too with her family. The folk Durga comes with her children Kartik, Ganesha, Lakshmi and Saraswati, as if returning to her father’s home from Kailash. This is like a Bengali daughter’s joy of visiting her parental home from her in-laws’ house. In the universal family of the mother of the world, all are her children—the educated and uneducated, the working class, the traders, the rulers—just like Saraswati, Kartik, Lakshmi and Ganesha. For her children’s welfare, she is ever eager, and to protect them from all directions she holds ten weapons in her ten hands.

But no one has embraced Durga Puja as the Bengalis have, making it part of life itself. As mother or as power, she dwells in the Bengali heart. As Uma, the daughter, she evokes deep emotion in Bengali households. Legend has it that Himalaya and his wife Menaka sent their daughter Uma to her husband Shiva’s home in Kailash. Each year, Menaka’s yearning to see her daughter became a universal prayer in Bengali families. The daughter’s homecoming for just four days brings joy to every household. Forgetting sorrows, dressing in new clothes, the skies and air of Bengal become festive. Nowhere else in the world has a religious festival so transformed into a social one. The songs of welcome for Durga have become inseparable from our life stream. Their meaning can only be felt deeply with the heart.

Chironjon Sarkar: Columnist