|
Puja
The most important of festival
in West Bengal is Durga Puja, held in autumn. In the past
era, it was organised and financed by the landlords and the business barons and
was participated by all sections of people.
 Preparations start long
before the festival. The group images are built up, stage by stage out of bamboo
and straw frame work and layers of clay and finally tempera and rich clothes
and costume jewellery. The group consist of seven figures. The central figure is
that of the ten-armed Durga, the great deliverer, standing astride a lion and
piercing the chest of the ferocious half buffalo-half man demon Mahishasura with a spear,
grasped in one among her ten hands, while each of her other hand holds a traditional weapon. On
either side of her are seated the goddesses Lakshmi and Saraswati representing
wealth and learning, respectively. The former has an owl and the latter a swan
for their mounts. A little in front of them are Ganesha, God of commerce, with a
mouse for his mount and Kartikeya, God of war, seated flamboyantly on a peacock.
The four deities are supposed to be the children of Mother Durga. The images
depict her annual
visit to her parents place on earth from her heavenly abode on Mount Kailas. A
semi circular panel at the back of and above the group shows in a number of
sections, pictures in pat style portraying the Mother's household and the
various stages of her preparations for the journey.
The puja season constitutes West Bengal's longest holidays. It is a festive
season for all. It is particularly a grand time for children who are given gaily
coloured new dresses to wear and choice eatables, necessarily including
sweetmeats, to eat. The actual puja runs through five days, starting with the
ritual installation of the deity, the ceremonial worship for three days and
immersion of the image in a river or a tank on the final day. Durga puja has
come to be associated with a grand exhibition of cultural functions. In towns and
villages, the evenings are replete with jatra, theatre, song, music, dance
programmes, sports, physical and cultural competitions etc which everyone is free
to attend. Community feasts are held. The immersion ceremony
(vijaya), provides an
impressive finale. The image is carried to the water front in a procession with
music and drums and after the immersion everyone greets everyone in a fraternal embrace and visitors to every home are treated to sweetmeats. The Calcutta area,
where many thousands of pujas are organised in different mohallas, offers a grand
spectacle with a fair-like atmosphere in the streets and markets and brisk buying
and selling of articles for utility and beauty are made. Handicrafts have a hey day. Fairs
are held everywhere on the Vijaya (victory) day.
The festive season continues till Kalipuja which takes place about three
weeks after. Here, the image of Kali, the Dark Goddess who destroys evil to preserve
creation, is that of a blue back nude female with four hands, holding a curved
scimitar in one hand and the severed head of a demon in each of two hands, the
fourth hand being raised in a gesture of reassurance. She has a garland of
severed heads dangling from the neck to the groin. She has stepped on the
supine body of her consort Siva, the realisation of which fact makes her halt in
her indiscriminate orgy of destruction and makes her bite her projecting tongue
in abashment. She is the Goddess of primeval power, a tantric concept at
variance with that of Durga whom Bengalis worship as the Benevolent Mother.
Animal sacrifices are usually made to the Goddess except in the pujas organised by
public subscription.
Diwali , the festival of light is celebrated on the night preceding
Kali-Puja. Every Hindu home is illuminated with numbers of lamps and a grand
display of fire works is held. The night is filled with the hiss of rockets and
the boom of crackers. Unlike the tradition in upper India, Diwali in Bengal does
not mark the inauguration of the commercial new year. The commercial new year is reserved for
the first day of the Bengali year corresponding to the 15th day of April. The festivities
on Diwali night has rich cultural content. Gambling is socially permitted. Religious discourses,
recitals from arced books embellished with songs and expositions are held in
temples. Diwali formally ushers in the season of winter.
|
