Festivals of India -- Durga Puja

Festival of India – Durga Puja
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This is the first time in 15 years that I will be travelling back to India during the festive season and I am looking forward to it. This is the season when the monsoon rains withdraw, leaving a freshness in the autumn air and white Kash flowers sway under deep blue skies. Different parts of the country celebrate festivals during this season. These may be different in custom, but are similar in spirit. I was invited for dinner yesterday by a friend from the southern state of Kerala. They were celebrating their festival of Onam. Bombay in the state of Maharashtra, has just finished celebrating Ganpathy, the Ganesh festival. I’ll be visiting our ancestral home in Calcutta, Bengal, in a few days and preparations are already on to celebrate one of the biggest Hindu festivals of India, the Durga puja. This is a spectacular festival, the scale of which is probably unparalleled elsewhere. And, it is as yet relatively untouched by commercial lucre.

The Kumors, or the community of professional clay modellers, have been busy for the past three months creating with skillful fingers, beautiful clay images of the goddess Durga. These clay images can range in height from ten to thirty feet. Durga represents the female force of the universe and is the wife and consort of Shiva.


From a clay model to a Goddess.

Durga puja celebrates the triumph of good over evil. In ancient mythology, the gods, who were unable to defeat the demon Asura, gave their powers and weapons to Durga. Thus, the idol of Durga has ten hands which hold ten types of weapons. With these she fights and destroys Asura.





I have grown up with the image of Durga riding a lion, vanquishing the evil demon Asura with the Trishul (trident) and Asura changing form from an animal to man in the wild throes of death. As a kid, I use to go from locality to locality, from pandal to pandal, like everyone else trying to determine which image was more beautiful than the other, comparing the artistic styles of the traditional clay modellers of Bengal who had created, painted and clothed these clay models with zari and shola. And Durga is not alone in the place of worship. In the final moment of her triumph over Asura, she is surrounded by her children, each one a representation of a facet of life. Beside to her on her left, is the goddess Lakshmi travelling on a swan and who represents wealth and wellbeing for families. Then, there is the god Kartik travelling on a peacock. He is the engineer and technician of the universe. On Durga’s right, you will find Saraswati, the goddess of learning.




As a kid, I sat on my grandfathers lap in front of the goddess Saraswati and learned to write the alphabets for the first time with slate and chalk. Before school exams, you will find school kids keeping some of their text books next to the goddess with the hope that they receive and retain correct knowledge and do well in the exams. Next to Saraswati is Ganesh, the son of Shiva and Durga who is half man and half animal, and elephant. He is the god of prosperity and businessmen worship this aspect of the supreme through him. It also tells us of the close relationship Indians have always had with the world of other species. Human beings have always been inseparable from animals and birds and fish and nature in all its glory.



I used to think that this representation of Durga killing the demon was unique to my home state of Bengal, India, and perhaps wherever Bengalis have migrated. Then, some years ago, I travelled to Greece and went to see the Parthenon. Behind this ancient structure, is the Parthenon museum. Walk two rooms inside this museum and you will see a Greek version of Durga. I was stunned. There she stood, the Greek goddess Athena, killing the demon and surrounded by all her children. They were all wearing the attire of the ancient Greeks, but the pose, the idol and image of Athena and her children were exactly similar to our goddess back in Bengal, India. I have not come across academic work which explains this link, but I am sure that Alexander did not bring Athena to the shores of the Bay of Bengal, though there may be some connections with the Isyrians whose Goddesses rode on lions.

It all starts on the day of Mahalaya, when the Goddess comes down from the mythical mountains. As a kid in Bengal we used to wake up, like most young kids before the advent of television, to listen to the special Mahalaya program beamed out at 4.30 am over the radio. Professional narrators would narrate the story of Durga and the triumph of good over evil. There was drama, poetry, music and wonderful story telling, which we used to listen to over the radio, spellbound. The same program is beamed even today on Mahalaya day by All India Radio – Kolkata, but I don’t know if kids still wake up at 4.30 in the morning before sunrise to listen to the story-telling on radio. But, I can assure you that the tradition still carries on, now adapted to television and multimedia. In the ideal world, good still scores over evil.

Like many others, I don’t treat Durga puja as purely a religious festival. Yes, it has its base in the Hindu pantheon (which is unlike the western Greek pantheon), but this worship normally does not take place in temples or formal places of worship. Multicolored shamianas come up in public parks and the designs are a feast for the eyes. Each ‘para’ or locality tries to compete with others to make an impact and there are many prizes for the most artistic of decorations, or, the most well managed pujas. Colored lights are put up on all the parks and streets and these too rise to great artistic heights. Dynamic light effects could depict stories of battles, of animals walking and running, games being played or, even rockets taking off.




For adults and kids this is a feast for the eyes. All expenses are borne by the residents of the local area, a gift everyone is willing to give for a few days of fun and community bomhomie. To top it all, there are four days of state holidays and all schools and offices are closed. Bengalis are great travellers and many head towards the mountains, sea beaches or places of historical interest, a special destination being the valley of Kashmir in the Himalayas. Hundreds of trains, known as ‘puja specials’ head out of the train stations of Howrah and Sealdah, packed with a vast mass of holidaying humanity.





On Mahashashti, or the sixth great day of puja, parents buy new clothes for their children and everybody takes to the streets in their new gear looking ‘cool’. It is a tradition that people walk from one puja to another, do their namashkar (head bowed and the palm of their hands pressed together in a sign of reverence) and move on to the next. This carries on from the sixth through to the tenth day of puja, and the intervening days are known as mahashasthi, saptami, ashtami, mahanavami and mahadashami. Mahadashami is also known as Dashera in the rest of India and is celebrated in most parts of India except in the Tamil south.

All the the parks have fairs going on with temporary stalls selling anything from handicrafts, books, clothes, leather products and food. Yes, lots and lots of mouth-watering food. The variety is enormous and I believe this is still going through an evolutionery phaze. There are new creations on offer every year which are culinary delights. My mouth waters at the thought of it, and best of all, this is very affordable food. You can keep on having it without a dent in your pocket; and it’s safe. The normal Indian street food like phuchkas (known in the north as golgappas and in Bombay as Panipuris), jhallmuri, kebab rolls and various preparations of noodles and egg, are on show and devoured without guilt under the watchful eyes of Asura the demon, dying under Durga’s trishul, perhaps with a tinge of regret at not being able to taste all the wonderful food on offer before passing into oblivion.


Lights at the entrance to a pandal.

But that is not all. The evenings are livened up with plays, music concerts and even literary events. You can’t miss the Dhakis or traditional drummers who arrive from the rural areas and dance to fantastic drum beats, the kind you will never hear on recorded music and CDs, though I wonder why. These drummers dancing with huge drums strapped to their backs, present a truly audio-visual spectacle.


Lights next to the food stalls.

There is another kind of dance that is performed only during Durga puja and this is known as the Dhunuchi. I have seen this performed only in the pandals of Old North Calcutta. Perhaps the trendy South Calcuttan chickens out and is too afraid to try this one out. A dhunuchi is an earthen pot with a funnel base and an open top. Burning coal and charcoal is put inside and then powdered incense, known as dhuno, is poured over it. A sweet smelling thick white smoke spreads and engulfs your senses. Then with the Dhakis going on a frenzy with their drum beats, the Dhunuchi dancers balance the earthen pots, with the base delicately placed on their foreheads. Then they gyrate their bodies to the drum beats keeping the dhunuchis on their foreheads, burning coal and all. This dance is not very well publicised and is normally danced very late at night. They are normally spontaneous and may start off after a few drinks have been downed. I believe this dance form should be filmed and documented before it becomes extinct, like many traditional dance forms are becoming these days.




Ceilings of the pandals - temporary alter and place of community gathering.

Then, after the Sandhyapuja or the final worship of the evening of the tenth day, it is all over. Children touch the feet of their elders and get kissed in return by the ladies. Girls blush. Men hug each other in a fashion known as the kolakuli. In kolakuli, males stand facing each other and do namashkar (Hindi- namaste) to each other with folded palms. Then they hold each other by the arms, hug and move their heads and faces first on to the left shouder and then over the right shoulder of the person standing in front. This is done four times and ends once again, with a namashkar.

Finally, to the sounds of blowing conch shells and cymbals, and the sprinkling of Shantijal, the holy water of peace, the beautiful Durga clay idols in all their finery, are taken for ‘bisharjan’ or immersion in the river Ganges. Groups of young men and women, shouting ‘Durga mata ki jai’ and dancing to small drums, accompany the image gyrating on open trucks. The streets are filled with people trying to catch a glimpse of Durga images as truck after truck moves through the streets in procession on their way to the banks of the river.


On the way to the river, before raising the images on floats on wheels.

Then, one after another, these beautiful clay images, made so lovingly by the Kumors of Calcutta, are immersed in the river. Priests chant as the clay images float away, and art created by human hands turn once again into the clay of the river Ganges.


The images submerge and float away.



There is a deep sense of pathos, with people saying goodbye to the Mother Durga and her family. Another year will go by before she returns to bring light, joy and hope into the lives of her toiling children, and reinforce the belief, that whatever the odds, ultimately and finally, good will indeed triumph over evil.


Durga Art - Watercolor