Durga Puja in Kolkata

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Durga Puja in Kolkata
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Short Introduction of Durga Puja

• Durga puja or Sharodotsav as it is known in
  Bengal is the annual invocation and worship of
  the supreme Mother Goddess or Shakti. The
  festival is a five day affair. Its beauty and
  versatility lies in the fact that the religious
  affair is not restricted to a particular
  community or group of people. In Bengal it is a
  sort of carnival where every person residing
  takes part and enjoys the festivities in some way
  or the other irrespective of their caste, creed,
  and religious obligations. Durga puja or
  sharodiyadurga puja is held at the onset of
  autumn after the monsoon starts receding.

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History of Durga Puja

• History says that, there was another time at
  which the festival was held, at the onset of
  summer and was referred to as the Basanti Durga
  puja. Over time, the autumn festival however,
  gained more popularity. The mythological
  reference says that this puja was started by lord
  Ram to win the war with Ravan. Durga puja marks
  the battle of goddess Durga with the form
  changing extremely powerful and strong buffalo
  demon Mahishasura. The battle ends with ma
  Durga defeating the demon which is symbolic of
  the victory of the good over the evil, which is a
  primary theme of the puja. This overlaps with
  Vijayadashami (Dussehra) observed by other groups
  of the Hindu religion where, the theme remains
  constant and the victory of Rama over demon
  Ravana is observed instead. Since the puja is
  conducted during the apparent southward journey
  of the sun towards the equator, it is also called
  Akal (untimely) Bodhan as most of the Hindu
  festivals are held during Uttarayn or the
  apparent northward journey of the sun. In the
  hindu calendar, the festival is observed during
  the month of ashvin which is around September and
  October.

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History of Durga Puja

• Mahalaya and the famous Mahishasurmardini in all
  India Radio
• The puja which is primarily of 5 days observes
  creation and decoration of temples or temporary
  stages (pandals) to carry out the puja
  accompanied with recitation of scripture
  (mantras), socio-cultural performance of art, and
  activities to bring the people together. The puja
  traditionally starts off with the two hour
  programme on all India radio known as
  mahishasurmardini on the morn of mahalaya. The
  love for the puja and the indigenous culture is
  depicted in the fact that Bengalis wake up at 4
  am on the morning of mahalaya, to listen to the
  holy chandipath in the voice of Birendra
  Krishna Bhadra and late Pankaj Kumar Mallick.
  Several other programmes are held on TV and radio
  channels. Special local magazine issues for the
  puja in local magazines such as Bartaman,
  Anandalok, Shanaanda, Shukhtara, etc are quite a
  craze among the people. These not only portray
  writings and articles of famous writers, but also
  provide a broad platform to upcoming local
  writers to showcase their talent.

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History of Durga Puja

• Historic foundation
• Historically, Durga puja was first started around
  the 16th century. It took place mostly in the
  houses and palaces of the rich local landlords
  and Rajas. The commoners had to remain satisfied
  by visiting these houses only to have a mere
  glimpse of the festivities. The puja gained great
  prominence during the British Raj period in its
  provinces of Bengal and Assam. It is also
  believed that the worship of the warrior goddess
  and her darker and more violent version Kaali
  became more frequent in the Bengal region during
  and after the Muslim invasion in the medieval
  era. It was in the mid-eighteenth as legend has
  it that, a group of friends started organising
  the puja by pooling in funds. This system of
  organising the festival came to be known as
  BaroYaari (12 friends) Puja. Goes without
  saying that the number of organisers and
  contributors soon exceeded 12 and at presence the
  entire populacetakes part in numerous such
  community pujas by generously contributing money
  and most importantly their time, energy,
  dedication, and efforts to plan and organise each
  such puja and make it stand out of the rest.

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History of Durga Puja

• Popularity of the festival
• Of late even corporates have entered the fray
  given the extreme popularity of the festival.
  Kolkata Durga puja is the biggest, most
  flamboyant and widely celebrated festival of West
  Bengal. Much like the Carnival of Rio De Janerio,
  Brazil or the Ganesh Chaturdashi of Maharashtra,
  1000s of people are involved in the celebrations
  let alone the unending crowd frenzy. The main
  puja starts from the sixth day or shashthi and
  ends on the 10th day of dasami or durgadasami
  with the immersion of the idols into the holy
  river of ganga or any local water body which is a
  believe symbolic to send ma durga back to the
  holy cosmos and to her husbands house in
  Kailash. The idols initially made of
  biodegradable substances such as hay, clay, and
  bamboo is not so hazardous to the environment.
  But the use of cheap paints and chemicals to
  quick dry the idols, pose a threat to the
  environment of heavy metal pollution. To control
  this, free biodegradable and non-hazardous paints
  are distributed among the idol makers by
  government authorities.

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History of Durga Puja

• Durga Puja in India
• Todays durga puja is not only restricted to
  Kolkata, west Bengal and its adjoining areas of
  Assam, Bihar and Odisha. Durga pujas can be found
  happening in as far as the American and European
  countries. The Delhi durga pujas of cashmere gate
  and Chittaranjan Park are quite famous and was
  started as early as the 1910s. Durga puja in
  Kolkata are of several typesthere are theme
  based pandal pujas, traditional pujas happening
  for more than 100s of years in the so called
  bonedibaris of Kolkata, and there are pujas
  seen to be performed by small comities in a
  locality or apartments. Some the old traditional
  pujas of kolkata include the shobhabazarrajbari
  puja, daw bari puja, chhatubabu and
  latubabusbarir puja, pathurighatabarir puja, the
  durga puja of rani rashmonis house, Chandra
  barir puja, thantania Dutta barir puja among
  several others. Some of the famous pandal pujas
  are witnessed in northern parts of Kolkata in
  baghbazar, belgachia, md ali park puja, lake town
  adhibashibrindo, sreebhumi sports club, college
  square puja, while the ones in south are
  ekdaliahevergereen, behala, naktala, kasba, 23
  pally deshapriya park puja and the list goes on
  not only do the Bengalis but people of all
  communities take part in puja parikrama. It
  involves pandalhopping , day as well as night
  plans, taking part in local programmes with
  extravagant display of art and cultuere through
  music, artwork, dance, and dance dramas.
• The ecstasy, the madness, the flamboyance, and
  the craze surrounding this festival of durga
  puja, the biggest annual festival of the
  Bengalis, knows no bounds.