DURGA PUJA FESTIVAL
Durga Puja festival is celebrated with great pomp and show in whole of the Bengal, from where it has spread to all parts of India. Durga puja is performed from the first night of Ashwin (September – October). This festival is sacred to the mother goddess, Durga. Also called Shakti (primordial energy): the power of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. She is known in the form of the Saptamatrikas (seven divine mothers), and as Navadurga, the nine aspects of Durga.
She takes the form of their consorts, without whom, none of the Gods can achieve anything. She is worshipped all over India with the same ardour under different names and manifestations – the most benign face of the goddess is Durga.
The Saktas, true to the Durga cult, worship her nine manifestations, not stooping to any male gods. The Trinity, nay, the Lord of Lords Indra too, have invoked her aid and profited by it. Lesser mortals would surely place their faith in her might. Bengal, the stronghold of the Sakta cult is where Durga Puja, their main festival, is celebrated with great pomp and religious fervour.
The genesis of Ambika (Durga’s original name) is traced by the scriptures to the time when the need for her arose. Indra and the demigods had been driven away from heaven by the powerful demon, Mahishasura. Not even Vishnu and Shiva could help them regain the heavenly kingdom. Evil came to rule and the gods could not bear it. They sat in council and their divine force coalesced into the figure of Ambika, a goddess possessing all their attributes, power, and weapons, as also those of their consorts. So that the rule of Good could be re – established, the formidable Ambika battled with the domestic forces and destroyed the archdemon Mahishasura, thereby earning the name Mahishamardhni (destroyer of Mahishasura), the form in which image of her are worshipped during Durga Puja. In keeping with her new found function, the protective deity reincarnated herself time and again, at the call of the gods or her devotees, to wipe out the force of Evil. Navaratri is celebrated with the recounting of kathas (stories) in the words of the sage Medha which present a thrilling blow – by – blow account of her combats with the demons.
As Mahakal, she had earlier destroyed the demons Madhu and Kaitaba. Chanda and Munda met their end at her hands, so she came to be called Chamunda. Black in anger, as Kali, she sucked the life blood of Raktabija, for each drop of his blood that fell cloned a monster as terrible as himself. As the goddess of blood and carnage, she became Raktadanti (the one with the bllodied teeth) biting an otherwise invulnerable demon to death.
A fertility goddess, she reincarnated herself as Shakambari, to end a hundred – year famine, sprouting vegetables from her body to feed the famished, and bringing rain to the land. Other wise incarnations were as Navda, Bheema and Bhramri. However, she earned her popular name, Durga for killing the demon, Durg.
No deity of passive benevolence, Durga’s trident is ever ready to wipe out evil from the face earth heavens, when invoked to do so. Rama, unable to clinch a victory over Ravana, had fasted and worshipped for seven days and nights at Navaratri in order to secure her add. And his prayer had been answered.
Preparatory to Durga Puja, splendid unbaked clay images of Durga are made by the Kumars (potters). They are no mere potters, but artists in their own right, the art from being of a high standard. The tradition, over two hundred years old, is oral and hereditary, the finer points beingained by apprenticeship. Iconographics conventions are followed, for the models are often supervised by the patron’s priest. Shack studios bustle with activity, turning out a startling number and variety of spectacular images, all showing Durga in the act of killing Mahishasura. Some images may be twenty feet tall!
With the aid of a modelling stick, skilled fingers furnish anatomical details, beauty lines, and graceful curves, down to a delicately dimpled nevel. Extreme care is taken of body proportions, though much of the torso would be covered up by resplendent finery and ornaments. And how realistic the ten arms of the mythological Durga look! Around her are smaller images of Ganesha, Kartikeya, Laxmi and Saraswati, believed to be her children.
The splendid from Durga is installed in homes or at a prominent place in the open where it is worshipped over the festive nights. Religious music of the drum, conch, and the bell is part of the ritual. On the ninth day, worship of the many forms of the Goddess with many names ever, the numberless images are taken out by the devotees for being consigned to the river, pond, or sea. As many as a thousand giant images, with a larger number of smaller ones, are ceremonially yielded to the water, marking a close to the long, elaborate, and expensive ritual.
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