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The
Durga Puja comes smack in the middle of autumn and even
has a term for it - akal bodhan - or the untimely
puja. This
break with tradition was initiated by the great Hero-god
Rama however, and it provided a great deal of justification.
Rama was having trouble finishing off the demon-king Ravana
and he performed an out of tradition special puja, to get
the Power of the Mahadevi on his side. (See our section
on the gods and goddesses for more on the Mahadevi)
Secondly the Puja-festival was a private affair of the martial
and landowning classes for a very long time indeed. However
it has now become the most community-participant event you
can ever hope to see. The sheer scale of energy, organization
and exuberance that is let loose all across the Indian State
of West Bengal can be matched only by the Mardi Gras. In
terms of numbers however, the Mardi Gras will come a poor
second. In fact, it is not too much to say that it is the
highlight of the social year in Bengal and especially Calcutta,
three and a half days of sheer joy, where a drab and declining
city is suddenly transformed into Wonderland.
This
is fundamentally because of a multitude of Clubs and committees
who exist only for the purpose of the four days of the festival.
They are in hibernation too for the rest of the year, like
the gods apparently. These organizations collect funds,
organize the necessary municipal permissions and outsource
everything. Traditionally the Puja was a little community
affair and the expenses could be managed by donations from
local area residents. Nowadays however everything has gone
the sponsorship route, as there is just too much to be spent
on things that have become customary even if they are not
traditional.
Three expenses are major here. Illumination, which is a
Calcutta art that deserves more attention. Using tiny light
bulbs set up in outline form, the electricians manage to
convey the illusion of a cricket match being played, or
of a plane taking off, or a fountain spurting. The bulbs
are turned off and on in sequence to give the illusion of
movement and they were doing it long before there was any
computer programming to do so. In fact they still do not
use any software that I am aware of. These illuminations
also trace out the local buildings in outline.
The
second is the pandal which houses the entire set of divine
images and provides a space for devotees. It is essentially
a bamboo-framework with cloth stretched over it, a tent
of sorts. However they have enormous creativity in constructing
these structures. The artisans can reproduce a facsimile
of any building you care to name in the world with bamboo
and clothing - a sort of Cristo the wrapper in reverse.
The Taj Mahal, famous temples of India and last year even
the Titanic as seen in Cameron's film have been created.
Finally there are the images themselves which are nothing
but dried clay on a straw and wood skeleton and then painted
over to look human. This is a great art form in itself and
the real tragedy is that every year all of them are immersed
into the waters of the Ganga, when the puja is over. It
is the dissolution into the Universe of the Mother, "She
Vanishes" as the Devi Mahatmayam says. This ceremony recreates
that divine act of transcendence, as well as delivers a
valuable lesson on the impermanence of all things no matter
how beautiful and dear to ones heart.
But we anticipate ourselves. The images are of the goddess
herself, slaying the demon Mahisha, or sometimes depicting
the reason for this puja, granting power to Rama. She is
usually accompanied by what Bengal hold is her family, the
gods Ganesha and Kartikeya who are her sons and the goddesses
Laxmi and Saraswati who are supposed to be her daughters
- a tradition unique only to Bengal. The reason for the
family album ambience is that Durga does not come to Bengal
as the Great Mother, but as a daughter visiting her parent's
home along with her children. She is regarded as living
a hard life all year long in the Himalayan snows and therefore
a great deal of fuss about her comfort is made when she
comes a-visiting. This sort of intense personal relationship
to god is a rather endearing aspect of the religion though
in fairness, it does become a bit mawkish at times.
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