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T he
clear blue sky spotted with bits of fluffy clouds, streets alive
with people and vehicles of all types, enormous speakers belting
out recent Hindi filmi numbers, excited little girls showing off
their new frocks and "vanity bags", boys busy shooting each other
with their toy guns and driving everyone to distraction, the exquisitely
decorated pandals, the beautiful idols of Devi Durga, the fragrance
of Dhoop and Dhuno, the afternoon bhog in the
neighbourhood pandal, the serpentine line outside eating joints,
the long adda sessions, the rhythmic beats of the Dhak
(a kind of drum)…It is Durga Puja once again.
Devi Durga with her ten hands symbolises divine power- the ultimate
shakti. And Durga Puja is the invocation of this shakti
to ward off evil and bring prosperity and goodness to earth.
It is believed that during the puja Durga comes to Earth, her parent's
abode along her four children, Ganesh, Lakshmi, Kartik and Saraswati.
This visit lasts for only three days and on the fourth day she starts
her journey back to her husband's home in Kailash. Bengalis all
over celebrate these four days with overwhelming enthusiasm and
dynamism.
Read
the full legend
Read
about the battle between Durga and Mahisasura
The Puja Days
The hot summer days give way to the freshness of autumn, the artists
at Kumartuli get busy making the idols, the craftsmen from
different part of the state start amalgamating in Kolkata for erecting
the pandals, shops and markets are flooded with eager buyers, restaurants
are filled to the hilt with tired and hungry shoppers, the buses are
crowded with people either going for shopping or coming back afterv
a hearty shopping spree, office goers begin counting days left for
the holidays, travel agents start arranging tours for their clients…the
festive spirit sets in at least a month before the actual celebration.
 The
four days of puja are filled with unbound joy and celebration.
Dressed and decorated the city bears a festive and merry look. Puja
pandals duplicating various landmark buildings of the world mushroom
all over the city. So while on one hand you can see a White House
jostling with a Sheeshmahal or a Red Fort on the other you can find
a replica of a dilapidated temple complete with cracked walls, banyan
tree roots and even cobwebs recreated in cloth! Nights are particularly
colourful. The whole city - every nook and corner - is flooded with
lights of myriad hues. The air tinged with crisp autumnal chill is
a pot pourri of different smells - the fragrance of dhoop,
the different kinds of perfumes varying from the very desi
Kanta scent to the phoren ones, the aroma wafting from different
food stalls and to top it all the mild scent of the shiuli
flower. Whether it is 2 O'clock at the night or seven in the morning,
the scene is the same - people, people and more people.
Read
more about the days of Puja
Making
of idols
From households to neighbourhood
O ver
time the concept of puja has undergone a lot of change. Now a days,
we mostly have community pujas, organized by different localities.
This concept of public worship or 'barowari pujo' was non-existent
earlier. Most of the pujas were household pujas. They had become
a religious extravaganza - a yardstick of sorts to measure the supremacy
- among the Babus of Bengal. Often there were additional attractions
like elaborate feasts and cultural shows like "Jatra", puppet dance,
"Kobi Gaan", "Kirtan", magic shows etc. Lot of money was spent to
make the puja a grand affair. The puja organised by the Roychowdhury
family of Sutanati was for instance an extravagant affair. Almost
the entire community ate in the Roychowdhury's house during the
days of the puja. Slowly Durga Puja took a complete social turn
and began to be organised by the common people.
From a household affair it became a community celebration. Guptipara
in Hoogly was the first place in Bengal where the idea of community
puja was conceived in the year 1790. Community Durga puja reached
Kolkata much later. The first organiser of this kind of puja in
Kolkata was "Sanatan Dharmatsahini Sabha". And today we find numerous
community pujas celebrated with lot of pomp and splendour. Each
locality has its own puja community, which shoulders the entire
responsibility of organising the puja.
Puja today can be regarded as a great leveler. It has in a way
revolutionised the concept of social and religious transition by
successfully keeping up the spirit of camaraderie, togetherness
and a deep sense of identification with the roots for ages. At the
end however, it fills your mind with a strange query - how is it
that a clay idol - lifeless and yet so mystifying - possesses the
power to bind us all in one thread of unity?
Shravanti Choudhuri
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