Tradition · autumn goddess festival
Durga Puja
/d̪uɾɡapud͡ʒa/
Also known as Durgā Pūjā, Durga Pujo, Pujo, Sharadiya Puja, Sharodotsab, Akalbodhan, Maayer Pujo, Bhagabati Puja, Durga Puja in Kolkata
Durga Puja is the ten-day festival in the month of Ashvin (September–October) honouring the goddess Durga's victory over the demon Mahishasura, one of the biggest festivals of Bengali, Assamese, Odia and Maithil Hindus. Clay images of Durga with Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesha and Kartikeya are worshipped in homes and temporary pandals from Mahalaya to Vijayadashami, then immersed in a river. Manuals survive from at least the fourteenth century, and elite and community pujas spread under early modern and colonial patronage.
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Worth knowing
Bengali Ramayanas such as Krittivasa's fifteenth-century version have Rama worship Durga in autumn before fighting Ravana, the 'untimely awakening' (akalbodhan) that gives the festival one of its names. In some Kolkata traditions soil from 'forbidden' quarters such as brothel districts is mixed into the image's clay.
Connections (3)
- Associated withKolkata
Durga Puja is Kolkata's biggest festival, and 'Durga Puja in Kolkata' was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity on 15 December 2021, from a dossier prepared by the historian Tapati Guha-Thakurta. The city's pujas grew from household celebrations, such as the Sabarna Roy Choudhury family's at Barisha from 1610 and Nabakrishna Dev's at Shobhabazar Rajbari from 1757, to community pujas, the first organised at Bhowanipore in 1910; Kolkata had about 3,000 in 2022.
- Related traditionBathukamma
Durga Puja's Wikipedia article names Telangana's Bathukamma among the related goddess festivals held on the same autumn days, and the Bathukamma article says its nine days correspond to Sharad Navratri and Durga Puja. Both begin at Mahalaya, at the turn from the fortnight of the ancestors to the fortnight of the goddess, and both end at the water: Bengal immerses its clay images of Durga in a river, while Telangana immerses its flower stacks, the bathukammas, in water bodies to drum beats.
- Related traditionKullu Dussehra
Durga Puja's Wikipedia article lists Kullu Dussehra among the related festivals celebrated across India in the same autumn season. The two meet at Vijayadashami: Bengal's festival ends that day with the immersion of Durga's clay images, while Kullu's Dussehra, celebrated on the Dhalpur maidan, begins on Vijayadashami itself and runs for seven days in honour of Raghunath, the deity Raja Jagat Singh installed on his throne in the seventeenth century as a mark of penance.
Sources
Wikipedia, "Durga Puja" and "Durga Puja in Kolkata" (citing the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, 2021).
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