Ma Durga: Home Coming

 A lot of you have been asking me whether the traditions of Durga Puja are the same as those of Navratri and have shown your interest to know about it. Trying to put up a series of blogs on the same, I came across a lot of information which I will address below, for my fellow Bengalees.

Barir Pujo. Image Courtesy: K. Ghosh

Is Durga Puja like Navratri?

To start with, Durga Puja and Navratri are not one and the same. In Navratri, people worship the Navdurga (Nine aspects of Durga) while Durga Puja focuses on the Mahishashur Mardini or Slayer of Mahish Asura for four days. Durga Puja starts on Saptami and ends on Vijaya Dashami. Traditionally it lasts for four days and not nine like the Navratris. The Durga Puja in October is also known as Okal Bodhon or “Worship during Unusual time” This is because usually, Mahishashur Mardini is worshipped during spring when she is originally believed to have killed Mahishashur. However, with time, it evolved in Bengali culture and legends as Maa Durga’s returned “home” to her paternal house with her children.

An interesting aspect of Durga Thakur's iconography is that unlike in the mainstream Hindu Puranas or stories, Durga’s children in Bengal are Ganesh the eldest, Lakshmi the second, Saraswati the third and Kartika the youngest. While Ganesh in Bengali culture is the elder brother, Kartik is the handsome younger brother who remains unmarried. Lakshmi and Saraswati the goddesses of prosperity and knowledge are indeed regarded in Bengal as the daughters of Parvati and Shiva. They come to their “Mamar Bari” (maternal uncle’s house) to get the pampering and attention from all of us. However, historians like Rakhal Das Bandyopadhyay, J.N. Banerjee, S K Saraswati and Enamul Haque could not locate any ancient sculpture of Durga with all her four children. We find this ‘Durga with full family’ theme, however, in the powerful folk literature of medieval Bengal — called the Chandi Mangal Kavyas. Some scholars argue that the Mahishashur Mardini was too fiery a lady to fit into the patriarchal mindset of how women should be so with time such roles as those of a wife and mother have been attributed to her while her original identity remains only that of being the slayer of Mahishashur.

Painted by Swarup Roy

In Bengal, Durga Puja is not only a religious tradition, it is a festival. It is called “Bangalir Shreshto Utsab” or the greatest festival of Bengalis. The word Bengali here doesn’t depict a caste creed or religion. Everyone in Bengal and surrounding areas (which once was the Bengal Province) takes part in the festivities as long as they identify themselves as Bengalis. Unlike in Navratri where the focus is on praying to the Goddess, Bengal’s culture of Durga Puja has always been about entertainment, fun, frolic, good food, cultural aspects like music and art as well as wearing new clothes and decking up homes. The goddess isn’t separately worshipped in individual homes but in Pandals and family pujas. Everyone from all religious faith and caste willingly takes part in the festivities. In fact, there are many such Durga Pujas across Bengal that are organised by people of other faith especially since the times the Mughals and Nawabs ruled Bengal.

A History of Durga Pujo:

As early as the times of the Pala and Sena Dynasties, the influence of Shaktism in the form of the warrior goddess Durga, destroyer goddess Kali, the Goddess of Prosperity Lakshmi and the goddess of learning, Saraswati has been immense in regions of Gaur Bengal. Rishi Kattayan in the Puranas first worshipped Mahishashura Mardini and thus she came to be known as Debi Kattayani.

Folklores, as well as Bengali and Tamil versions of Ramayana, suggest that it was Lord Ram, the Prince of Ayodhya who first started the Okal Bodhon when he was suggested to seek the blessing of the goddess before he went to fight the king of Lanka, Ravana in the final battle. The story goes that he was told to offer 108 blue lotuses to the goddess and he could only find 107 as it was very rare to find. Unable to complete his worship, he decided to surrender his own eyeball to the goddess’ feet. Pleased with his devotion, the goddess granted him the boon that he would win the war against Ravana. Thus, started Okal Bodhon.

However, the form of Jamindar Barir Durga Pujo started around the late 1500s when the Jagirdari systems led to landlords such as those at Bengal’s old capital near Malda (and those called the Baro Bhuiyas though there were 19 of them) starting the tradition of worshipping the goddess at their respective homes. Some even believe that Raja Kangshanarayan of Taherpur or Bhabananda Mazumdar of Nadia organized the first Sharadiya or Autumn Durga Puja in Bengal in 1606 after Pratapaditya of Jessore surrendered his estate to Mughal Emperor Jahangir. The first Durga puja in Kolkata was most likely organised by the Sabarna Roy Chowdhury family on the southern fringes of Calcutta, in 1610. A few other landlords organised the puja in the districts of Hooghly, Bardhaman and Nadia during the 17th century. The origin of the community puja as we see it today can be credited to the twelve friends of Guptipara in Hoogly, West Bengal, who collaborated and collected contributions from local residents to conduct the first community puja called the 'Barowari' puja, in 1790. The word "Barowari" according to Wikipedia comes from the Sanskrit word "bar", which means public, and the Persian word "wari", meaning For. In popular belief, however, it simply means “Twelve friends” or "Baro Yaari" and can be depicted by that reference to its origin.

Nabakrishna Deb started the Durga Puja in Shobhabazar Rajbari in 1757 after his apparent support to the British in the Battle of Plassey. He set a pattern for the puja, which became a fashion and status symbol among the merchant class of Kolkata. The number of Englishmen attending the family Durga Puja of many such eminent Bengalis they traded with. (This is the same Nabakrishna Deb who opposed Ram Mohan Roy's Sati Pratha abolition, Widow Remarriage reforms, and women's education) Other notable aristocratic Babus like Babu Raj Chandra of Janbazar (and later his widowed wife Rani Rashmoni) also conducted Durga Puja with much pomp. Not only Bengal but adjoining states of Orissa, Tripura, Assam, Jharkhand and parts of Bihar also celebrate the festival, as do the Bengalis in Bangladesh (Previously East Bengal). Swami Vivekananda, whose idea of Vedanta didn't dictate idol worship, in contrast to his guru Sri Ram Krishna Paramhansa who was a great devotee of Kali, also conducted Durga Pujo in his own ritualistically unique ways at Belur Math.

The Barowari puja was brought to Kolkata in 1832 by Raja Harinath of Cossimbazar, who performed the Durga Puja at his ancestral Rajbari in Murshidabad from 1824 to 1831, notes Somendra Chandra Nandy in 'Durga Puja: A Rational Approach' published in The Statesman Festival, 1991. The first time Durga Puja travelled outside its usual culture in and around Bengal was in 1911 when a group of Bengalis had settled in Delhi and the festival was held near Delhi’s Kashmere Gate.

The twentieth century witnessed the emergence of the community Durga Puja which was also at times organized publicly. The first Committee Durga Puja was organized in South Kolkata by Bhowanipore Sanatan Dharmot Sahini Sabha in 1909 at Balaram Bose Ghat Road, Bhowanipore. On this occasion, Sri Aurobindo published the famous Durga Stotra in his Bengali journal, Dharma, issue one "Kartika" dated 1316 Bongabdo. Other Durga Puja that followed in the North were the College Street Tamer Lane Sarbojanin Durga Utsav of 1915, Shyampukur Adi Sarbojanin of 1911, Sikdar Bagan (in the Shyambazar neighbourhood) of 1913, Nebubagan, which in 1919 became Bagbazar Sarbojanin, Simla Byam Samiti of 1926 and Amherst Street Lohapatty Sarbojanin of 1943, which later became Maniktala Chaltabagan Lohapatty Durga Puja.

South Kolkata too saw a flux in such Durga Pujas during this time: Adi Ballygunge Sarbojonin Durgotsab in 1926, Park Circus Sarbojonin in 1926, Adi Dokkhin Kolikata Barowari Samiti in 1927, Badamtola Ashar Sangha in 1939, Bhowanipore Sarbojonin in 1931, Deshopiryo Park in 1938, Mudiali club in 1939, Shibmandir in 1936. A lot of Pujas came up, especially in the 1940s like Singhi Park in 1941, Falguni Sangha in 1942, Ekdalia Evergreen in 1942, Hindustan Pally, Harish Park, Bhowanipore Muktadal in 1942, Swadin Sangho in 1949 when the fight for freedom from the British was at its peak in and around Calcutta. The goddess of strength, depicting the win of the good, riding the lion (which is the official British emblem) became symbolic of the movement in many places.

Currently, in Kolkata, a lot of famous Durga Pujas are being conducted since that time. For the people who have seen the pain of partition, losing their homes and traditions and even sacrificing their lives for the motherland at the centre of British power it can be safe to assume that the festivities were in fact a welcome relief for the community. Over two thousand such pujas are conducted in Kolkata only.

The Idol at Bhowanipore Sanatan Dharmi Sahini Sabha 2021

Other Traditions and Misunderstandings:

In some places of India, like among the Korku tribe in Madhya Pradesh or the Santhal Tribes of Jharkhand and West Bengal, Mahishashur is depicted as a tribal person. He is worshipped and Durga Puja is not celebrated. It is their culture to worship Mahisashur as their protector instead of Durga. This led to many popular sites and newspapers trying to depict Maa Durga’s win over Mahishashura as a casteist festival. It is definitely not so. Anyone outside Bengal fails to understand that the festive aspect of the Durga Puja is more than the religious aspect of it. In fact, this depiction came into being much later during colonial rule when they put forward the popular but incorrect theory of Aryans invading the sub-continent and driving the native Dravidians further south. Just like Bengalis treat Ma Durga's iconography as one of their own similarly these tribes do the same. The reason many traditions worship Mahishashur instead of Durga is mostly based on their cultural and local beliefs that these Asuras are in fact good (Like Bali on whose arrival Onam is celebrated). 

It is also wrongfully assumed in many posts on the internet that Devas and Asuras are representatives of Gods and Demons (Both of which are absolute concepts of Abrahamic scriptures) and hence purely good and evil. Hinduism in its essence doesn't dictate anyone as absolute good or evil. While we see Devas like Indra or Chandra’s flaws and wrongdoings, we also see good Ashuras like Bali who are worshipped even today. Devas and Asuras are hence two groups of culturally different people who throughout the Puranas are at loggerheads with each other. While the tribes from Madhya Pradesh or Jharkhand now believe that Mahishasur was one of theirs, the city of Mysore still bears his name Mahishur as a large statue of him welcomes us at the Chamunda hills surrounding the city. They also believe it was his capital. This is something I always find fascinating in Hindu Mythology present-day places hold stories of Puranic Characters as one of their own. Durga Puja in its symbolism, however, depicts our hope that the good always wins and ego, greed and selfishness always lose. 

Mahishasura statue at Mysore Chamunda Hills