Durga Puja ("Durga worship") or Durgastav ("Durga festival") is a feast in honor of the goddess Durga, who is considered one of the incarnations of the wife of the god-destroyer Shiva Parvati. Militant Durga, who sits on a lion with arms in his numerous hands, is revered as the murderer of the formidable demon buffalo Maheshi, who threatened the very foundations of the universe. It is celebrated in the middle of autumn, when the long-awaited cool season comes to India.
Durga Puja begins in the month of Aswalyja at the end of another popular Indian festival - Navratri . Although the Durga Puja festival is celebrated throughout India, in the states of Assam, Jharkhand, Orissa, Tripura and West Bengal, it is held at the state festival level. The unofficial center of state celebrations these days is Kolkata (Calcutta), where Durga-Puja acquires a truly epic scope. For the time of the festival, the streets of the first capital of British India are transformed into one giant temple in honor of Durga. Each district of Kolkata establishes a temporary altar "pandal", decorated with naturalistic figures of the warrior goddess surrounded by celestials from the vast Vedic pantheon. For the manufacture of giant idols meets the legendary quarter of artisans Kumar Tuli, which is among the most popular tourist attractions in the capital of West Bengal. Shortly before the start of Durga-Puja, a Chokku Daan ritual takes place in Kumar Tuli, during which the goddess symbolically fills with her essence freshly made images from straw and papier-mache.
The largest portable temple of Durga has traditionally been erected in Bagbagar district. Around the "pandals" for a few days, a colorful festive activity unfolds, in which the features of a merry national holiday and a solemn temple mystery are mixed. In addition to divine services, the puja in honor of Durga during the feast is held lavish ceremonies of worshiping other manifestations of the Great Goddess - the goddess of happiness and wealth of Lakshmi, the patroness of the arts of Saraswati and the "black goddess" Kali, who is considered the official patroness of Kolkata. On the tenth day of Durga-puja (Dashami or Vijaya-dashami), the statues of the goddess are solemnly taken out of the "pandals" and descend into the flowing waters, which symbolizes the return of Parvati to the home of his wife Shiva. 
Post a Comment