When the white broom-like kash flowers seem throughout Bengal’s landscapes, and custard apples out of the blue fill the markets, it’s that point of the yr once more – when Bengal’s largest pageant and a real celebration of feminism, Durga Puja, takes over the state and the world of diaspora Bengalis for per week.
Durga Puja is a 10-day pageant that marks the victory of excellent over evil, with the goddess Durga slaying the demon king Mahishasura. It is usually a symbolic homecoming of the goddess to her mother and father’ home from her marital house. Many name it a feminist pageant as a result of it celebrates a daughter and probably the most highly effective feminine deities within the Hindu pantheon.
Durga Puja is held yearly round late September or early October, and is well known in japanese India, coinciding with Navratri in North India. Each festivals honour the divine female energy, or shakti, however there’s a key distinction. Whereas Navratri is a interval of strict culinary abstinence, Durga Puja is well known just like the homecoming of a beloved member of the family – with plentiful meals, feasting, and pleasure. In contrast to most Hindu festivals, it’s marked by the preparation of particular meat and fish delicacies, alongside the rituals, new garments, and limitless social visits.
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Durga – daughter of the mountain lord Himalaya and his spouse Menaka – is depicted by idol makers (kumors) as a putting girl with flowing hair, clad in a saree, astride her lion steed. She has ten arms, every carrying a weapon, whereas the lion is proven crushing Mahishasura beneath its paws. In our ancestral village of Guptipara, the place the group Barowari Durga Puja started (till then celebrated solely in non-public properties), the steed has remained unchanged – a lion resembling a horse with fangs. This was as a result of the potters of centuries previous had by no means seen an actual lion.
Lunch, on the second day of the Puja, normally contains a khichuri of rice and lentils cooked with spices and ghee. (Picture: Freepik)
Ashtami, the second day of Durga’s keep, is probably the most vital. The day begins with a quick and prayers, adopted by the one strictly vegetarian meal of the pageant. However this vegetarian fare is something however easy. Lunch contains a wealthy khichuri of rice and lentils cooked with spices and ghee. Within the night, after the arati (ritual prayer), comes the long-lasting unfold of puffed fried bread (luchis) with alur dum (spiced potatoes flavoured with asafoetida) and chholar dal (Bengal gram lentils with coconut slivers).
Navami, the final day of Durga’s go to, is devoted to meat. Historically, this stemmed from sacrificial choices of goats or buffaloes, which had been then cooked and shared. Over time, beneath Vaishnav affect and altering sensibilities, animal sacrifice was largely changed with symbolic choices resembling pumpkins or sugarcane. But the custom of consuming niramish mutton (or vegetarian mutton as it’s known as) – mutton cooked with out onions or garlic, thought of “heathen” spices – continues. I’ve included my recipe for it beneath.
On Bijaya Dashami, the day of Durga’s departure, the meals are outlined by seasonal greens and, above all, sweets. In East Bengal, an ambal – a tangy chutney made with shapla (water lily stalks) – is customary. The night, nevertheless, is dedicated to mithai: sandesh, patishapta (candy crepes), rajbhog, pantua, rosogollas – the checklist is limitless, as are the inevitable digestive and ldl cholesterol complaints of Bengalis.
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