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Durga Puja

March 18, 2023

Durga Puja (Bengali: দুর্গা পূজা), also known as Durgotsava or Sharodotsava, is an annual Hindu festival originating in the Indian subcontinent which reveres and pays homage to the Hindu goddess Durga and is also celebrated because of Durga's victory over Mahishasura.[3][4] It is celebrated all over the world by the Hindu Bengali community but it is particularly popular and traditionally celebrated in the Indian states of West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Tripura, Odisha, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh (eastern parts) and the country of Bangladesh. The festival is observed in the Indian calendar month of Ashwin, which corresponds to September–October in the Gregorian calendar.[5][6] Durga Puja is a ten-day festival,[7][3] of which the last five are of the most significance.[8][6] The puja is performed in homes and public, the latter featuring a temporary stage and structural decorations (known as pandals). The festival is also marked by scripture recitations, performance arts, revelry, gift-giving, family visits, feasting, and public processions.[3][9][10] Durga Puja is an important festival in the Shaktism tradition of Hinduism.[11][12][13] Durga Puja in Kolkata has been inscribed on the Intangible cultural heritage list of UNESCO in December of 2021.[14]

Durga Puja
Devi Durga killing Mahishasura with her trident riding her vahana lion. Lakshmi and Ganesha flank the left while Saraswati and Kartikeya flank on the right.
Observed byBengali, Odia, Maithils,[1][2] and Assamese communities as a socio-cultural and religious festival
Liturgical color  Red
TypeHindu
CelebrationsWorshipping Hindu deities, family and other social gatherings, shopping and gift-giving, feasting, pandal visiting, and cultural events
ObservancesCeremonial worship of goddess Durga
Begins māsa (amānta) / māsa (purnimānta), pakṣa, tithi
Ends māsa (amānta) / māsa (purnimānta), pakṣa, tithi
Datemulti-day
FrequencyAnnual
Related toMahalaya, Navaratri, Dussehra
CountryIndia
Referenceunesco.org/durga-puja
RegionKolkata
Inscription history
Inscription2022 (16th session)
ListRepresentative
Explanatory note
Hindu festival dates

The Hindu calendar is lunisolar but most festival dates are specified using the lunar portion of the calendar. A lunar day is uniquely identified by three calendar elements: māsa (lunar month), pakṣa (lunar fortnight) and tithi (lunar day).

Furthermore, when specifying the masa, one of two traditions are applicable, viz. amānta / pūrṇimānta. Iff a festival falls in the waning phase of the moon, these two traditions identify the same lunar day as falling in two different (but successive) masa.

A lunar year is shorter than a solar year by about eleven days. As a result, most Hindu festivals occur on different days in successive years on the Gregorian calendar.

As per Hindu scriptures, the festival marks the victory of goddess Durga in her battle against the shape-shifting asura, Mahishasura.[15][16][A] Thus, the festival epitomizes the victory of good over evil, though it is also in part a harvest festival celebrating the goddess as the motherly power behind all of life and creation.[18][19] Durga Puja coincides with Navaratri and Dussehra celebrations observed by other traditions of Hinduism.[20][21][22]

The primary goddess revered during Durga Puja is Durga but celebrations also include other major deities of Hinduism such as Lakshmi (the goddess of wealth and prosperity), Saraswati (the goddess of knowledge and music), Ganesha (the god of good beginnings), and Kartikeya (the god of war). In Bengali and Odia traditions, these deities are considered to be Durga's children, and Durga Puja is believed to commemorate Durga's visit to her natal home with her beloved children. The festival is preceded by Mahalaya, which is believed to mark the start of Durga's journey to her natal home. Primary celebrations begin on the sixth day (Shasthi), on which the goddess is welcomed with rituals. The festival ends on the tenth day (Vijaya Dashami) when devotees embark on a procession carrying the worshipped clay sculpture-idols to a river, or other water body, and immerse them, symbolic of her return to the divine cosmos and her marital home with Shiva in Kailash. Regional and community variations in celebration of the festival and rituals observed exist.

Durga Puja is an old tradition of Hinduism,[23] though its exact origins are unclear. Surviving manuscripts from the 14th—century provide guidelines for Durga Puja, while historical records suggest that royalty and wealthy families were sponsoring major Durga Puja festivities since at least the 16th-century.[24][self-published source?][11] The prominence of Durga Puja increased during the British Raj in the provinces of Bengal, Odisha and Assam.[25][4] However, in modern times, the importance of Durga Puja is more as a social and cultural festival than a religious one, wherever it is observed.

Over the years, Durga Puja has morphed into an inseparable part of Indian culture with a diverse group of people celebrating this festival in their unique way while on tradition.[4]

Names

In West Bengal, Odisha, Assam, and Tripura, Durga Puja is also called Akalbodhan (literally, "untimely awakening of Durga"), Sharadiya pujo ("autumnal worship"), Sharodotsab ("festival of autumn"), Maha pujo ("grand puja"), Maayer pujo ("worship of the Mother"),[citation needed] Durga pujo,[26] or merely Puja or Pujo. In Bangladesh, Durga Puja has historically been celebrated as Bhagabati puja.[citation needed] Maa Durga is known as the Goddess of Power (feminine) which represents triumph of Goodness over evil.

Durga Puja is also referred to by the names of related Shakta Hindu festivals such as Navaratri, celebrated on the same days elsewhere in India;[4] such as in Bihar, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala, and Maharashtra,[B] Kullu dussehra, celebrated in Kullu Valley, Himachal Pradesh;[C] Mysore dussehra celebrated in Mysore, Karnataka;[D] Bommai golu, celebrated in Tamil Nadu; Bommala koluvu, celebrated in Andhra Pradesh;[E] and Bathukamma, celebrated in Telangana.

History and origins

Further information: Durga and Akaal bodhan

Durga is an ancient deity of Hinduism according to available archeological and textual evidence. However, the origins of Durga Puja are unclear and undocumented. Surviving manuscripts from the 14th-century provide guidelines for Durga Puja, while historical records suggest the royalty and wealthy families to be sponsoring major Durga Puja public festivities, since at least the 16th-century.[11] The 11th or 12th-century Jain text Yasatilaka by Somadeva mentions an annual festival dedicated to a warrior goddess, celebrated by the king and his armed forces, and the description mirrors attributes of Durga Puja.[5][23]

 
The Dadhimati Mata Temple of Rajasthan preserves a Durga-related inscription from chapter 10 of Devi Mahatmya. The temple inscription has been dated by modern methods to 608 CE.[27][28]

The name Durga, and related terms, appear in Vedic literature, such as in the Rigveda hymns 4.28, 5.34, 8.27, 8.47, 8.93 and 10.127, and in sections 10.1 and 12.4 of the Atharvaveda[29][30][F] A deity named Durgi appears in section 10.1.7 of the Taittiriya Aranyaka.[29] While the Vedic literature uses the word Durga, the description therein lacks legendary details about her or about Durga Puja that is found in later Hindu literature.[32] A key text associated with Durga Puja is Devi Mahatmya, which is recited during the festival. Durga was likely well established by the time this Hindu text was composed, which scholars variously estimate Durgato date between 400 and 600 CE.[33][34][35] The Devi Mahatmya scripture describes the nature of evil forces symbolised by Mahishasura as shape-shifting, deceptive, and adapting in nature, in form and in strategy to create difficulties and thus achieve their evil ends. Durga calmly understands and counters the evil in order to achieve her solemn goals.[15][16][G]Durga, in her various forms, appears as an independent deity in the Indian texts.[36] Both Yudhisthira and Arjuna characters of the Mahabharata invoke hymns to Durga.[37] She appears in Harivamsa in the form of Vishnu's eulogy and in Pradyumna's prayer. The prominent mention of Durga in such epics may have led to her worship.[38][5][39]

 
A display of sculpture-idols depicting Rama and Narada praying to Durga

The Indian texts with mentions of Durga Puja are inconsistent. A legend found in some versions of the Puranas mentions it to be a spring festival, while the Devi-Bhagavata Purana and two other Shakta Puranas mentions it to be an autumn festival. The Ramayana manuscripts are also inconsistent. Versions of Ramayana found in the north, west, and south of the Indian subcontinent describe Rama to be remembering Surya (the Hindu sun god) before his battle against Ravana, but the Bengali manuscripts of Ramayana, such as the 15th-century manuscript by Krttivasa, mention Rama to be worshipping Durga.[40] As per the legend, Lord Rama worshipped Durga in the autumn to have her blessings before defeating Ravana. While he was preparing for the worship of the goddess, the goddess Durga hid one of the 108 flowers of lotus, very essential for her worship. Having found only 107 of 108 lotuses at the time of the worship, Lord Rama decided to offer one of his eyes in place of that lost flower. When he was about to offer his eye, Goddess Durga appeared and told him that she had only hidden the flower in order to testify his devotion and she was satisfied with it. She blessed Lord Rama and Lord Rama continued with her worship, which is better known by Akaal Bodhan in the context. According to some scholars, the worship of the fierce warrior goddess Durga, and her darker and more violent manifestation Kali, became popular in the Bengal region during and after the medieval era, marked by Muslim invasions and conquests.[41]

The significance of Durga and other goddesses in Hindu culture is stated to have increased after Islamicate armies conquered regions of the Indian subcontinent.[42] According to yet other scholars, the marginalization of Bengali Hindus during the medieval era led to a reassertion of Hindu identity and an emphasis on Durga Puja as a social festival, publicly celebrating the warrior goddess.[43]From the medieval era up to present-day, Durga Puja has been celebrated as a socio-cultural event, while maintaining the roots of religious worship.[44]

Rituals and practices

 
 
 
 
From top left to bottom right (a) Structure of a Durga sculpture-idol being made at Kumortuli; (b) Lady carrying offerings for the puja; (c) Sandhi puja on the day of Ashtami; (d) Immersion of the sculpture-idol on Vijaya Dashami.

Durga Puja is a ten-day event, of which the last five days involve certain rituals and practices. The festival begins with Mahalaya, a day on which Hindus perform tarpaṇa by offering water and food to their dead ancestors. The day also marks the advent of Durga from her mythological marital home in Kailash.[4][6] The next significant day of the festival is the sixth day (Sashthi), on which devotees welcomes the goddess and festive celebrations are inaugurated. On the seventh day (Saptami), eighth (Ashtami) and ninth (Navami) days, the goddess along with Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesha, and Kartikeya are revered and these days mark the main days of worship with recitation of scriptures, puja, legends of Durga in Devi Mahatmya, social visits to elaborately decorated and illuminated pandals (temporary structures meant for hosting the puja), among others.[45][46][47]

Durga Puja as a harvest festival

Om you are rice [wheat...], Om you are life, you are the life of the gods, you are our life, your are our internal life, you are long life, you give life, Om the Sun with his rays (....)

 — Hymn to start the Durga Puja,
Translator: David Kinsley[18]

Durga Puja is, in part, a post-monsoon harvest festival observed on the same days in the Shaktism tradition of Hinduism as those in its other traditions.[48][49] The practice of including a bundle of nine different plants, called navapatrika, as a symbolism of Durga, is a testament practice to its agricultural importance.[18] The typically selected plants include not only representative important crops, but also non-crops. This probably signifies the Hindu belief that the goddess is "not merely the power inherent in the growth of crops but the power inherent in all vegetation".[18] The festival is a social and public event in the eastern and northeastern states of India, where it dominates religious and socio-cultural life, with temporary pandals built at community squares, roadside shrines, and temples. The festival is also observed by some Shakta Hindus as a private home-based festival.[50]The festival starts at twilight with prayers to Saraswati.[51] She is believed to be another aspect of goddess Durga, and who is the external and internal activity of all existence, in everything and everywhere. This is typically also the day on which the eyes of the deities on the representative clay sculpture-idols are painted, bringing them to a lifelike appearance.[51][52] The day also marks prayers to Ganesha and visit to pandals temples.[53]Day two to five mark the remembrance of the goddess and her manifestations, such as Kumari (goddess of fertility), Mai (mother), Ajima (grandmother), Lakshmi (goddess of wealth) and in some regions as the Saptamatrikas (seven mothers) or Navadurga (nine aspects of Durga).[54][10][55] On the sixth day major festivities and social celebrations start. [4][6] The first nine days overlap with Navaratri festivities in other traditions of Hinduism.[56][22]The puja rituals involve mantras (words manifesting spiritual transformation), shlokas (holy verses), chants and arati, and offerings. These also include Vedic chants and recitations of the Devi Mahatmya text in Sanskrit.[47] The shlokas and mantras praise the divinity of the goddess; according to the shlokas Durga is omnipresent as the embodiment of power, nourishment, memory, forbearance, faith, forgiveness, intellect, wealth, emotions, desires, beauty, satisfaction, righteousness, fulfillment and peace.[57][H] The specific practices vary by region.[61]

The rituals before the puja begins include the following:[62]

  • Paata Puja: The process of making an idol usually begins with 'Paata Puja', on the day of the Rath Yatra that usually takes place around July. 'Paata' is the wooden frame that forms the base for the idols.[63]
  • Bodhana: Involves rites to awaken and welcome the goddess to be a guest, typically done on the sixth day of the festival. The amorphous sight of the goddess is consecrated into a ghata or noggin while the visible sight is consecrated into the murti or idol. These rituals are known as ghatasthapana and pranapratistha respectively.[64]
  • Adhivasa: Anointing ritual wherein symbolic offerings are made to Durga, with each item representing a remembrance of subtle forms of her. Typically completed on the sixth day as well.[65]
  • Navapatrika snan: Bathing of the navapatrika with holy water done on the seventh day of the festival.[66]
  • Sandhi puja and Ashtami pushpanjali: The eighth day begins with elaborate pushpanjali rituals. The cusp of the ending of the eighth day and beginning of the ninth day is considered to be the moment when per scriptures Durga engaged in a fierce battle against Mahishasura and was attacked by the demons Chanda and Munda. Goddess Chamunda emerged from the third eye of Durga and killed Chanda and Munda at the cusp of Ashtami and Navami, the eighth and ninth days respectively. This moment is marked by the sandhi puja, involving the offering of 108 lotuses and lighting if 108 lamps. It is a forty-eight minutes long ritual commemorating the climax of battle. The rituals are performed in the last 24 minutes of Ashtami and the first 24 minutes of Navami. In some regions, devotees sacrifice an animal such as a buffalo or goat, but in many regions, there isn't an actual animal sacrifice and a symbolic sacrifice substitutes it. The surrogate effigy is smeared in red vermilion to symbolize the blood spilled.[67] The goddess is then offered food (bhog). Some places also engage in devotional service.[68]
 
 
 
Left: Dhaks, played during the pujo; right: Dhunuchi naach on Navami; bottom: Women taking part in sindoor khela on Vijaya Dashami.
 
Durga Puja dhak beats
A 47-seconds sample of dhak playing.
Problems playing this file? See media help.
  • Homa and bhog: The ninth day of festival is marked with the homa (fire oblation) rituals and bhog. Some places also perform kumari puja on this day.[69]
  • Sindoor khela and immersion: The tenth and last day, called Vijaya dashami is marked by sindoor khela, where women smear sindoor or vermillion on the sculpture-idols and also smear each other with it. This ritual signifies the wishing of a blissful marital life for married women. Historically the ritual has been restricted to married women. The tenth day is the day when Durga emerged victorious against Mahishasura and it ends with a procession where the clay sculpture-idols are ceremoniously taken to a river or coast for immersion rites.[70][71] Following the immersion, Durga is believed to return to her mythological marital home of Kailasha to Shiva and the cosmos in general. People distribute sweets and gifts, visit their friends and family members on the tenth day.[72] Some communities such as those near Varanasi mark the day after Vijaya dashami, called Ekadashi, by visiting a Durga temple.[73]
  • Dhunuchi naach and dhuno pora: Dhunuchi naach involves a dance ritual performed with dhunuchi (incense burner). Drummers called dhakis, carrying large leather-strung dhaks create music, to which people dance either during or not during aarati. Some places, especially home pujas, also observe dhuno pora, a ritual involving married women carrying dhunuchis burning with incense and dried coconuts, on a cloth on their head and hands,

Decorations, sculptures, and stages

 
 
 
 
From top left to bottom right (a) A craftsperson sculpting the face of the sculpture-idol; (b) Durga Puja pandal decorations in Kolkata; (c) Interior decorations of a pandal; (d) Street lights installed during the festivities.

The process of the creation of clay sculpture-idols (pratima or murti) for the puja, from the collection of clay to the ornamentation is a ceremonial process. Though the festival is observed post-monsoon harvest, the artisans begin making the sculpture-idols months before, during summer. The process begins with prayers to Ganesha and to the perceived divinity in materials such as bamboo frames in which the sculpture-idols are cast.[74]

 
Clay statue being made

Clay, or alluvial soil, collected from different regions form the base. This choice is a tradition wherein Durga, perceived as the creative energy and material, is believed to be present everywhere and in everything in the universe.[74] In certain traditions in Kolkata, a custom is to include soil samples in the clay mixture for Durga from areas believed to be nishiddho pallis (forbidden territories; territories inhabited by the "social outcasts" such as brothels).[75][76][77]

The clay base is combined with straw, kneaded, and then molded into a cast made from hay and bamboo. This is layered to a fine final shape, cleaned, painted, and polished. A layer of a fiber called jute, mixed in with clay, is also attached to the top to prevent the statue from cracking in the months ahead. The heads of the statues are more complex and are usually made separately.[74] The limbs of the statues are mostly shaped from bundles of straws.[74] Then, starting about August, the local artisans hand-paint the sculpture-idols which are later dressed in clothing, are decorated and bejewelled, and displayed at the puja altars.[74][78]

 
A man creating a statue in Rangpur, Bangladesh

The procedure for and proportions of the sculpture-idols are described in arts-related Sanskrit texts of Hinduism, such as the Vishvakarma Sashtra.[79]

Environmental impact

 
A Durga sculpture-idol in the river, post-immersion.

The sculpture-idols for the puja are traditionally made of biodegradable materials such as straw, clay, soil, and wood.[80] In today's times, brighter colored statues have increased in popularity and have diversified the use of non-biodegradable, cheaper or more colorful substitute synthetic raw materials. Environmental activists have raised concerns about the paint used to produce the statue, stating that the heavy metals in these paints pollute rivers when the statues are immersed at the end of the Durga festival.[80]

Brighter colors that are also biodegradable and eco-friendly, as well as the traditional natural colors, are typically more expensive compared to the non biodegradable paints.[81] The Indian state of West Bengal has banned the use of hazardous paints, and various state government have started distributing lead-free paints to artisans at no cost to prevent pollution.[82]

Animal sacrifice, symbolic sacrifice

Further information: Shaktism and Animal sacrifice in Hinduism
 
Sacrifice of a buffalo during Durga Puja, in Assam.

Shakta Hindu communities mark the slaying of Mahishasura and the victory of Durga with a symbolic or actual sacrifice. Most communities prefer symbolic sacrifice, where a statue of the asura is made of flour or equivalent, is immolated and smeared with vermilion, symbolic of the blood that had spilled during the battle.[67][83] Other substitutes include a vegetable or a sweet dish considered equivalent to the animal.[84] In certain instances, devotees consider animal sacrifice distasteful, and practice alternate means of expressing devotion while respecting the views of others in their tradition.[85]

In communities performing actual sacrifice, an animal is sacrificed, mainly at temples.[86] In Nepal, West Bengal, Odisha and Assam, animal sacrifices are performed at Shakta temples to commemorate the legend of Durga slaying Mahishasura.[87] This involves slaying of a fowl, goat or a male water-buffalo. This practice is rare among Hindus outside the regions of Bengal, Odisha and Assam.[88] In these regions, the festival season is primarily when significant animal sacrifices are observed.[88]

The Rajputs of Rajasthan worship their weapons and horses in the related festival of Navaratri, and some historically observed the sacrifice of a goat, a practice that continues in some places.[89][90] The sacrifice ritual, supervised he the priest, requires slaying of the animal with a single stroke. In the past this ritual was considered a rite of passage into manhood and readiness as a warrior.[91] The Kuldevi (clan deity) among these Rajput communities is a warrior goddess, with local legends tracing reverence for her during Rajput-Muslim wars.[92][better source needed]

Pandals and theme-based pujas

 
 
Two theme-based pandals in Kolkata.

Months before the start of Durga Puja, youth members of the community collect funds and donations, engage priests and artisans, buy votive materials and help build pandals centered around a theme, which has rose to prominence in recent years. Such themes have included sex work,[93] celebration of humanity,[94] marginalization of queer persons and transgender persons,[95] folk culture,[96] celebration of cinema,[97] womanhood,[96] pro-environment themes,[98] while others have chosen metaphorical themes such as celebration of maati (literally, soil or ash) and "finding one's own light".[99] Pandals have also been replicated on existing temples, structures, and monuments[100][101] and yet others have been made of elements such as metal scraps,[102] nails,[103] and turmeric[104] among others. Durga Puja pandals have also been centered around themes to acknowledge political events such as the 2019 Balakot airstrike and to protest against the National Register of Citizens of India.[105][106]

. The budget required for such theme-based pujas is significantly higher than traditional pujas. For such theme-based pujas, the preparations and the building of pandals are a significant arts-related economic activity, often attracting major sponsors.[107] Such commercialized pujas attract crowds of visitors. The growth of competitiveness in theme-based pandals has escalated costs and scale of Durga Puja in eastern states of India. Some segments of the society criticize the billboards, the economic competition, and seek return to basics.[108] The competition takes many forms, such as the height of statue. In 2015, an 88-foot statue of Durga in Kolkata's Deshapriya Park attracted numerous devotees, with some estimates placing visitors at one million.[109][110]

Regional celebrations and observances

 
Durga Puja at Bagbajar, Kolkata, example of a sarvajanin barowari puja.

There exists variation in worship practices and rituals associated with Durga Puja, as is the case with other Hindu festivals, in the Indian subcontinent.[111] Hinduism accepts flexibility and leaves the set of practices to the choice of the individuals concerned. Different localized rituals may be observed regionally, with these variations accepted across temples, pandals, and within families.[112]

The festival is most commonly associated with Bengali Hindus, and with the community having variability and differences in practices. There may exist differences of practice between the puja of theme-based Pandals, family pujas (with puja of erstwhile aristocrat families known as bonedi puja), and community pujas (known as barowari pujas) of neighbourhoods or apartments.[112]

The rituals of the puja also varies from being Vedic, Puranic, or Tantric, or a combination of these.[112] The Bengali Durga Puja rituals typically combine all three. The non-Bengali Durga Puja rituals tend to be essentially Vedic (srauta) in nature but they too incorporate esoteric elements making the puja an example of a culmination of Vedic-Tantric practices.[113]

Historical evidence suggests that the Durga Puja has evolved over time, becoming more elaborate, social, and creative. The festival had earlier been a domestic puja, a form of practice that still remains popular. But it had also come to be celebrated in the sarvajanin (public) form, where communities get together, pool their resources and efforts to set up pandals and illuminations, and celebrate the event as a "mega-show to share".[114] The origins of this variation are unclear, with some sources suggesting a family in Kolkata reviving such celebration in 1411 CE. While other set of sources suggest that a Bengali landlord, named Kamsanarayan, held a mega-show puja in late 16th-century Bengal.[114] Yet, this festival of Bengal is likely much older with the discovery of 11th and 12th-century Durga Puja manual manuscripts such as Durgotsavaviveka, Durgotsava Prayoga, Vasantaviveka and Kalaviveka.[115] The rituals associated with the Durga Puja migrated to other regions from Bengal, such as in Varanasi, a city that has historically attracted sponsorship from Hindus from various parts of the Indian subcontinent including Bengal.[116] In contemporary India, Durga Puja is celebrated in various styles and forms.[117]

 
 
Left: Durga Puja festivities by dancers and musicians in Calcutta, circa 1830s-40s; Right: Patna style painting of Durga Puja, circa 1809.

Durga Puja is a widely celebrated festival in the Indian states of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh (eastern parts), Assam, and Odisha.[118] It is celebrated over a five-day period. Streets are decked up with festive lights, loudspeakers play festive songs as well as recitation of hymns and chants by priests, and pandals are erected by communities. The roads become overcrowded with revellers, devotees, and pandal-hoppers visiting the pandals on puja days. It often creates chaotic traffic conditions. Shops, eateries, and restaurants stay open all night; fairs are also set up and cultural programmes are held.[119] People form organizing committees, which plan and oversee the pandal during the festivities. 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 award-winning. For private domestic pujas, families dedicate an area of their homes, known as thakur dalan, for Durga Puja where the sculpture-idols for worship is placed and decorated with home-dyed fabric, sola ornamentations, and gold and silver foil decorations. Elaborate rituals like arati are performed and prasad is distributed after being offered to the deities. As a tradition, married daughters visit their parents and celebrate the Durga Puja with them, a symbolism alluding to Durga who is popularly believed to return to her natal home during the puja.[120]

 
Durga Puja at the Shobhabazar Rajbari, in Kolkata, example of a bonedi puja.

Durga Puja is also a gift-giving and shopping season for communities celebrating it, with people buying gifts for not only family members but also for close relatives and friends. New clothes are the traditional gift, and people wear them to go out together during Durga Puja. During puja holidays, people may also go to places of tourist attractions while others return home to spend Durga Puja with their family.[120] It's a common trend amongst youngsters and even those who are older to go pandal-hopping and enjoy the celebrations.[121]

The organising committees of each puja pandal hires a purohita (priest) who performs the puja rituals on behalf of the community.[122] For the priests, Durga Puja is a time of activity wherein he pursues the timely completion of Vedic-Puranic-Tantric ritual sequences to make various offerings and perform fire oblations, in full public view, while the socio-cultural festivities occur in parallel.[123] The complex puja rituals include periods of accurate and melodic scripture recitation. The puja involves crowds of people visiting the pandals, with smaller groups visiting family pujas, to witness the celebrations.[124] On the last day, the sculpture-idols are carried out in immersion processions across Bengal, following which they are ritually immersed into rivers or other waterbodies. The immersion ceremony continues till a couple of days after the last day of puja.[125]

 
Immersion procession for Durga Puja, with the sculpture-idols being carried by people on bamboo poles.

According to some scholars, the ritual of immersing the Durga sculpture-idol into the river attracted the attention of colonial era travelers to the Bengal region from Europe, such as Garcin de Tassy and Emma Roberts. In 1831, Tassy reported that similar rituals were annually observed by the Muslim community in Bengal. Shia Muslims observed Muharram over ten days, taking out processions in memory of the martyrdom of Imam Husayn ibn Ali, and then cast a memorial Imam's cenotaph into a river on the tenth day. Tassy further stated that the Muslim rituals included the same offerings at the annual observation of Muharram that the Hindu rituals included during Durga Puja.[126] According to yet other scholars, the ritual of immersion in water by Hindus for Durga Puja in Bengal and Ganesh Chaturthi in the western states of India, may have grown because members of the Hindu community attempted to create a competing procession and immersion ritual to that of Muharram, allowed by the colonial British Indian government in the 19th and early 20th-centuries.[127]

 
Durga Puja in New Delhi, 2014.

In Maharashtra, the city of Nashik and other places such as CIDCO, Rajeevnagar, Panchavati, and Mahatmanagar host Durga Puja celebrations.[citation needed] While in Delhi, the first community Durga Puja was organized near Kashmiri Gate by a group of expatriate Bengalis, in 1910, a year before Delhi was declared the capital of British India. This group came to be the Delhi Durga Puja Samiti, popularly known as the Kashmere Gate Durga Puja.[128] The Durga Puja at Timarpur, Delhi was started in the year 1914.[129] In 2011, over 800 Durga Pujas were held in Delhi, with a few hundred more in Gurgaon and NOIDA.[130]

 
Sculpture-idols in Cuttack, Odisha for Durga Puja, bedecked with jewellery.

In Odisha, Durga Puja is the most important festival of the people of the state. Durga Puja is a very important festival for Odias, during the 4 days of the festival, the streets of the city turns into a wonderland throughout the state, people welcome the arrival of their maa by rejoicing themselves, eating tasty food, wearing new clothes, seeing different pandals across the city, family gathering and gift givings. In 2019, ninety-seven pandals in Cuttack alone, Odisha were reported to bedeck respective sculpture-idols with silver jewelry for Durga Puja celebrations; such club of pandals termed regionally as Chandi Medha. The state capital is famous for the modern themes and creativity In the pandals, while the Western part of the state has a more retro decoration theme to the pandal. In the northern parts of the state particularly Balasore, Durga Puja is celebrated with much fervor and the Odia diaspora abroad especially in Australia, which originates 95% from the district of Balasore celebrates the puja in the same manner which is done back home in Balasore.[131] In September 2019, 160 pandals were reported to be hosting Durga Puja in Cuttack.[132][133]

While in Tripura there were over 2,500 community Durga Puja celebrations in 2013. Durga Puja has been started at the Durgabari temple, in Agartala by King Radha Kishore Manikya Bahadur.[134][135]

Significance

Beyond being an art festival and a socio-religious event, Durga Puja has also been a political event with regional and national political parties having sponsored Durga Puja celebrations. In 2019, West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee announced a grant of ₹25,000 to all community-organised Durga Pujas in the state.[136]

In 2019, Kolkata's Durga Puja was nominated by the Indian government for the 2020 UNESCO Representative list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.[137][138] Durga Puja also stands to be politically and economically significant. The committees organising Durga Puja in Kolkata have close links to politicians.[94] Politicians patronize the festival by making donations or helping raise money for funding of community pujas, or by marking their presence at puja events and inaugurations.[94] The grant of ₹25,000 to puja organizing committees in West Bengal by a debt-ridden state government was reported to cost a budget a ₹70 crores.[139] The state government also announced an additional grant of ₹5,000 to puja organizing committees fully managed by women alone, while also announcing a twenty-five percent concession on total electricity bills for puja pandal.[139] The government had made a grant of ₹10,000 each to more than 20,000 puja organizing committees in the state in 2018.[139]

A 2013 report by ASSOCHAM states West Bengal's Durga Puja to be a ₹25,000 crores worth economy, expected to grow at the compound annual growth rate of about 35 per-cent.[140] Economic slowdowns in India, such as in 2019, have hence affected corporate sponsorships and puja budgets for public celebrations.[141] In August 2019, the Income Tax Department of India had allegedly sent notices to various Durga Puja organizing committees in West Bengal, against which the ruling party of the state, All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC) protested.[142][143] The Central Board of Direct Taxes denied sending any such notices,[144] to which AITMC politician Madan Mitra is reported to have said that the intention may have been to enquire if tax deducted at source had been deducted on payments to vendors for organizing community pujas.[94]

Economic significance

Durga Puja directly affects the economy. In 2022, the economy of West Bengal was estimated to get a boost of 50,000 crore rupees.[145] The annual GDP of West Bengal was expected to be expanded by 20-30 percent that year.[146][147] The factors responsible for this economic boost are mainly the increase of earning in transport, tourism, industry, business, shopping and other fields. The Kolkata Metro Railway recorded an earning of ₹6 crore in just five days of Durga Puja in 2022.[148][149]

The famous puja pandals get sponsorship from renowned companies and labels. Usually, the dress and jewelries of the idols, the stuffs used to make the pandals, decorations, lightings are sponsored.

Social significance

Durga Puja plays a great significance in the living of certain peoples. The kumors, those who make the idols with clay and also makes other clayey products, earns lakhs of rupees by selling a single set of Durga idol of average size. Hence, it makes their annual income because idols used in other festivals are a lot more cheaper. Other professions that receive the majority of their annual income are dhaaki (plays dhaak), priest and other small homecrafts. It is assumed that these profession based small classes would become smaller in population if Durga Puja was absent.

Media attention

 
Durga Puja has been a theme in various artistic works such as movies, paintings, and literature. Shown here is Pratima Visarjan by Gaganendranath Tagore, depicting a Durga Puja immersion procession. This painting inspired the colour scheme of the Indian film, Kahaani.

The day of Mahalaya is marked by the Bengali community with Mahishasuramardini — a two-hours long All India Radio program — that has been popular in the Bengali community since the 1950s. While in earlier days it used to be recorded live, a pre-recorded version has come to be broadcast in recent decades. Bengalis traditionally wake up at four in the morning on Mahalaya to listen to the radio show, primarily involving recitations of chants and hymns from Devi Mahatmyam (or Chandi Path) by Birendra Krishna Bhadra and Pankaj Kumar Mullick. The show also features various devotional melodies.[150]

Dramas enacting the legend of Durga slaying Mahishasura are telecasted on the television. Radio and television channels also air other festive shows,[citation needed] while Bengali and Odia magazines publish special editions for the puja known as Pujabarshiki (Annual Puja Edition) or Sharadiya Sankhya (Autumnal Volume). These contain works of writers, both established and upcoming, and are more voluminous than the regular issues. Some notable examples of such magazines in Bengali are Anandamela, Shuktara, Desh, Sananda, Nabakallol, and Bartaman.[151]

Celebrations outside India

 
 
Left: Durga Puja in Germany, in 2009; right: Durga Puja in the Netherlands, in 2017.

Durga Puja is celebrated commonly by Bangladesh's Hindu community. Some Bengali Muslims also take part in the festivities.[152] In Dhaka, the Dhakeshwari Temple puja attracts visitors and devotees.[153] In Nepal, the festivities are celebrated as Dashain.[3][9]

Beyond south Asia, Durga Puja is organized by Bengali communities in the United States of America.[154] Durga Puja celebrations have also been started in Hong Kong by the Bengali diaspora.[155]

In Canada, Bengali Hindu communities both from Bangladesh and West Bengal, India organise several Durga Pujas.[156] Greater Toronto Area has the most number of Durga Puja celebration venues organized by different Bengali cultural groups such as Bangladesh Canada Hindu Cultural Society (BCHCS), Bongo Poribar Sociocultural Association etc.[156] City of Toronto has a dedicated Durga Temple named Toronto Durgabari where Durga Puja is organized along with other Hindu celebrations. Most of the puja venues of Toronto area try to arrange the puja in best possible way to follow the lunar calendar and timings.

Celebrations are also organized in Europe. The sculpture-idols are shipped from India and stored in warehouses to be re-used over the years.[157] According to BBC News, for community celebrations in London in 2006, these "idols, belonging to a tableau measuring 18ft by 20ft, were made from clay, straw and vegetable dyes". At the end of the puja, the sculpture-idols were immersed in River Thames for the first time in 2006, after "the community was allowed to give a traditional send-off to the deities by London's port authorities".[157] In Germany, the puja is celebrated in Cologne,[158] and other cities. In Switzerland,[159] puja in Baden, Aargau has been celebrated since 2003. In Sweden, the puja is celebrated in cities such as Stockholm and Helsingborg.[160] In the Netherlands, the puja is celebrated in places such as Amstelveen, Eindhoven, and Voorschoten. In Japan, Durga Puja is celebrated in Tokyo with much fanfare.[161][162]

Footnotes

  1. ^ In the Shakta tradition of Hinduism, many of the stories about obstacles and battles have been considered as metaphors for the divine and demonic within each human being, with liberation being the state of self-understanding whereby a virtuous nature & society emerging victorious over the vicious.[17]
  2. ^ Navratri Puja, Durga-puja.org
  3. ^ Kullu Dussehra, Durga-puja.org
  4. ^ Mysore Dussehra, Durga-puja.org
  5. ^ "Bommai-kolu", Durga-puja.org
  6. ^ Example Sanskrit original: "अहन्निन्द्रो अदहदग्निरिन्दो पुरा दस्यून्मध्यंदिनादभीके । दुर्गे दुरोणे क्रत्वा न यातां पुरू सहस्रा शर्वा नि बर्हीत्॥३॥ – Rigveda 4.28.8, Wikisource It appears in Khila (appendix, supplementary) text to Rigveda 10.127, 4th Adhyaya, per J. Scheftelowitz.[31]
  7. ^ In the Shakta tradition of Hinduism, many of the stories about obstacles and battles have been considered as metaphors for the divine and demonic within each human being, with liberation being the state of self-understanding whereby a virtuous nature and society emerging victorious over the vicious.[17]
  8. ^ Various versions of Devi mantra exist.[58] Examples include: [a] "We know the Great Goddess. We make a meditation of the goddess Durga. May that Goddess guide us on the right path." (Durga Gayatri Mantra, recited at many stages of Durga Puja);[59] [b] Hrim! O blessed goddess Durga, come here, stay here, stay here, take up residence here, accept my worship. (Durga Avahana Mantra);[60] etc.

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Further reading

  • Banerjee, Sudeshna (2004). Durga Puja: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. Rupa and Co, Calcutta. ISBN 81-291-0547-0.
  • Bhattacharyya, BK (6 October 2008). . The Assam Tribune. Archived from the original on 1 April 2012.
  • Dutta, Krishna. (2003) Calcutta: a cultural and literary history 27 December 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Signal Books, Oxford, United Kingdom. ISBN 1-902669-59-2.
  • Muthukumaraswamy, M.D.; Kaushal, Molly (2004). Folklore, public sphere, and civil society. National Folklore Support Centre(India). ISBN 978-81-901481-4-6. from the original on 27 April 2016. Retrieved 15 November 2015. (Chapter 6: "Of Public Sphere and Sacred Space: Origins of Community Durga Puja in Bengal.")
  • Saraswati, Swami Satyananda (2001). Durga Puja Beginner, Devi Mandir. ISBN 1-887472-89-4.

External links

  • Durga Puja at Curlie
  • "Durga Puja - The Hindu Festival, Durga-Puja.org". www.durga-puja.org. Retrieved 25 September 2022.

March 18, 2023
durga, puja, bengali, also, known, durgotsava, sharodotsava, annual, hindu, festival, originating, indian, subcontinent, which, reveres, pays, homage, hindu, goddess, durga, also, celebrated, because, durga, victory, over, mahishasura, celebrated, over, world,. Durga Puja Bengali দ র গ প জ also known as Durgotsava or Sharodotsava is an annual Hindu festival originating in the Indian subcontinent which reveres and pays homage to the Hindu goddess Durga and is also celebrated because of Durga s victory over Mahishasura 3 4 It is celebrated all over the world by the Hindu Bengali community but it is particularly popular and traditionally celebrated in the Indian states of West Bengal Bihar Assam Tripura Odisha Jharkhand Uttar Pradesh eastern parts and the country of Bangladesh The festival is observed in the Indian calendar month of Ashwin which corresponds to September October in the Gregorian calendar 5 6 Durga Puja is a ten day festival 7 3 of which the last five are of the most significance 8 6 The puja is performed in homes and public the latter featuring a temporary stage and structural decorations known as pandals The festival is also marked by scripture recitations performance arts revelry gift giving family visits feasting and public processions 3 9 10 Durga Puja is an important festival in the Shaktism tradition of Hinduism 11 12 13 Durga Puja in Kolkata has been inscribed on the Intangible cultural heritage list of UNESCO in December of 2021 14 Durga PujaDevi Durga killing Mahishasura with her trident riding her vahana lion Lakshmi and Ganesha flank the left while Saraswati and Kartikeya flank on the right Observed byBengali Odia Maithils 1 2 and Assamese communities as a socio cultural and religious festivalLiturgical color RedTypeHinduCelebrationsWorshipping Hindu deities family and other social gatherings shopping and gift giving feasting pandal visiting and cultural eventsObservancesCeremonial worship of goddess DurgaBeginsmasa amanta masa purnimanta pakṣa tithiEndsmasa amanta masa purnimanta pakṣa tithiDatemulti dayFrequencyAnnualRelated toMahalaya Navaratri DussehraUNESCO Intangible Cultural HeritageCountryIndiaReferenceunesco org durga pujaRegionKolkataInscription historyInscription2022 16th session ListRepresentativeExplanatory noteHindu festival datesThe Hindu calendar is lunisolar but most festival dates are specified using the lunar portion of the calendar A lunar day is uniquely identified by three calendar elements masa lunar month pakṣa lunar fortnight and tithi lunar day Furthermore when specifying the masa one of two traditions are applicable viz amanta purṇimanta Iff a festival falls in the waning phase of the moon these two traditions identify the same lunar day as falling in two different but successive masa A lunar year is shorter than a solar year by about eleven days As a result most Hindu festivals occur on different days in successive years on the Gregorian calendar vteAs per Hindu scriptures the festival marks the victory of goddess Durga in her battle against the shape shifting asura Mahishasura 15 16 A Thus the festival epitomizes the victory of good over evil though it is also in part a harvest festival celebrating the goddess as the motherly power behind all of life and creation 18 19 Durga Puja coincides with Navaratri and Dussehra celebrations observed by other traditions of Hinduism 20 21 22 The primary goddess revered during Durga Puja is Durga but celebrations also include other major deities of Hinduism such as Lakshmi the goddess of wealth and prosperity Saraswati the goddess of knowledge and music Ganesha the god of good beginnings and Kartikeya the god of war In Bengali and Odia traditions these deities are considered to be Durga s children and Durga Puja is believed to commemorate Durga s visit to her natal home with her beloved children The festival is preceded by Mahalaya which is believed to mark the start of Durga s journey to her natal home Primary celebrations begin on the sixth day Shasthi on which the goddess is welcomed with rituals The festival ends on the tenth day Vijaya Dashami when devotees embark on a procession carrying the worshipped clay sculpture idols to a river or other water body and immerse them symbolic of her return to the divine cosmos and her marital home with Shiva in Kailash Regional and community variations in celebration of the festival and rituals observed exist Durga Puja is an old tradition of Hinduism 23 though its exact origins are unclear Surviving manuscripts from the 14th century provide guidelines for Durga Puja while historical records suggest that royalty and wealthy families were sponsoring major Durga Puja festivities since at least the 16th century 24 self published source 11 The prominence of Durga Puja increased during the British Raj in the provinces of Bengal Odisha and Assam 25 4 However in modern times the importance of Durga Puja is more as a social and cultural festival than a religious one wherever it is observed Over the years Durga Puja has morphed into an inseparable part of Indian culture with a diverse group of people celebrating this festival in their unique way while on tradition 4 Contents 1 Names 2 History and origins 3 Rituals and practices 3 1 Decorations sculptures and stages 3 1 1 Environmental impact 3 2 Animal sacrifice symbolic sacrifice 3 3 Pandals and theme based pujas 4 Regional celebrations and observances 5 Significance 5 1 Economic significance 5 2 Social significance 5 3 Media attention 6 Celebrations outside India 7 Footnotes 8 References 8 1 Bibliography 9 Further reading 10 External linksNamesIn West Bengal Odisha Assam and Tripura Durga Puja is also called Akalbodhan literally untimely awakening of Durga Sharadiya pujo autumnal worship Sharodotsab festival of autumn Maha pujo grand puja Maayer pujo worship of the Mother citation needed Durga pujo 26 or merely Puja or Pujo In Bangladesh Durga Puja has historically been celebrated as Bhagabati puja citation needed Maa Durga is known as the Goddess of Power feminine which represents triumph of Goodness over evil Durga Puja is also referred to by the names of related Shakta Hindu festivals such as Navaratri celebrated on the same days elsewhere in India 4 such as in Bihar Jharkhand Gujarat Uttar Pradesh Punjab Kerala and Maharashtra B Kullu dussehra celebrated in Kullu Valley Himachal Pradesh C Mysore dussehra celebrated in Mysore Karnataka D Bommai golu celebrated in Tamil Nadu Bommala koluvu celebrated in Andhra Pradesh E and Bathukamma celebrated in Telangana History and originsFurther information Durga and Akaal bodhan Durga is an ancient deity of Hinduism according to available archeological and textual evidence However the origins of Durga Puja are unclear and undocumented Surviving manuscripts from the 14th century provide guidelines for Durga Puja while historical records suggest the royalty and wealthy families to be sponsoring major Durga Puja public festivities since at least the 16th century 11 The 11th or 12th century Jain text Yasatilaka by Somadeva mentions an annual festival dedicated to a warrior goddess celebrated by the king and his armed forces and the description mirrors attributes of Durga Puja 5 23 The Dadhimati Mata Temple of Rajasthan preserves a Durga related inscription from chapter 10 of Devi Mahatmya The temple inscription has been dated by modern methods to 608 CE 27 28 The name Durga and related terms appear in Vedic literature such as in the Rigveda hymns 4 28 5 34 8 27 8 47 8 93 and 10 127 and in sections 10 1 and 12 4 of the Atharvaveda 29 30 F A deity named Durgi appears in section 10 1 7 of the Taittiriya Aranyaka 29 While the Vedic literature uses the word Durga the description therein lacks legendary details about her or about Durga Puja that is found in later Hindu literature 32 A key text associated with Durga Puja is Devi Mahatmya which is recited during the festival Durga was likely well established by the time this Hindu text was composed which scholars variously estimate Durgato date between 400 and 600 CE 33 34 35 The Devi Mahatmya scripture describes the nature of evil forces symbolised by Mahishasura as shape shifting deceptive and adapting in nature in form and in strategy to create difficulties and thus achieve their evil ends Durga calmly understands and counters the evil in order to achieve her solemn goals 15 16 G Durga in her various forms appears as an independent deity in the Indian texts 36 Both Yudhisthira and Arjuna characters of the Mahabharata invoke hymns to Durga 37 She appears in Harivamsa in the form of Vishnu s eulogy and in Pradyumna s prayer The prominent mention of Durga in such epics may have led to her worship 38 5 39 A display of sculpture idols depicting Rama and Narada praying to DurgaThe Indian texts with mentions of Durga Puja are inconsistent A legend found in some versions of the Puranas mentions it to be a spring festival while the Devi Bhagavata Purana and two other Shakta Puranas mentions it to be an autumn festival The Ramayana manuscripts are also inconsistent Versions of Ramayana found in the north west and south of the Indian subcontinent describe Rama to be remembering Surya the Hindu sun god before his battle against Ravana but the Bengali manuscripts of Ramayana such as the 15th century manuscript by Krttivasa mention Rama to be worshipping Durga 40 As per the legend Lord Rama worshipped Durga in the autumn to have her blessings before defeating Ravana While he was preparing for the worship of the goddess the goddess Durga hid one of the 108 flowers of lotus very essential for her worship Having found only 107 of 108 lotuses at the time of the worship Lord Rama decided to offer one of his eyes in place of that lost flower When he was about to offer his eye Goddess Durga appeared and told him that she had only hidden the flower in order to testify his devotion and she was satisfied with it She blessed Lord Rama and Lord Rama continued with her worship which is better known by Akaal Bodhan in the context According to some scholars the worship of the fierce warrior goddess Durga and her darker and more violent manifestation Kali became popular in the Bengal region during and after the medieval era marked by Muslim invasions and conquests 41 The significance of Durga and other goddesses in Hindu culture is stated to have increased after Islamicate armies conquered regions of the Indian subcontinent 42 According to yet other scholars the marginalization of Bengali Hindus during the medieval era led to a reassertion of Hindu identity and an emphasis on Durga Puja as a social festival publicly celebrating the warrior goddess 43 From the medieval era up to present day Durga Puja has been celebrated as a socio cultural event while maintaining the roots of religious worship 44 Rituals and practices From top left to bottom right a Structure of a Durga sculpture idol being made at Kumortuli b Lady carrying offerings for the puja c Sandhi puja on the day of Ashtami d Immersion of the sculpture idol on Vijaya Dashami Durga Puja is a ten day event of which the last five days involve certain rituals and practices The festival begins with Mahalaya a day on which Hindus perform tarpaṇa by offering water and food to their dead ancestors The day also marks the advent of Durga from her mythological marital home in Kailash 4 6 The next significant day of the festival is the sixth day Sashthi on which devotees welcomes the goddess and festive celebrations are inaugurated On the seventh day Saptami eighth Ashtami and ninth Navami days the goddess along with Lakshmi Saraswati Ganesha and Kartikeya are revered and these days mark the main days of worship with recitation of scriptures puja legends of Durga in Devi Mahatmya social visits to elaborately decorated and illuminated pandals temporary structures meant for hosting the puja among others 45 46 47 Durga Puja as a harvest festivalOm you are rice wheat Om you are life you are the life of the gods you are our life your are our internal life you are long life you give life Om the Sun with his rays Hymn to start the Durga Puja Translator David Kinsley 18 Durga Puja is in part a post monsoon harvest festival observed on the same days in the Shaktism tradition of Hinduism as those in its other traditions 48 49 The practice of including a bundle of nine different plants called navapatrika as a symbolism of Durga is a testament practice to its agricultural importance 18 The typically selected plants include not only representative important crops but also non crops This probably signifies the Hindu belief that the goddess is not merely the power inherent in the growth of crops but the power inherent in all vegetation 18 The festival is a social and public event in the eastern and northeastern states of India where it dominates religious and socio cultural life with temporary pandals built at community squares roadside shrines and temples The festival is also observed by some Shakta Hindus as a private home based festival 50 The festival starts at twilight with prayers to Saraswati 51 She is believed to be another aspect of goddess Durga and who is the external and internal activity of all existence in everything and everywhere This is typically also the day on which the eyes of the deities on the representative clay sculpture idols are painted bringing them to a lifelike appearance 51 52 The day also marks prayers to Ganesha and visit to pandals temples 53 Day two to five mark the remembrance of the goddess and her manifestations such as Kumari goddess of fertility Mai mother Ajima grandmother Lakshmi goddess of wealth and in some regions as the Saptamatrikas seven mothers or Navadurga nine aspects of Durga 54 10 55 On the sixth day major festivities and social celebrations start 4 6 The first nine days overlap with Navaratri festivities in other traditions of Hinduism 56 22 The puja rituals involve mantras words manifesting spiritual transformation shlokas holy verses chants and arati and offerings These also include Vedic chants and recitations of the Devi Mahatmya text in Sanskrit 47 The shlokas and mantras praise the divinity of the goddess according to the shlokas Durga is omnipresent as the embodiment of power nourishment memory forbearance faith forgiveness intellect wealth emotions desires beauty satisfaction righteousness fulfillment and peace 57 H The specific practices vary by region 61 The rituals before the puja begins include the following 62 Paata Puja The process of making an idol usually begins with Paata Puja on the day of the Rath Yatra that usually takes place around July Paata is the wooden frame that forms the base for the idols 63 Bodhana Involves rites to awaken and welcome the goddess to be a guest typically done on the sixth day of the festival The amorphous sight of the goddess is consecrated into a ghata or noggin while the visible sight is consecrated into the murti or idol These rituals are known as ghatasthapana and pranapratistha respectively 64 Adhivasa Anointing ritual wherein symbolic offerings are made to Durga with each item representing a remembrance of subtle forms of her Typically completed on the sixth day as well 65 Navapatrika snan Bathing of the navapatrika with holy water done on the seventh day of the festival 66 Sandhi puja and Ashtami pushpanjali The eighth day begins with elaborate pushpanjali rituals The cusp of the ending of the eighth day and beginning of the ninth day is considered to be the moment when per scriptures Durga engaged in a fierce battle against Mahishasura and was attacked by the demons Chanda and Munda Goddess Chamunda emerged from the third eye of Durga and killed Chanda and Munda at the cusp of Ashtami and Navami the eighth and ninth days respectively This moment is marked by the sandhi puja involving the offering of 108 lotuses and lighting if 108 lamps It is a forty eight minutes long ritual commemorating the climax of battle The rituals are performed in the last 24 minutes of Ashtami and the first 24 minutes of Navami In some regions devotees sacrifice an animal such as a buffalo or goat but in many regions there isn t an actual animal sacrifice and a symbolic sacrifice substitutes it The surrogate effigy is smeared in red vermilion to symbolize the blood spilled 67 The goddess is then offered food bhog Some places also engage in devotional service 68 Left Dhaks played during the pujo right Dhunuchi naach on Navami bottom Women taking part in sindoor khela on Vijaya Dashami Durga Puja dhak beats source source A 47 seconds sample of dhak playing Problems playing this file See media help Homa and bhog The ninth day of festival is marked with the homa fire oblation rituals and bhog Some places also perform kumari puja on this day 69 Sindoor khela and immersion The tenth and last day called Vijaya dashami is marked by sindoor khela where women smear sindoor or vermillion on the sculpture idols and also smear each other with it This ritual signifies the wishing of a blissful marital life for married women Historically the ritual has been restricted to married women The tenth day is the day when Durga emerged victorious against Mahishasura and it ends with a procession where the clay sculpture idols are ceremoniously taken to a river or coast for immersion rites 70 71 Following the immersion Durga is believed to return to her mythological marital home of Kailasha to Shiva and the cosmos in general People distribute sweets and gifts visit their friends and family members on the tenth day 72 Some communities such as those near Varanasi mark the day after Vijaya dashami called Ekadashi by visiting a Durga temple 73 Dhunuchi naach and dhuno pora Dhunuchi naach involves a dance ritual performed with dhunuchi incense burner Drummers called dhakis carrying large leather strung dhaks create music to which people dance either during or not during aarati Some places especially home pujas also observe dhuno pora a ritual involving married women carrying dhunuchis burning with incense and dried coconuts on a cloth on their head and hands Decorations sculptures and stages From top left to bottom right a A craftsperson sculpting the face of the sculpture idol b Durga Puja pandal decorations in Kolkata c Interior decorations of a pandal d Street lights installed during the festivities The process of the creation of clay sculpture idols pratima or murti for the puja from the collection of clay to the ornamentation is a ceremonial process Though the festival is observed post monsoon harvest the artisans begin making the sculpture idols months before during summer The process begins with prayers to Ganesha and to the perceived divinity in materials such as bamboo frames in which the sculpture idols are cast 74 Clay statue being made Clay or alluvial soil collected from different regions form the base This choice is a tradition wherein Durga perceived as the creative energy and material is believed to be present everywhere and in everything in the universe 74 In certain traditions in Kolkata a custom is to include soil samples in the clay mixture for Durga from areas believed to be nishiddho pallis forbidden territories territories inhabited by the social outcasts such as brothels 75 76 77 The clay base is combined with straw kneaded and then molded into a cast made from hay and bamboo This is layered to a fine final shape cleaned painted and polished A layer of a fiber called jute mixed in with clay is also attached to the top to prevent the statue from cracking in the months ahead The heads of the statues are more complex and are usually made separately 74 The limbs of the statues are mostly shaped from bundles of straws 74 Then starting about August the local artisans hand paint the sculpture idols which are later dressed in clothing are decorated and bejewelled and displayed at the puja altars 74 78 A man creating a statue in Rangpur Bangladesh The procedure for and proportions of the sculpture idols are described in arts related Sanskrit texts of Hinduism such as the Vishvakarma Sashtra 79 Environmental impact A Durga sculpture idol in the river post immersion The sculpture idols for the puja are traditionally made of biodegradable materials such as straw clay soil and wood 80 In today s times brighter colored statues have increased in popularity and have diversified the use of non biodegradable cheaper or more colorful substitute synthetic raw materials Environmental activists have raised concerns about the paint used to produce the statue stating that the heavy metals in these paints pollute rivers when the statues are immersed at the end of the Durga festival 80 Brighter colors that are also biodegradable and eco friendly as well as the traditional natural colors are typically more expensive compared to the non biodegradable paints 81 The Indian state of West Bengal has banned the use of hazardous paints and various state government have started distributing lead free paints to artisans at no cost to prevent pollution 82 Animal sacrifice symbolic sacrifice Further information Shaktism and Animal sacrifice in Hinduism Sacrifice of a buffalo during Durga Puja in Assam Shakta Hindu communities mark the slaying of Mahishasura and the victory of Durga with a symbolic or actual sacrifice Most communities prefer symbolic sacrifice where a statue of the asura is made of flour or equivalent is immolated and smeared with vermilion symbolic of the blood that had spilled during the battle 67 83 Other substitutes include a vegetable or a sweet dish considered equivalent to the animal 84 In certain instances devotees consider animal sacrifice distasteful and practice alternate means of expressing devotion while respecting the views of others in their tradition 85 In communities performing actual sacrifice an animal is sacrificed mainly at temples 86 In Nepal West Bengal Odisha and Assam animal sacrifices are performed at Shakta temples to commemorate the legend of Durga slaying Mahishasura 87 This involves slaying of a fowl goat or a male water buffalo This practice is rare among Hindus outside the regions of Bengal Odisha and Assam 88 In these regions the festival season is primarily when significant animal sacrifices are observed 88 The Rajputs of Rajasthan worship their weapons and horses in the related festival of Navaratri and some historically observed the sacrifice of a goat a practice that continues in some places 89 90 The sacrifice ritual supervised he the priest requires slaying of the animal with a single stroke In the past this ritual was considered a rite of passage into manhood and readiness as a warrior 91 The Kuldevi clan deity among these Rajput communities is a warrior goddess with local legends tracing reverence for her during Rajput Muslim wars 92 better source needed Pandals and theme based pujas Two theme based pandals in Kolkata Months before the start of Durga Puja youth members of the community collect funds and donations engage priests and artisans buy votive materials and help build pandals centered around a theme which has rose to prominence in recent years Such themes have included sex work 93 celebration of humanity 94 marginalization of queer persons and transgender persons 95 folk culture 96 celebration of cinema 97 womanhood 96 pro environment themes 98 while others have chosen metaphorical themes such as celebration of maati literally soil or ash and finding one s own light 99 Pandals have also been replicated on existing temples structures and monuments 100 101 and yet others have been made of elements such as metal scraps 102 nails 103 and turmeric 104 among others Durga Puja pandals have also been centered around themes to acknowledge political events such as the 2019 Balakot airstrike and to protest against the National Register of Citizens of India 105 106 The budget required for such theme based pujas is significantly higher than traditional pujas For such theme based pujas the preparations and the building of pandals are a significant arts related economic activity often attracting major sponsors 107 Such commercialized pujas attract crowds of visitors The growth of competitiveness in theme based pandals has escalated costs and scale of Durga Puja in eastern states of India Some segments of the society criticize the billboards the economic competition and seek return to basics 108 The competition takes many forms such as the height of statue In 2015 an 88 foot statue of Durga in Kolkata s Deshapriya Park attracted numerous devotees with some estimates placing visitors at one million 109 110 Regional celebrations and observances Durga Puja at Bagbajar Kolkata example of a sarvajanin barowari puja There exists variation in worship practices and rituals associated with Durga Puja as is the case with other Hindu festivals in the Indian subcontinent 111 Hinduism accepts flexibility and leaves the set of practices to the choice of the individuals concerned Different localized rituals may be observed regionally with these variations accepted across temples pandals and within families 112 The festival is most commonly associated with Bengali Hindus and with the community having variability and differences in practices There may exist differences of practice between the puja of theme based Pandals family pujas with puja of erstwhile aristocrat families known as bonedi puja and community pujas known as barowari pujas of neighbourhoods or apartments 112 The rituals of the puja also varies from being Vedic Puranic or Tantric or a combination of these 112 The Bengali Durga Puja rituals typically combine all three The non Bengali Durga Puja rituals tend to be essentially Vedic srauta in nature but they too incorporate esoteric elements making the puja an example of a culmination of Vedic Tantric practices 113 Historical evidence suggests that the Durga Puja has evolved over time becoming more elaborate social and creative The festival had earlier been a domestic puja a form of practice that still remains popular But it had also come to be celebrated in the sarvajanin public form where communities get together pool their resources and efforts to set up pandals and illuminations and celebrate the event as a mega show to share 114 The origins of this variation are unclear with some sources suggesting a family in Kolkata reviving such celebration in 1411 CE While other set of sources suggest that a Bengali landlord named Kamsanarayan held a mega show puja in late 16th century Bengal 114 Yet this festival of Bengal is likely much older with the discovery of 11th and 12th century Durga Puja manual manuscripts such as Durgotsavaviveka Durgotsava Prayoga Vasantaviveka and Kalaviveka 115 The rituals associated with the Durga Puja migrated to other regions from Bengal such as in Varanasi a city that has historically attracted sponsorship from Hindus from various parts of the Indian subcontinent including Bengal 116 In contemporary India Durga Puja is celebrated in various styles and forms 117 Left Durga Puja festivities by dancers and musicians in Calcutta circa 1830s 40s Right Patna style painting of Durga Puja circa 1809 Durga Puja is a widely celebrated festival in the Indian states of West Bengal Bihar Jharkhand Uttar Pradesh eastern parts Assam and Odisha 118 It is celebrated over a five day period Streets are decked up with festive lights loudspeakers play festive songs as well as recitation of hymns and chants by priests and pandals are erected by communities The roads become overcrowded with revellers devotees and pandal hoppers visiting the pandals on puja days It often creates chaotic traffic conditions Shops eateries and restaurants stay open all night fairs are also set up and cultural programmes are held 119 People form organizing committees which plan and oversee the pandal during the festivities 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 award winning For private domestic pujas families dedicate an area of their homes known as thakur dalan for Durga Puja where the sculpture idols for worship is placed and decorated with home dyed fabric sola ornamentations and gold and silver foil decorations Elaborate rituals like arati are performed and prasad is distributed after being offered to the deities As a tradition married daughters visit their parents and celebrate the Durga Puja with them a symbolism alluding to Durga who is popularly believed to return to her natal home during the puja 120 Durga Puja at the Shobhabazar Rajbari in Kolkata example of a bonedi puja Durga Puja is also a gift giving and shopping season for communities celebrating it with people buying gifts for not only family members but also for close relatives and friends New clothes are the traditional gift and people wear them to go out together during Durga Puja During puja holidays people may also go to places of tourist attractions while others return home to spend Durga Puja with their family 120 It s a common trend amongst youngsters and even those who are older to go pandal hopping and enjoy the celebrations 121 The organising committees of each puja pandal hires a purohita priest who performs the puja rituals on behalf of the community 122 For the priests Durga Puja is a time of activity wherein he pursues the timely completion of Vedic Puranic Tantric ritual sequences to make various offerings and perform fire oblations in full public view while the socio cultural festivities occur in parallel 123 The complex puja rituals include periods of accurate and melodic scripture recitation The puja involves crowds of people visiting the pandals with smaller groups visiting family pujas to witness the celebrations 124 On the last day the sculpture idols are carried out in immersion processions across Bengal following which they are ritually immersed into rivers or other waterbodies The immersion ceremony continues till a couple of days after the last day of puja 125 Immersion procession for Durga Puja with the sculpture idols being carried by people on bamboo poles According to some scholars the ritual of immersing the Durga sculpture idol into the river attracted the attention of colonial era travelers to the Bengal region from Europe such as Garcin de Tassy and Emma Roberts In 1831 Tassy reported that similar rituals were annually observed by the Muslim community in Bengal Shia Muslims observed Muharram over ten days taking out processions in memory of the martyrdom of Imam Husayn ibn Ali and then cast a memorial Imam s cenotaph into a river on the tenth day Tassy further stated that the Muslim rituals included the same offerings at the annual observation of Muharram that the Hindu rituals included during Durga Puja 126 According to yet other scholars the ritual of immersion in water by Hindus for Durga Puja in Bengal and Ganesh Chaturthi in the western states of India may have grown because members of the Hindu community attempted to create a competing procession and immersion ritual to that of Muharram allowed by the colonial British Indian government in the 19th and early 20th centuries 127 Durga Puja in New Delhi 2014 In Maharashtra the city of Nashik and other places such as CIDCO Rajeevnagar Panchavati and Mahatmanagar host Durga Puja celebrations citation needed While in Delhi the first community Durga Puja was organized near Kashmiri Gate by a group of expatriate Bengalis in 1910 a year before Delhi was declared the capital of British India This group came to be the Delhi Durga Puja Samiti popularly known as the Kashmere Gate Durga Puja 128 The Durga Puja at Timarpur Delhi was started in the year 1914 129 In 2011 over 800 Durga Pujas were held in Delhi with a few hundred more in Gurgaon and NOIDA 130 Sculpture idols in Cuttack Odisha for Durga Puja bedecked with jewellery In Odisha Durga Puja is the most important festival of the people of the state Durga Puja is a very important festival for Odias during the 4 days of the festival the streets of the city turns into a wonderland throughout the state people welcome the arrival of their maa by rejoicing themselves eating tasty food wearing new clothes seeing different pandals across the city family gathering and gift givings In 2019 ninety seven pandals in Cuttack alone Odisha were reported to bedeck respective sculpture idols with silver jewelry for Durga Puja celebrations such club of pandals termed regionally as Chandi Medha The state capital is famous for the modern themes and creativity In the pandals while the Western part of the state has a more retro decoration theme to the pandal In the northern parts of the state particularly Balasore Durga Puja is celebrated with much fervor and the Odia diaspora abroad especially in Australia which originates 95 from the district of Balasore celebrates the puja in the same manner which is done back home in Balasore 131 In September 2019 160 pandals were reported to be hosting Durga Puja in Cuttack 132 133 While in Tripura there were over 2 500 community Durga Puja celebrations in 2013 Durga Puja has been started at the Durgabari temple in Agartala by King Radha Kishore Manikya Bahadur 134 135 SignificanceBeyond being an art festival and a socio religious event Durga Puja has also been a political event with regional and national political parties having sponsored Durga Puja celebrations In 2019 West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced a grant of 25 000 to all community organised Durga Pujas in the state 136 In 2019 Kolkata s Durga Puja was nominated by the Indian government for the 2020 UNESCO Representative list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity 137 138 Durga Puja also stands to be politically and economically significant The committees organising Durga Puja in Kolkata have close links to politicians 94 Politicians patronize the festival by making donations or helping raise money for funding of community pujas or by marking their presence at puja events and inaugurations 94 The grant of 25 000 to puja organizing committees in West Bengal by a debt ridden state government was reported to cost a budget a 70 crores 139 The state government also announced an additional grant of 5 000 to puja organizing committees fully managed by women alone while also announcing a twenty five percent concession on total electricity bills for puja pandal 139 The government had made a grant of 10 000 each to more than 20 000 puja organizing committees in the state in 2018 139 A 2013 report by ASSOCHAM states West Bengal s Durga Puja to be a 25 000 crores worth economy expected to grow at the compound annual growth rate of about 35 per cent 140 Economic slowdowns in India such as in 2019 have hence affected corporate sponsorships and puja budgets for public celebrations 141 In August 2019 the Income Tax Department of India had allegedly sent notices to various Durga Puja organizing committees in West Bengal against which the ruling party of the state All India Trinamool Congress AITMC protested 142 143 The Central Board of Direct Taxes denied sending any such notices 144 to which AITMC politician Madan Mitra is reported to have said that the intention may have been to enquire if tax deducted at source had been deducted on payments to vendors for organizing community pujas 94 Economic significance Durga Puja directly affects the economy In 2022 the economy of West Bengal was estimated to get a boost of 50 000 crore rupees 145 The annual GDP of West Bengal was expected to be expanded by 20 30 percent that year 146 147 The factors responsible for this economic boost are mainly the increase of earning in transport tourism industry business shopping and other fields The Kolkata Metro Railway recorded an earning of 6 crore in just five days of Durga Puja in 2022 148 149 The famous puja pandals get sponsorship from renowned companies and labels Usually the dress and jewelries of the idols the stuffs used to make the pandals decorations lightings are sponsored Social significance Durga Puja plays a great significance in the living of certain peoples The kumors those who make the idols with clay and also makes other clayey products earns lakhs of rupees by selling a single set of Durga idol of average size Hence it makes their annual income because idols used in other festivals are a lot more cheaper Other professions that receive the majority of their annual income are dhaaki plays dhaak priest and other small homecrafts It is assumed that these profession based small classes would become smaller in population if Durga Puja was absent Media attention Durga Puja has been a theme in various artistic works such as movies paintings and literature Shown here is Pratima Visarjan by Gaganendranath Tagore depicting a Durga Puja immersion procession This painting inspired the colour scheme of the Indian film Kahaani The day of Mahalaya is marked by the Bengali community with Mahishasuramardini a two hours long All India Radio program that has been popular in the Bengali community since the 1950s While in earlier days it used to be recorded live a pre recorded version has come to be broadcast in recent decades Bengalis traditionally wake up at four in the morning on Mahalaya to listen to the radio show primarily involving recitations of chants and hymns from Devi Mahatmyam or Chandi Path by Birendra Krishna Bhadra and Pankaj Kumar Mullick The show also features various devotional melodies 150 Dramas enacting the legend of Durga slaying Mahishasura are telecasted on the television Radio and television channels also air other festive shows citation needed while Bengali and Odia magazines publish special editions for the puja known as Pujabarshiki Annual Puja Edition or Sharadiya Sankhya Autumnal Volume These contain works of writers both established and upcoming and are more voluminous than the regular issues Some notable examples of such magazines in Bengali are Anandamela Shuktara Desh Sananda Nabakallol and Bartaman 151 Celebrations outside India Left Durga Puja in Germany in 2009 right Durga Puja in the Netherlands in 2017 Durga Puja is celebrated commonly by Bangladesh s Hindu community Some Bengali Muslims also take part in the festivities 152 In Dhaka the Dhakeshwari Temple puja attracts visitors and devotees 153 In Nepal the festivities are celebrated as Dashain 3 9 Beyond south Asia Durga Puja is organized by Bengali communities in the United States of America 154 Durga Puja celebrations have also been started in Hong Kong by the Bengali diaspora 155 In Canada Bengali Hindu communities both from Bangladesh and West Bengal India organise several Durga Pujas 156 Greater Toronto Area has the most number of Durga Puja celebration venues organized by different Bengali cultural groups such as Bangladesh Canada Hindu Cultural Society BCHCS Bongo Poribar Sociocultural Association etc 156 City of Toronto has a dedicated Durga Temple named Toronto Durgabari where Durga Puja is organized along with other Hindu celebrations Most of the puja venues of Toronto area try to arrange the puja in best possible way to follow the lunar calendar and timings Celebrations are also organized in Europe The sculpture idols are shipped from India and stored in warehouses to be re used over the years 157 According to BBC News for community celebrations in London in 2006 these idols belonging to a tableau measuring 18ft by 20ft were made from clay straw and vegetable dyes At the end of the puja the sculpture idols were immersed in River Thames for the first time in 2006 after the community was allowed to give a traditional send off to the deities by London s port authorities 157 In Germany the puja is celebrated in Cologne 158 and other cities In Switzerland 159 puja in Baden Aargau has been celebrated since 2003 In Sweden the puja is celebrated in cities such as Stockholm and Helsingborg 160 In the Netherlands the puja is celebrated in places such as Amstelveen Eindhoven and Voorschoten In Japan Durga Puja is celebrated in Tokyo with much fanfare 161 162 Footnotes In the Shakta tradition of Hinduism many of the stories about obstacles and battles have been considered as metaphors for the divine and demonic within each human being with liberation being the state of self understanding whereby a virtuous nature amp society emerging victorious over the vicious 17 Navratri Puja Durga puja org Kullu Dussehra Durga puja org Mysore Dussehra Durga puja org Bommai kolu Durga puja org Example Sanskrit original अहन न न द र अदहदग न र न द प र दस य न मध य द न दभ क द र ग द र ण क रत व न य त प र सहस र शर व न बर ह त ३ Rigveda 4 28 8 Wikisource It appears in Khila appendix supplementary text to Rigveda 10 127 4th Adhyaya per J Scheftelowitz 31 In the Shakta tradition of Hinduism many of the stories about obstacles and battles have been considered as metaphors for the divine and demonic within each human being with liberation being the state of self understanding whereby a virtuous nature and society emerging victorious over the vicious 17 Various versions of Devi mantra exist 58 Examples include a We know the Great Goddess We make a meditation of the goddess Durga May that Goddess guide us on the right path Durga Gayatri Mantra recited at many stages of Durga Puja 59 b Hrim O blessed goddess Durga come here stay here stay here take up residence here accept my worship Durga Avahana Mantra 60 etc References Durga Celebrated by Maithils www etvbharat com Archived from the original on 25 September 2022 Retrieved 14 October 2021 Maithils from Bihar keep tradition of Durga Puja alive www thebridgechronicle com Retrieved 29 October 2017 a b c d Lochtefeld 2002 p 208 a b c d e f Bradley 2012 p 214 a b c Kinsley 1988 pp 106 108 a b c d Encyclopedia Britannica 2015 Doniger 1999 p 306 Parmita Borah 2 October 2011 Durga Puja a Celebration of Female Supremacy EF News International Archived from the original on 25 April 2012 Retrieved 26 October 2011 a b Melton 2011 pp 239 241 a b Amazzone 2011 pp 82 83 a b c McDermott 2001 pp 172 174 Foulston amp Abbott 2009 pp 162 169 Rodrigues 2003 pp 7 8 UNESCO Durga Puja in Kolkata ich unesco org Archived from the original on 10 February 2022 Retrieved 15 December 2021 a b Danielou 1991 p 288 a b McDaniel 2004 pp 215 219 a b McDaniel 2004 pp 20 21 217 219 a b c d Kinsley 1988 pp 111 112 Donner 2016 p 25 Durga Puja Durga Ashtami 2020 Is Maa Durga Worthy to Worship S A NEWS 24 October 2020 Archived from the original on 28 October 2020 Retrieved 25 October 2020 Lochtefeld 2002 pp 212 213 a b Jones amp Ryan 2006 pp 308 309 a b Durga Puja Traditions amp Facts Encyclopedia Britannica Archived from the original on 30 October 2020 Retrieved 25 October 2020 Dutta Chaudhuri Ancestry 14 February 2021 Durga Puja Assam Online Portal Archived from the original on 17 August 2012 Durga Puja Festival Durga puja org Archived from the original on 27 October 2012 Retrieved 25 June 2013 Rocher 1986 pp 191 195 Lawrence A Babb John E Cort Michael W Meister 2008 Desert Temples Sacred Centers of Rajasthan in Historical Art historical and Social Context Brill pp 8 65 68 86 89 ISBN 978 81 316 0106 8 Archived from the original on 18 February 2017 Retrieved 17 February 2017 a b Monier Monier Williams 1899 Sanskrit English Dictionary with Etymology Oxford University Press page 487 Maurice Bloomfield 1906 A Vedic concordance Series editor Charles Lanman Harvard University Press page 486 Scheftelowitz J 1906 Indische Forschungen Verlag von M amp H Marcus pp 112 line 13a Archived from the original on 17 February 2017 Retrieved 17 February 2017 Kinsley 1988 pp 95 96 Brown 1998 p 77 note 28 Coburn 1991 pp 13 Coburn 2002 pp 1 7 McDermott 2001 p 162 McDermott 2001 pp 162 163 McDermott 2001 pp 162 164 Kinsley 1997 pp 16 22 30 35 Brown 1990 pp 280 note 50 274 notes 103 107 109 110 Bandyopadhyay 1993 p 118 Monaghan 2009 pp 151 153 McDermott 2001 p 330 notes 98 103 Bhattacharya Tithi November 2007 Tracking the Goddess Religion Community and Identity in the Durga Puja Ceremonies of Nineteenth Century Calcutta The Journal of Asian Studies 66 4 919 962 doi 10 1017 S0021911807001258 JSTOR 20203237 Kinsley 1989 pp 19 25 Kinsley 1988 pp 106 115 a b Ghosa 1871 pp 40 55 Amazzone 2012 pp 55 59 Kinsley 1988 p 111 Quote Durga Puja is celebrated from the first through the ninth days of the bright half of the lunar month of Asvin which coincides with the autumn harvest in North India and in certain respects it is clear that Durga Puja is a harvest festival in which Durga is propitiated as the power of plant fertility McLean 1998 p 137 a b Amazzone 2012 pp 57 59 63 66 Charles Russell Coulter amp Patricia Turner 2013 pp 148 158 159 256 257 301 Amazzone 2012 pp 58 60 Amazzone 2012 pp 69 70 83 84 95 97 115 117 184 McDaniel 2004 pp 209 210 Ellwood amp Alles 2007 p 126 Rodrigues 2003 pp 50 150 151 Brown 1990 pp 143 147 Rodrigues 2003 pp 153 155 63 90 177 etc Rodrigues 2003 p 113 Rodrigues 2003 pp 17 24 31 39 Rodrigues 2003 pp 71 74 Paata Puja the process of Durga Idol making also Called Durga Maay Aagmon The Statesman Archived from the 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University Press ISBN 978 0 300 21818 3 Archived from the original on 15 April 2017 Retrieved 28 September 2017 Durga Hindu mythology Encyclopedia Britannica 19 February 2015 Archived from the original on 7 May 2017 Retrieved 15 February 2017 Isaeva N V 1993 Shankara and Indian Philosophy SUNY Press ISBN 978 0791412817 archived from the original on 14 January 2020 retrieved 18 October 2020 Pintchman Tracy 2014 Seeking Mahadevi Constructing the Identities of the Hindu Great Goddess SUNY Press ISBN 978 0791490495 archived from the original on 19 August 2020 retrieved 18 October 2020Further readingBanerjee Sudeshna 2004 Durga Puja Yesterday Today and Tomorrow Rupa and Co Calcutta ISBN 81 291 0547 0 Bhattacharyya BK 6 October 2008 Earthen sculptures of Goddess Durga The Assam Tribune Archived from the original on 1 April 2012 Dutta Krishna 2003 Calcutta a cultural and literary history Archived 27 December 2016 at the Wayback Machine Signal Books Oxford United Kingdom ISBN 1 902669 59 2 Muthukumaraswamy M D Kaushal Molly 2004 Folklore public sphere and civil society National Folklore Support Centre India ISBN 978 81 901481 4 6 Archived from the original on 27 April 2016 Retrieved 15 November 2015 Chapter 6 Of Public Sphere and Sacred Space Origins of Community Durga Puja in Bengal Saraswati Swami Satyananda 2001 Durga Puja Beginner Devi Mandir ISBN 1 887472 89 4 External linksDurga Puja at Wikipedia s sister projects Media from Commons News from Wikinews Texts from Wikisource Resources from Wikiversity Durga Puja at Curlie Durga Puja The Hindu Festival Durga Puja org www durga puja org Retrieved 25 September 2022 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Durga Puja amp oldid 1144943930, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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