(Disclaimer: This essay is not original. It has been compiled from internet research and various books. A list of sources consulted is provided at the end.)
The true chronological history of Durga Puja has yet to be constructed. Clear and detailed sequential information suitable for such a task remains unavailable. To date, no one has been able to comprehensively document the origins and attendant circumstances of this festival by consulting reliable sources and archives. Consequently, when and how Durga Puja began remains uncertain. However, the Puranas, the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, various religious epics, and historical texts offer some understanding of the matter. The intimate connection between agriculture and the autumnal Durga Puja is evidenced in Raghunandan Bhattacharya’s treatise “Durgotsava Tattva.” In this worship, people would adorn themselves with vines and leaves, smear themselves with clay, and participate in the festival. Durga Puja belongs to a tradition of forest and agrarian culture. Evidence of Durga Puja’s connection to agriculture is found in Raghunandan’s utterance, “Dhata Bhavishya.” A passage from the essay “Durgotsava,” written by historian and archaeologist Ramaprasad Chandra, merits quotation: “…Therefore, if Durga is fundamentally a goddess who brings forth crops, then Mahishasura may be understood as embodying wild beasts and drought. Thus, the principal purpose of worshipping Mahishasura-slayer is to offer gratitude and joy to Shakambhari in spring and autumn for the production and protection of crops.” (According to the Markandeya Purana, Shakambhari is one of the names of the primordial goddess. When a hundred-year drought occurred, the goddess sustained all living beings with vegetables born from her own body, whence this name.)
Swami Vivekananda was an Advaitin. Despite opposing Durga Puja as prescribed by scripture, he arranged for the worship to be observed at Belur Math in 1901. Many believed this was a compromise between scriptural injunction and folk custom. Yet it is equally true that his understanding of Advaita ultimately flowered into humanism. He regarded the highest humanity as tantamount to knowledge of God. Poet Rabindranath Tagore believed in the mantra “Ekameva Advitiyam Brahma”—Brahman alone is one without a second. Later, this faith came to be centered on poor and laboring people. Yet he neither opposed Durga Puja nor directly involved himself in its popular observance. A notable figure of Calcutta in that era was Raja Ram Mohan Roy. As an opponent of idol worship, he would not visit the Durga shrine. Once his friend Prince Dwarkanath Tagore invited him to see the goddess, but Ram Mohan declined. Vidyasagar showed no curiosity about Durga Puja. During the festival, he would go to poor villagers. In 1926, Atin Bandhu Bose invited all, regardless of caste, creed, or class, to participate in the worship celebration. Durga Puja played a vital role in India’s independence struggle, and the goddess awoke as a symbol of freedom. Such works as Kazi Nazrul Islam’s poem “Anandamayi’r Aagamane” and Bankim Chandra’s “Vande Mataram” (later India’s national anthem) stirred the people of India to struggle for liberation. Under British rule, this worship gradually spread throughout Bengal. In the first half of the twentieth century, it gained popularity as a traditional community or baroari puja. And after independence, Durga Puja attained the status of one of the world’s foremost festivals.
There is disagreement about when, where, and how Durga Puja first began. In India’s Dravidian civilization, the mother goddess was worshipped among the matriarchal Dravidian people. In Aryan civilization, prominence was given to gods; in non-Aryan civilization, prominence was given to goddesses. Goddesses were worshipped as symbols of primordial power. Considering the structure of matriarchal families, their sense of responsibility, and the synthesis of fertility power, non-Aryan society developed the concept of a mother-centered goddess culture. In India, certainly, the concept of goddess culture in maternal form is quite ancient. History tells us that the worship of the goddess began among Paleolithic peoples in India nearly twenty-two thousand years ago.
# ON THE INDUS CIVILIZATION AND THE WORSHIP OF DURGA
The civilization of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro—that is, the Indus civilization—arrives at a form more acceptable, more modern, and more expansive. In the matriarchal family, the mother is the principal force; under her leadership the household is managed, under her command enemies are vanquished. And so, with the mother placed foremost, the worship of the Goddess takes root, and with it emerges the Shakta community, its doctrines and its path. The Goddess is the embodiment of Shakti; she is Brahman supreme. In Shakta philosophy, Kali is the original cause of creation. The other gods and goddesses are but her various manifestations for the welfare of mankind. According to the Mahabharata, Durga is understood as another form of Kali-Shakti. How Kali, despite her many contradictions and distinctiveness—indeed, her very particularity—merged with the form of Durga and became one with her: this mystery remains unknown to this day. Some scholars surmise that in the Indus civilization (the Harappa and Mohenjo-daro civilization), there prevailed the worship of the Mother Goddess, the three-headed deity, and the animal-lord Shiva. Durga, being the half-body consort of Shiva, may have been worshipped either in that capacity or as the Mother Goddess herself.
In Valmiki’s original Ramayana, there is no trace of Durga worship; yet in Krittibasi’s Ramayana, it exists. In his colophon, Krittibasi declares that he undertook to translate the Ramayana at the command of the Gaudesvara. It is believed that the translator was commissioned by King Ganesh, that great poet of medieval Bengali literature, to render Valmiki’s Ramayana into an accessible Bengali verse. Ganesh ruled Bengal from 1415 to 1418. Yet even as Krittibasi wrote, the winds of power shifted. In 1418, Jalaluddin Mahmud Shah came to power. Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah was the son of King Ganesh. His childhood name was Yadu, and when he converted to Islam, he was given the new name Jalaluddin Muhammad. To please the new Muslim ruler, Krittibasi transformed Valmiki, the author of the Ramayana, into the brigand Ratnakar—a tale that primarily derives from Nizamuddin Auliya (1238–1325). (One need only compare the story with ‘The Ballad of Nizam the Robber,’ collected by Ashutosh Chaudhuri, to see this clearly.) By rendering the essence of the Sanskrit Ramayana in verse accessible to all, with an eye to Bengali sensibility, emotion, and taste, Krittibasi’s translated verse-Ramayana achieved widespread popularity. The principal characteristic of Krittibasi’s Ramayana is that it is not a literal translation of the original. Krittibasi incorporated many stories lying outside the Ramayana itself. Moreover, by weaving in the social customs and folk practices of Bengal, he fashioned a Bengali rendering of the Sanskrit epic. In Rabindranath Tagore’s words, in this poem “ancient Bengali society has expressed itself.” Or to put it differently: he so thoroughly Bengalified the Sanskrit Ramayana that reading it, one feels the events of the epic were the primordial history of that very society.
Krittibasi composed the Ramayana in trimatrika and payar metres, forms perfectly suited to the ballad and to sung recitation. This Krittibasi Ramayana differs vastly from Valmiki’s. Yet it took permanent root in the Bengali heart. Bengalis preferred Krittibasi’s free rendering and his remaking of the narrative to suit his own vision—the tender-eyed Ramachandra—far more than Valmiki’s “grammatically correct” Ram. Because of the popularity of Krittibasi’s untimely awakening, the worship of Durga became widespread in Bengal. In this text, following events from the Kalika Purana, he mentions that at Brahma’s counsel, Ram performed the worship of Durga. According to ancient scripture, Durga worship is ordained in spring. Yet before marching to war against Ravana, in the Treta age, Ramachandra performed the worship of Durga in the month of Ashwin, when the sun was in its southward course. All the gods were asleep. Therefore, through the untimely awakening, Ramachandra roused the gods and offered them worship. From that time onward, the custom of awakening on the day of Shashthi has continued. First comes the commencement of the ritual, the process beginning in the morning itself. These rites ensure that all scriptural ceremonies proceed without hindrance. A pot and a copper vessel filled with water are placed in one corner of the pavilion, and the worship of Durga and Chandi is performed.
# The Awakening of the Goddess
After this comes the *Bodhan*—the awakening of the Goddess. Then follows the *Adhivas* and the *Aamantra*, the invocation. Following the Bodhan, the Goddess is summoned into the *Bilva* branch. The ritual proceeds thus: to ward off malevolent forces, a red thread is wound around the pot on all four sides with arrows, after which comes the invocation ceremony. In this way, the rites of *Mahasashti* are completed. Formally, the worship offerings begin from the sixth day itself. The worship commences with Ganesha, the bestower of accomplishment, and thereafter comes the worship of the Goddess Durga.
*Akalbodhan*—the untimely awakening—is the inaugural ceremony of the autumn Durga Puja. According to the Hindu calendar, this observance takes place on the ninth day of the dark fortnight or the sixth day of the bright fortnight of the month of Ashwin, just before the commencement of the Goddess Durga’s worship. In Hindu belief, autumn falls within the night of the gods’ realm, governed by the southward course of the sun. Therefore, should one wish to worship the divine during this season, one must first awaken the deity from slumber. The *Krittibasiya Ramayana* mentions that before slaying Ravana, Rama sought the blessings of the Goddess Durga and performed her worship beneath the *Bilva* tree, having first awakened her. Because autumn is not the “proper time” for divine worship according to Hindu belief, Rama’s awakening of the Goddess Durga came to be known as *Akalbodhan*—the untimely awakening. It should be noted that while spring is considered the auspicious season for Durga Puja according to scripture, in modern times the autumn Durga Puja has become far more prevalent. The original author of the Ramayana, the sage Valmiki, made no mention of Rama’s worship of Durga. The narrative compiled by Krittibas Ojha does not appear in Valmiki’s authentic account of Rama’s life, nor in other renderings of the epic such as Tulsidas’s Hindi *Ramcharitmanas*, Kamb’s Tamil *Ramayana*, Kumudendra’s Kannada *Ramayana*, the Assamese *Katha Ramayana*, Jagmohan’s Odia *Ramayana*, the Marathi *Bhavarthha Ramayana*, the Urdu *Puthi Ramayana*, and others. Neither does it appear in the *Yoga Vasistha Ramayana*. Yet according to the popular information disseminated by Krittibas Ojha, the *Smriti Shastras*—the codes of conduct—have prescribed the worship of Durga in autumn. According to Haringarayan Bhattacharya, “Akalbodhan is nothing more than a modern adaptation of the Vedic sacrifice performed in autumn.”
On this very day, and indeed at many other times, the great Master Sri Ramakrishna would sing:
*Lest your boat sink in the ocean of becoming,*
*Maya’s storms and delusion’s tempests grow ever fierce, O Shankari.*
*Your helmsman-mind is unskilled, six oafish rogues upon his bench,*
*Foul winds drive us forth—we drown and perish, tossed about.*
*The keel of devotion is shattered, the sail of faith is torn,*
*The boat itself lies broken—what remedy have I?*
*I see no way, alas, counting myself for naught,*
*With strokes through the waves, I grasp the raft of Sri Durga’s name.*
The verse was composed by Deewan Ragunath Ray. Its meaning: in times of crisis, one must cross the river of existence upon the raft of Durga’s name.
In the eleventh chapter of the *Shrishri Chandee*, the great sages have hymned the Goddess. They have beheld her in this form of power, her graceful and celestial beauty:
*She who dwells upon the lion, crowned with the moon’s crescent,*
*Radiant as the emerald, four-armed and serene,*
*Bearing conch and wheel, bow and arrow in her hands,*
*Adorned with three eyes, bedecked in gleaming ornament.*
*Armlets clasp her wrists and bangles sound their gentle music,*
*Moon-bright necklace and tinkling anklets grace her form,*
*Jeweled ear-rings lustrous with precious stones—*
*May Durga, who dispels all suffering, bless us.*
It is in every invocation that the great Maya, Durga, is remembered:
*You are the inexhaustible Vaishnava power,*
*The primal seed of illusion supreme—*
*By you this entire universe is bound in delusion,*
*Yet when you are gracious, liberation and perfection dawn upon earth.*
The meaning: O Mother, rider of lions, your power, your strength is infinite and boundless. You are the sustaining force of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva—the guardian of the universe. You are the Great Maya, the primordial cause of causes within this cosmos. You have bound the entire universe in the spell of delusion, yet when you are pleased, those who take refuge attain liberation and spiritual perfection.
This is the primordial mantra of awakening.
The word *Bodhan*, etymologically, derives from the root *budh*—meaning to awaken, to rouse from sleep. It signifies the establishment of the transcendent, supreme power in a state of wakefulness through the faculty of consciousness—elevating the divine consciousness into full, conscious presence. The Sanskrit words *Akal* and *Bodhan* have been adopted into Bengali as tatsama words. *Akal* means “unseasonable, inauspicious, or an improper time for auspicious deeds.” The word *Bodhan*, on the other hand, means “revelation, the breaking of slumber, or awakening.” Thus, the compound *Akalbodhan* signifies “awakening at an unseasonable time, (in Hindu observance) the worship of Goddess Durga at an improper season.”
On this matter, the pandit Jnanendramohan Das has written:
“During the time when Durga Puja is celebrated (from Shravan to Paush), the sun’s course runs southward. These six months constitute the southward journey. The other six months (from Magh to Ashadh) constitute the northward journey. The northward journey is the day of the gods, and the southward journey is their night. Because the Goddess [Durga] sleeps during this nocturnal period, she must be awakened and then worshipped. Generally, the awakening begins on the sixth day of the lunar month. However, if the sixth day is not present on the day before the worship, but exists on the day before that, then the awakening takes place on that prior day.”
On the other hand, the proper and prescribed time for Durga Puja according to ritual is the month of Chaitra, which worship is known as the Spring Worship. The Brahmaivairata Purana contains the account of how King Suratha, together with his companion Samadhi the merchant, performed, in the age of truth, the worship of the Goddess Durgatinashine (Durga) in her earthen form, according to scriptural injunction, on the eighth and ninth lunar days of the bright fortnight of Chaitra. Spring falls within the northward journey. Since the gods remain awake during the northward journey, there is no need for awakening in the Spring Worship. Discussions of the Goddess’s awakening are found in the Matsya Purana, Markandeya Purana, the Sri Sri Chandi, the Devi Purana, the Kalika Purana, and the Devi Bhagavata.
In the subsequent age—that is, in the age of Treta—Ravana too performed the worship of the Goddess Durga during Chaitra. But according to the narrative of the Krittibasi Ramayana, for the inevitable war between Ram and Ravana to rescue Sita from Lanka, Ramchandra had to take refuge in the Goddess in order to slay Ravana. Through austere penance, Ravana had pleased Mahdev, the lord of lords, and obtained a boon. Ravana was a devoted worshipper and priest of the various forms of the Goddess Durga. On the battlefield, Mahakali herself seats Ravana in her own lap. How then could it be possible to slay such a Ravana? Ram fell into deep worry. Indra, the king of gods, also fell into distress. Meanwhile, it had been divined that the malevolent, arrogant, and vainglorious Ravana would meet his end at Ram’s hand. Therefore, the gods took refuge with Prajapati Brahma. Then the great Maya, the one-lettered, primordial Goddess Mother Durga, lay sleeping in samadhi. At Brahma’s hymn and praise, the Goddess Mahamaya awoke. When she appeared in the form of Ugrachandi, Brahma said: “I have awakened you at an improper time to grant grace to Ramchandra in slaying Ravana. Until Ravana is slain, I shall worship you. Just as we have today awakened and worshipped you, so shall the dwellers of the mortal world, age after age, worship you in this manner. As long as creation endures, you too shall receive worship thus.”
Hearing this, Chandika said: “On the seventh day, I shall enter Ram’s bow and arrow. On the eighth day, there shall be a great war between Ram and Ravana. At the junction of the eighth and ninth days, Ravana’s ten heads shall be severed. Those ten heads shall be joined together again. But on the ninth day, Ravana shall be slain. On the tenth day, Ramchandra shall celebrate his victory.”
Brahma and Indra informed Ram of the Goddess’s instruction. Although it was the season of autumn, Ramchandra fashioned with his own hands an idol of the Goddess Durga and worshipped her, supplicating the Goddess Durga to manifest herself at an unseasonable and inappropriate time. Brahma himself performs the awakening worship of Durga. At the beginning of the worship, Prajapati Brahma himself, lotus-born, beheld a girl of eight to ten years playing by herself beneath a bael tree at the edge of a deep forest not far from the sandy shores of the sea. In meditation, Brahma came to know that this girl was Gauri herself—the divine maiden. The moment Brahma opened his eyes, the girl dissolved into the bael tree. Thereupon, Brahma resolved that the awakening worship of the Goddess Durga would be performed beneath that very bael tree. Thus, even today, before the awakening of the Goddess, the bael branch or bael tree must be worshipped and established in the great earthen vessel bearing the clay image of the Goddess. Then begins the invocation of the ‘awakening’—the conch sounds, the drums resound. The awakening is the initial invocation of Mother Goddess Durga in the grand worship, flowing down through tradition from the distant ages of antiquity. The spring season became linked with the age of Treta through the autumn season; the awakening of the Goddess took place at an unseasonable time, and thus it is called the unseasonable awakening.
In our land, there are two forms of Goddess worship—the Spring Worship and the Durga Puja. The Spring Worship is performed for one, two, or three days; whereas the Durga Puja follows a ritual lasting from one day to a full fortnight. Generally, the Spring Worship is a three-day observance.
On the sixth day in the evening, an invitation must be made and the deity must be installed at the root of the bilva tree; on the following seventh day, the bilva branch thus invoked is cut and worshipped according to proper ritual. There is a difference between the spring worship and the autumn worship. The spring worship is called *kalochit* puja, the autumn worship is called *akaal* puja — this much is the principal distinction. What does *akaal* mean? From the solar year’s Capricorn transit to six months forward, that is from Magh to Ashadh, the sun moves northward; from Cancer transit to six months onward, that is from Shravan to Paush, the sun moves southward. According to scriptural ordinance, in one half-year the deities remain awake, in the other half they sleep. When they are awake it is ‘time’ (*kaal*), when they sleep it is ‘untimely’ (*akaal*). The deities are awake during the northern course and asleep during the southern course; therefore — the spring worship during the northern course is worship in auspicious time, while the autumn worship during the southern course is worship in inauspicious time. And because it is worship in inauspicious time, this puja carries such reverence. During the inauspicious season the deities sleep, so the goddess must be awakened — hence the necessity of the *bodhan* ritual. Unlike the spring worship, the autumn worship cannot be completed merely by invitation and installation; in this worship, one must perform the *bodhan*. And this *bodhan* is the special rite of this worship.
Regarding the epoch of the spring worship, the *Brahmaivairvarta Purana* (Prakriti Khanda, Chapter 62) records that Krishna first worshipped the goddess Durga in Goloka during the rasa circle in the month of Madhu — the month of Chaitra. (First was she worshipped by Krishna, the supreme soul.) After this, fearing two demons named Madhu and Kaitabha, Brahma performed a second Durga worship. While fighting an asura named Tripura, Shiva found himself in peril and arranged a third Durga worship. When Indra, having lost Lakshmi due to the curse of the sage Durvasa, conducted a worship — that was the fourth Durga puja. From that time onward, throughout the world, sages, accomplished souls, deities, and mortals have performed Durga worship in various lands and at various times. According to the *Devi Bhagavata Purana*, one of the principal sacred texts of Shakta religion, Manu, the mind-born son of Brahma, becoming ruler of the earth, fashioned an earthen image of Durga on the shore of the Ocean of Milk and worshipped her. The sage Mandavya, to gain liberation from worldly illusion’s bondage; King Suratha, to reclaim his lost kingdom; Samadhi the merchant, to attain renunciation; and Parashurama, Vishnu’s incarnation, to slay Kartavirjuna — all these worshipped the goddess Durga.
In the scriptures, there is no ordinance for Rama’s worship during the Durga puja. Hence perhaps the theme of *akaal bodhan* first entered Bengal through this anomaly. Yet the story of *akaal bodhan* has been heard by Bengalis since childhood. The story was fashioned by Krittibas Ojha. This Bengali translator of the Ramayana from the fifteenth century recounted the story of Rama’s worship of Durga with considerable flourish. Let us know the story in full:
One by one, the great warriors of Lanka fell in battle. Ravana alone now defended the city of Lanka like a pot of clay. He too was exhausted, devastated. Once even, after receiving a terrible beating at Hanuman’s hands, he lost consciousness. Understanding the dire situation, Ravana sang the praises of the goddess Ambika:
*With eyes of mercy, behold thy suppliant.*
*I bear a heavy burden in battle with Rama.*
*No other refuge have I in this world.*
*Shankara has abandoned me; to thee, O Mother, I call.*
Notably, the *akaal bodhan* is connected with the autumn equinox. In the Vedic age, once upon a time the year began in autumn. And at the commencement of the new year was performed the *Rudra Yajna*. In the *Taittiriya Brahmana*, autumn itself is called Ambika.
The distressed prayer of Ravana touched the heart of the Himalayan goddess. She took the form of Kali, lifted Ravana into her lap, and granted him protection. When this news reached Rama’s ears, he realized his grave error. Meanwhile, the gods’ sleep was being disturbed! Indra went to Brahma and beseeched him, begging that something be done. The aged grandfather Brahma came and counselled Rama: “Perform the worship of Durga. There is no other way.” Rama said, “But how can it be? The proper season for Durga worship is spring. Autumn is inauspicious. Moreover, there is ordinance that awakening the goddess in inauspicious time must occur on the dark ninth day of the lunar month. King Suratha began his worship on the first lunar day. But that age is no longer.
# How to Worship?
Brahma spoke: “I am Brahma, and I command you: awaken the Goddess on the sixth lunar day.” Hearing this, Ram was filled with joy.
He performed the recitation of the Chandī and held a festival.
With songs and dances, the monkeys offered their salutations.
In love and ecstasy they danced and sang of the Goddess’s virtues.
As the rites of Chandī’s worship progressed, the sun descended toward the horizon.
In the evening, Ram performed the awakening,
Invoking the presence of the Almighty into the sacred vessel.
The Chandī speaks of how King Suratha fashioned an earthen image of Durga and worshipped it: “They formed for the Goddess a murti of clay upon that riverbank, and made offerings of flowers, incense, fire, and libations.” Ram too worshipped with an image of clay fashioned by his own hands: “Ram himself molded the murti of earth, that he might conquer in battle the two Ravanas and triumph.” On the evening of the sixth day, beneath the banyan tree, the Goddess was awakened. During the consecration rite, Ram himself bound the nine sacred shoots with his own hands.
In the evening, Ram performed the awakening,
Invoking presence into the bilva and other sacred vessels.
With proper ceremony he performed the rites of consecration,
Binding the sacred shoots, adorning the tree with tender leaves.
On the seventh day, after his ablutions, Ram performed the worship according to Vedic law. The same on the eighth day. At the conjunction of the eighth and ninth lunar days, he performed the twilight rites. On both nights, the Chandī was recited and hymns were sung with dancing.
Krittibas has given us a detailed account of Ram’s worship on the ninth day. The ritual was arranged with many forest flowers and forest fruits. The worship was performed according to tantra and mantra. Yet the Goddess did not reveal herself. Then Vibhishana counseled: “Worship her with blue lotuses. The Goddess will surely show herself.” But blue lotuses are rare. Even the gods do not seek them out. Upon all the earth, they are found only in the lake called Devī-dah. Yet that lies ten years’ journey from Lanka. Hearing this, Hanuman appeared in an instant at Devī-dah. He brought back one hundred and eight blue lotuses. But Durga, in her cunning, hid one lotus away. Had she not given her word to Ravana? But Ram is not one to be denied. To compensate for the missing blue lotus, he resolved to pluck out one of his own eyes as an offering.
As Ram tore out his eye and sat before her,
Katyayani then grasped his hand.
“What are you doing, what are you doing, O Lord, O Master of the worlds?
Your resolve is complete—I need not your eye.”
Compelled now, Durga granted Ram the boon of slaying Ravana. Before departing, she spoke:
“By this untimely awakening and worship, you have honored the Ten-Armed One
With proper rite and sacred order.
To make it known to the world, to make me blessed,
You have revealed my worship upon the earth.”
After this, Ram completed the worship of the tenth day and immersed the image of Durga. Finally came the slaying of Ravana.
This history of Ram’s worship of Durga does not appear in Valmiki’s Ramayana, but in the Devī Bhāgavata Purāna and the Kālikā Purāna. These two puranas, composed in the middle centuries between the ninth and twelfth, are the great glories of Bengali Smarta tradition. That Durga worship was widely practiced in Bengal even before Krittibas is evidenced by Bhavadeva Bhatta’s prescriptions for Durga worship with earthen images (eleventh century), Jimutavahana’s Durgottsava-nirṇaya (circa 1050-1150), Vidyapati’s Durga Bhakti-Trangini (1374-1460), and Shulapani’s Durgottsava-viveka (1375-1460). From the works of the fourteenth-century Mithila poet Vidyapati’s Durga Bhakti-Trangini and the Bengali Smarta scholar Shulapani’s Durgottsava-viveka, the founder of neo-Smarta tradition, we learn of Durga worship. A further significant proof of the antiquity of Durga worship is Raghunandan’s (fifteenth-sixteenth centuries) Durgapuja-tattva and Tithi-tattva. In these two works by this Smarta scholar of Nabadwip are found all the regulations of Durga worship. He collected proofs from the Puranas and Smriti-shastras and wrote down the method of worship. Moreover, Vacaspati Mishra’s (1425-1480) Kriyachintamani contains an extensive account of Durga worship, from which we may infer that in Krittibas’s age—the fifteenth century—and even before it, in the fourteenth century, Durga worship was already a principal festival of the Bengali people. It was for this reason that Krittibas had Ram perform Durga worship in the manner of traditional Bengal and it became popular, even though the account of Durga’s festival in the Krittibasi Ramayana does not exactly correspond with the Puranic account. One of the puranas according to which Durga worship is celebrated in Bengal today is the Kālikā Purāna. In this purana we find an account of Ram’s worship of Durga. The prose rendering of verses 26 through 33 of the sixty chapters of the Kālikā Purāna as translated in Bengal:
Earlier, showing favor to Ram and to help him in the slaying of Ravana, Brahma awakened this great Goddess at night (during the sun’s southward journey, that is, during the sleep of the gods). Thus awakened, the Goddess went to Lanka, Ravana’s abode. There she made Ram and Ravana fight for seven days. On the ninth day, Jagamayi, the great Maya, caused Ram to slay Ravana.
The Goddess, having delighted for seven days in witnessing the war between Ram and Ravana, received worship from the gods throughout those seven days. When Ravana fell, on the ninth day Brahma himself, accompanied by all the celestials, performed special worship of the Goddess. Then on the tenth day, adorned with vines and leaves, smeared with earth, the festival of rejoicing was celebrated. Finally, the Goddess was bid farewell.
In the Brihaddharma Purana, we find a detailed account of Brahma’s Durga worship performed for Ram’s sake. According to this Purana, after Kumbhakarna’s slumber was broken, the gods grew fearful of some calamity befalling Ramchandra. Brahma then declared that there was no recourse save the worship of Durga. Thus, to ensure Ramchandra’s welfare, Brahma himself agreed to serve as the sacrificer. It was then the autumn season. The sun’s southern path. The gods’ time of sleep. And so Brahma, through hymns of praise, awakened the Goddess. The Goddess appeared in maiden form and instructed Brahma to perform her awakening at the root of the bel tree. The gods descended to the mortal realm and beheld, in a desolate place, upon a branch of a bel tree among verdant leaves, a supremely beautiful child sleeping. Brahma understood—this child was Durga, the Mother of the World. He awakened her with hymns of invocation. Roused by Brahma’s praise, the Goddess shed her maiden form and took on the aspect of Chandika. Brahma spoke: “I have awakened you before your time to grant favour to Ramchandra in the slaying of Ravana. As long as Ravana lives, I shall worship you. Just as we have performed your awakening and worship today, so shall the dwellers of earth worship you through the ages. For as long as creation endures, you shall receive such worship.” Hearing this, Chandika replied: “On the seventh day, I shall enter into Ram’s bow and arrow. On the eighth day, a great war shall rage between Ram and Ravana. At the juncture of the eighth and ninth days, Ravana’s ten heads shall be severed. These heads shall join together again. On the ninth day, Ravana shall be slain. On the tenth day, Ramchandra shall celebrate his victory.” And so it came to pass. The great calamity was averted on the eighth day; thus the eighth day became the Great Eighth. Ram, having slain Ravana, recovered Sita, the incomparable treasure; thus the ninth day became the Great Ninth.
In the Krittibasi Ramayana, it was Ram who performed Durga worship. Yet the Puranas tell us it was the gods who arranged the worship for Ram’s welfare. The priest was Brahma himself. In Krittibasi’s account of the Durga worship, many customs of Bengal’s folk tradition are scattered throughout. That account is not entirely consonant with scriptural ordinance, and yet people, taking Krittibasi as authority, believe that Ram inaugurated the autumn Durga worship. But this honour rightfully belongs to Brahma—in the millions of Durga worship ceremonies throughout Bengal, his name is still invoked in the awakening mantra:
Om Aing Ravanasya Badharthaya Ramasyanugrahaya Cha,
Akale Brahmana Bodho Devyastasya Krithah Puraa.
Aham Aashvine Shashtiyam Sayahne Bodhayami Vai.
Which means: O Goddess, Brahma performed your untimely awakening to grant favour to Ram in the slaying of Ravana; I too, in the same manner, awaken you on the sixth day of the month of Ashwin, at dusk.
The most detailed account of Durga worship is found in the Markandeya Purana, composed as a dialogue between the great sage Jaimini and the great sage Markandeya. The text contains one hundred and thirty-four chapters. Chapters fifty through ninety-seven contain descriptions of the fourteen manvantaras, or ages of Manu. Within these, thirteen chapters (chapters seventy-eight through ninety) are collectively known as the Devi Mahatmyam. These thirteen chapters contain a total of seven hundred verses. This section recounts the victory of the Goddess Durga over the demon Mahishasura. The Devi Mahatmyam is also known as the Durga Saptashati, or simply the Saptashati, and as the Chandi or Chandi Path—which has become the primary and inseparable element of Durga worship, holding permanent place in the worship ceremony. The Aryan sages of Sanatana Dharma worshipped and sought the blessings of the Goddess Durga as the symbol of the Almighty God.
There is a tale in circulation regarding the itinerant Buddhist scholar Hiuen Tsang and the Durga worship (or alternatively, the worship of Kali, Chandi, or the Forest Goddess). Confused by the expositions on Buddhism written in Chinese, he came to India in the year 630 to gather original manuscripts. He acquired learning in various monasteries throughout the land. From 635 to 643, for eight long years, he remained at the court of King Harsha. In his writings, he notes that during Harsha’s reign, the menace of bandits and brigands was severe, and he himself suffered violence at their hands on more than one occasion.
# The Wanderer and the Goddess
During his sojourn abroad, this wandering monk was once traveling toward a Buddhist monastery along the Ganges—known in ancient times as Gangaridhhi. On the way, he fell into the hands of brigands. They were taking him to be sacrificed before the Goddess Durga. There is scholarly dispute about which deity figures in his tale—whether it was Durga, Kali, the Forest Goddess, or the composite Chandi formed from Mahakali, Mahalakshmi, and Mahasaraswati. Most believe the goddess was the Forest Deity or Kali, for in ancient times the offering of human heads belonged properly to these deities, a practice that has since evolved into animal sacrifice, whereas history offers no account of human sacrifice to appease Durga. Be that as it may, the preparations for the sacrifice were nearly complete when a violent storm swept in with tremendous force. The entire arrangement was thrown into disarray. The brigands fled to save their lives. In that moment of chaos, Hsüan-tsang also escaped.
The courtyard of the Dhakeshwari Temple contains two distinct architectural styles. The oldest is the pentagonal temple of the Goddess Durga, which has lost its original form through repairs. The ancient structure of the temple follows the pattern of Buddhist architecture. A Buddhist temple stood here in the tenth century; how it later became a Hindu temple during the Sena period is not recorded in history. From the eleventh or twelfth century onward, both Kali worship and Durga worship took place here. Various tales surround the history of the Dhakeshwari Temple. It is believed that King Ballal Sena of the Sena dynasty established it in the twelfth century. However, many historians argue that its architectural style shows no correspondence with the construction methods of that period. The structure and layout of this temple have undergone numerous modifications at different times. According to historian Dr. Ahmad Hasan Dani, a Kali temple was built in Ramna approximately five hundred and fifty years ago, and here too Durga worship took place alongside the worship of Kali.
Medieval Bengali literature contains references to Durga worship. Around the eleventh century, the Mithila poet Vidyapati, in composing his *Abhinirnaya*, offers considerable praise and invocation of the Goddess Durga in his *Durgabhakti-tarangini*. Yet it is doubtful whether people began performing Durga worship simply by reading Vidyapati’s hymns. Before Durga worship became an elaborate public ceremony, certain upper-caste Hindu families may have observed it in simple, domestic fashion within their homes. When exactly this worship began to be celebrated with fanfare remains unclear—there is no reliable historical evidence on this point. What we do know, to the extent that we know anything at all, is this: Around the year 1480, a zamindar of Tahirpur in Rajshahi named Kongsha Narayana Ray humbly addressed an assembly of scholars, saying, “I wish to undertake a great sacrifice. Please prescribe for me, in accordance with the scriptures, a great ritual and the means to perform it.” The Bhattacharyas of Basudevpur had long served as hereditary family priests to the landed rulers of Tahirpur. The celebrated tantric scholar Ramesh Shastri of this lineage was at that time the greatest pundit of Bengal, Bihar, and Odisha. Ramesh Shastri was present at the king’s assembly. In response to the king’s question, he said: “The scriptures prescribe four great sacrifices: the Vishvajit, the Rajasuya, the Ashvamedha, and the Gomedha. But the first two sacrifices are the prerogative of a sovereign emperor ruling the entire realm. Since you are a zamindar subordinate to an emperor, you have no right to these two sacrifices. The latter two—the Ashvamedha and Gomedha—are forbidden in the age of Kali, and both are the duty of the Kshatriya, not the Brahmin.”
The king, troubled, asked, “Then is there no great sacrifice in the age of Kali by which I might undertake a vow?” Ramesh Shastri replied, “There is. In Kali, there is but one great sacrifice: the Durga Festival. This sacrifice may be performed by all castes in all ages. Through this one sacrifice alone, the fruits of all sacrifices are obtained. In the Satya Age, King Surath undertook this sacrifice and achieved his desires. In the Treta Age, Lord Ramachandra performed this great sacrifice prematurely for the purpose of slaying Ravana. From that time onward, this sacrifice has remained enshrined within the scriptures and the Puranas.
If you have the courage, you may undertake the Durga festival sacrifice in royal splendor.” And that is what Raja Kongshan Nayan did. He commenced the Durga festival sacrifice with regal grandeur. In those days, Kongshan Nayan organized the Durga Puja by spending eight hundred thousand rupees. Following the prescriptions of the tantric Ramesh Shastri, a scripturally sanctioned modern method of Durga festival worship was established. Thus, it was in Bengal that the first autumnal Durga Puja, conducted with family participation, was introduced. It should be noted that in Kongshan Nayan’s lineage, it was his grandfather Udayan Nayan who first expressed the desire to celebrate Durga Puja. At that time, Raghunandan Bhattacharya was one of the foremost symbols of Bengali Hindu society.
According to some accounts, the zamindars of Dinajpur performed the first Durga Puja in the late 1500s. In 1510, Raja Bishwasing of the Kooch dynasty organized the Durga Puja in Cooch Behar. Many believe that Bhabananda Majumdar of Nadia was the initiator of Durga Puja in 1606. In 1610, the Sabarna Roy Choudhury family of Barishal in Calcutta initiated the worship of Durga together with her children as a family observance. In 1711, Rameshwar Nayalankar, an envoy from the kingdom of Tripura, received an invitation to the autumnal festival of Rangpur, the capital of the Ahom kingdom (now in the Nageswari subdivision of Kurigram district in modern-day Rangpur). After Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah’s attack destroyed the only church in Calcutta, there was no possibility of celebrating any festival there. To celebrate victory in the Battle of Plassey in 1757, Raja Nav Krishna Dev of the royal house in Shobhabazar, Calcutta, organized a victory celebration through the Durga Puja in honor of Lord Clive. Beyond this, the histories of Durga Puja celebrated by Raja Krishna Chandra of Nadia and the feudal Raja Gopinath Mott Gajsingh of Chilkiganj during the eighteenth century are also known. Many old Bengali gentlemen regarded Durga as a daughter and Shiva as the son-in-law. On Dasami, the day of immersion, they imagined sending the goddess Durga to her son-in-law Shiva through the ritual of idol submersion. On Bijoya, they would attempt to convey advance news to the son-in-law by releasing the nilkantha bird. This custom still prevails in the house of Nav Krishna in Shobhabazar, Calcutta, and in the Malik house of Chorabagan. It is known that Kangaricharan the hunter from Dangsai village in Howrah district supplied the nilkantha birds to these two houses. According to the gentlemen’s convention, the nilkantha bird was a sacred messenger.
The initial phase of modern Durga Puja began in the eighteenth century. With the application of various musical instruments, the custom of worship flourished among the personal, especially the landowning, prosperous merchant, and royal court official classes. It is said in popular account that Durga Puja was performed around 1767 in the Navratna temple of Mathbariya in Kolara, Satkhira, in Bangladesh. A watercolor painting documenting the Durga Puja of 1809 in Patna has been found. In Rameshwarpur in Odisha, Durga Puja has been celebrated for four hundred years in the same place, continuing from the time of Emperor Akbar. This custom of worship originated from the zamindars’ houses. Currently, Durga Puja is observed in two ways: individually—at the family level—and collectively—at the institutional or neighborhood level. At the family level, Durga Puja is primarily organized by affluent households. The Durga Puja celebrated in the old wealthy families of Calcutta is known as “the puja of established families.” In family observances of Durga Puja, greater emphasis is placed on the observance of scriptural rituals. The celebration brings relatives together at home. Every year, puja is organized under the initiative of various religious, state, and social institutions. On the other hand, at the regional level, the communal celebration of Durga Puja organized jointly by the residents of a particular area is known as the “baroari puja” or public puja. The public puja began during India’s anti-British movement. It was primarily through the idea of the goddess Durga that the nationalist conception of the motherland, or Mother India, or the sacred earth took the form of revolution. From the very thought of the goddess Durga, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee composed the song “Bande Mataram,” which became an essential mantra of India’s struggle for independence. Revolutionary and nationalist leaders like Subhas Chandra Bose participated in various public pujas. Now the public pujas show a tendency toward “themed” and specific thematic pandals, idols, and illuminations.
Special awards are also given by various organizations for the excellence of the themes.
In 1790, in Guptipara, a village in the Hooghly district of West Bengal, twelve friends pooled their resources and organized the first large-scale public celebration of Durga Puja—a festival that became widely known as Baroiyar or Barbandhu Puja. That twelve-friend observance is what has become today’s Barowari Puja. Raja Harinath of Kashimbazar introduced this Baroiyar Puja to Calcutta in 1832. Later, following their example, it gradually gained popularity among the upper-caste Hindu Bengali zamindars. Thus began the tradition of Barowari Puja. In 1910, the Sanatana Dharma Utsahini Sabha organized the first Barowari Durga Puja in Calcutta with great ceremony—at Balram Basughata Lane in Bhawanipur and, in the same district, others at Ramdhun Mitra Lane and Sikandar Garden. Barowari Durga Puja was conducted with the contributions of a select few. But a public Durga Puja comes to be sustained by the donations of the common people. When collecting funds, the organizers approach both the rich and the poor. Often they would be excessive in their appeals (and still are).
The public Durga Puja was established in Calcutta in 1926. That year saw two such celebrations: one in Simla and another in Bagbazar. Atindranath Bose of Simla Byayam Samiti was the initiator of the first. The idol for Simla was created by Nimai Pal, the renowned potter of Kumartuli. In that first year, the image was of a single-tiered design. That year, Atindranath Bose invited one and all—irrespective of caste, creed, or religion—to participate in the festival. In the first half of the twentieth century, this puja gained popularity as a traditional Barowari or community puja. It is worth noting that the Durga Puja in Bagbazar came to be called public puja in 1926, though it had previously been a Barowari celebration. Its inception dates to 1918 (or 1919 by some accounts). Some local youths had gone to see the goddess at a wealthy man’s home and were humiliated. The following year, they instituted a Barowari Puja and opened the gates of the pavilion to all. The organizers were: Ramkali Mukharji, Dinen Chatterjee, Nilmani Ghosh, Batukbihari Chatterjee, and others. In the true sense, this puja was Calcutta’s—indeed, then India’s—first public Durga Puja. Many conservative pandits sought to obstruct this first public celebration. In the end, they were forced to step aside through the intervention of Pandit Dinnath Bhattacharya. Now public Durga Pujas are everywhere. Such pujas flourish. The domestic puja has grown dim.
From 1938 onward, separate pavilions were provided for Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kartik, and Ganesha. This began with the Kumartuli Public Durga Puja, under the priesthood of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. In 1938, Subhas Chandra Bose became the new president of that puja. The festival was underway when disaster struck on the fifth day itself. The single-tiered goddess had been installed in the pavilion (at that time, idols were still of single-tiered design), when suddenly, in the evening, fire broke out in the structure. Pavilion, idol, all reduced to ash. Yet the next day was the awakening ceremony. Netaji rushed to the artist Gopeshwar Pal. He said: “By any means necessary, you must create the goddess within this one night.” The artist was astounded at these words. How could such a thing be possible?
# The Breaking of Tradition
In that moment, Netaji made a swift decision: the idols would be crafted separately. Gopeshwar Babu shaped the goddess Durga. Other artisans took on Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kartik, and Ganesh. Breaking away from the single-tier convention, a five-tiered deity took form. Everything was completed in a single night. On the sixth day of the festival, the first five-tiered deity ever made arrived at the pavilion—made possible only because of Netaji. Long-standing members of the puja committee are telling the press that the very sight of it—this five-tiered structure, and the goddess adorned so lavishly—had set the priestly community firmly against it. Only after extensive deliberation with the artisan could they find a priest willing to conduct the rituals. But this was far from the last convention to be shattered. The following year, when Netaji served as chairman of the puja committee, the public worship in Kumartuli saw something unprecedented: an actual tiger skin draped upon the goddess Durga. Had such a thing happened today, the puja committee would certainly have faced public outcry and protest.
প্রনাম দাদা,, আপনি অনেক সুন্দর করে লিখেছেন, আমাদের ধর্ম সম্পর্কে অনেকটা জেনেছি এখান থেকে,আপনাকে অনেক অনেক ধন্যবাদ,,,
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