Devi Shri, the Lakshmi from South East Asia

Whereas Lakshmi came out of the ocean as a result of the Churning of ocean, Dewi Sri was born from the teardrop of Anta Boga, the serpent god. Do you think Anta Boga is another name of Ananta Nag? Not exactly, yet Anta Boga is the Naga god. However Anta Boga had neither legs nor arms. So when Batara Guru, the God of the gods directed that every god and goddess must contribute in building a new palace for him, Anta Boga went nervous. How would a serpent help in building a palace? Even Batara Narada, the younger brother of Batara Guru could not solve his issue. Three drops of tears from helpless Anta Boga's eyes fell on the ground. And the moment they touched the ground, they became three eggs shining like pearl. Batara Narada suggested him to present those eggs to Batara Guru who might accept those as his contribution to the palace.

On his way to meet Batara Guru, the serpent God met his friend eagle who asked him, “How are you Anta?” Having three eggs in his mouth, he could not reply which the Eagle considered to be his arrogance. He attacked the serpent God. Two of the eggs feel down before Anta could run away; only one reached to Batara Guru. From the egg was born a beautiful girl who was to be called Sanghyang Asri.   

In course of time, the girl grew so beautiful that not only some gods, even her foster father Batara Gutu were attracted to her. He decided to marry her. All the Gods wanted to keep the paradise free from this disgrace. They gave poison to the exquisitely beautiful girl. The innocent girl died instantly and she was buried deep under the earth.

As soon as she went under the earth, flora and fauna sprouted from her body. From her head grew cocoanut. Numerous verities of Spices and vegetable came from her nose, lips and ears. Fruit plants came up from her chest; grass and flowering plants from her hair. Her arms gave birth to woods and the thighs, bamboo. Her genitals became the field for sugar palm and the legs for tuber plants. Finally, from her belly button rose the staple for the human, Rice! The body of the beautiful Nyai Pohaci became the benevolent mother Goddess Dewi Sri after her death.

 

Dewi Sri from Wikimedia commons

Well this was the story from West Java. The other parts of Java have other stories about her. Another version says that God Kanekaputra owned a unique jewel, the Retna dumilah. Guru Batara wanted to see it.  Kanekaputra disrespectfully threw it to Guru and the later could not catch it. Antaboga the serpent god who was mediating in the ocean, swallowed the falling jewel. What’s more, he refused to hand it over to the gods when they came to him looking for it. However gods forced him meet Guru. Antaboga handed the jewel to Guru in a box that none could open. Guru threw it down and a beautiful maiden showed up in its place. The exquisitely beautiful girl was named Tisnawati. Guru fell so much in love with her that he wanted to marry her. But Tisnawati agreed on a condition. She wanted Guru to present her some kind of food that once eaten, would satisfy forever. once that food is found, she would marry him. Guru ordered one of the gods, Batara Kalagumarang to fulfill Tisnawati’s wishes.

Kalagumarang came to the earth in search of that wonder food.  Suddenly he saw the goddess Dewi Sri, the wife of the god Vishnu, bathing in the garden Banjaran sari. Obsessed Kalagumarang pursued her. When she denied his proposal, he demanded that Vishnu should surrender his wife to him. Vishnu and Sri disappeared from there and incarnated as the king and queen of the land of Mendangkamulan, while Kalagumarang turned into a pig. All these incidents delayed the search of the food Tisnawati wanted. She died in hunger waiting for the food which Kalagumarang should have brought. (Another version tales that the impatient Guru had violated Tisnawati before Kalagumarang returned and she died as a result of that). However, remorseful Guru called Kalagumarang the pig back from the earth and arranged the burial of Tisnawati in a forest in the kingdom of Mendangkamulan. As soon as she was buried, a coconut palm grew from her head. Rice plants grew from her genitals. Her hands bore bananas, legs bamboo, and other parts of body gave birth to maize, palms and many other kinds of plants. The pig Kalagumarang and his offspring turned into pests who still threaten the harvest of rice and other crops.

There are numerous stories of Dewi Sri telling tales of her brothers, their unions and separations in different births, how she taught humans to cultivate paddy which was once food for gods in heaven, how she sends rain in the monsoon to help cultivation, how she dispels hunger, her benevolence towards people, in Java, Bali and Indonesia. There are also stories of Sri and her consort Wishnu, their stories in the earth when reborn and Sinta and Rama or Rukmini and Kreshna or Subhadra and Arjuna. Note! Here Arjuna, the son of Pandu is an incarnation of Wishnu.    

Notable is, Dewi Sri does not have a mount like Indian Lakshmi' owl though snakes are closely related to her. In some stories, she herself is born as a snake. In fact both the Mother Goddess Dewi Sri, and snakes are the symbol of growth and fertility, both assure the growth of human population and their food, the rice. She is worshipped as Rice mother and Rice bride in entire Java. In Bali, palm leaf figurines of Nyai Pohaci the Cili goddess or Dewi Sri in an hourglass shape are placed in the fields to protect and promote fertility of wet rice. Same like that of Indian Lakshmi, the icon of Dewi Sri holds a pot in one hand and a bunch of rice crops in the other. In some sculptures she is seen with a hand gesture showing benevolence, peace and protection.

Durga of the downtrodden

Those days Maharaja Krishnachandra Roy was ruler of Nadia. One of his Dewans went to Katwa for some work. Durgapuja was approaching, and his camp was set somewhere near Mandalpukur. He came to know that people in the area didnot have enough money to arrange Durgapuja. He decided to sponsor one. Two of the ladies, Shyamasundari and Binodini of the Haadi community in Katwa became the first organisers of Durgapuja there. The name of the Goddess became Haadimaa, though the rituals followed Devibhagabat. 

In course of time, both the ladies passed away. After the Dewan died, Bhuban Hazra, the grandson of Shyamasundari took charge of the annual Durga worship festival. But after Bhuban Hazra had passed away, his wife Soudamini didnot have enough means to continue the Puja. The poor lady began praying to the Goddess for help. 

One day as she was sitting in the varanda of her home, sad as usual, a little girl came to her and asked for food. Soudamini did not have anything but a few bananas from her banana grove to give her. The girl ate it and left very happy. 

On the same night, Soudamini saw the girl in dream. She said, she was the Goddess who has came to meet her. She adviced her to arrange the Puja as simply as possible, avoiding  all kinds of grandure, but never to stop the Puja. 

This was the time banana stem became part of Durga's food here and Sacrificial Billy goat was replaced by Ash Gourd. 

Since almost three hundred years, this Goddess Haadimaa is being worshipped by the people from lower strata of the society (currently called Dalit) following the same rituals. 

Hādimā of Katwa, Nadia, West Bengal. 

Durga who has only the head!

Where? In the village named Gomai in Galsi tehsil, Bardhaman district, West Bengal

When did this Durgapuja start? Some say it was about four hundred years ago, some say it was about three hundred ago, something supernatural happened in this village. 

A rich businessman called Gobinda Roy went to take a dip in his house pond. Suddenly he saw a beautiful lady in the middle of the pond. She was exquisitely beautiful, but only her head was visible. Roybabu was surprised - why and how it is possible for someone to bathe like that. Village ladies those days didn't go far from home and hence an unknown lady's using someone's else's pond was impossible. Curious Roybabu looked straight at the lady. As soon as their eyes met, the lady vanished like a blitz. 

The incident shocked him. He stood perplexed for some time, then took a bath and returned home. Same night he saw a lady in her dream - the same one whose head he saw in the morning. She assured the scared man, "Don't be afraid. Worship me as Durga making the idol of only the part of my body you have seen in the morning." 

The man had seen only the head. He started Durgapuja in his home making the head the Goddess. Another version of the story tells that the first idol made was the complete form of Durga, irrespective of the Goddess' order. But before the puja began, the idol broke on its own. Only the head remained intact and that was the way the Roy family began worshipping a bodyless Durga. 

Durga here does not have any of her children as well. The puja is done following Devibhagabat but without Chandipath or recital of Chandi. Both vegetable and animal sacrifice is done here. Pumpkin, Sugarcane,  banana and goats are sacrificed. The Goddess is fed only luchi, fruits and sweets, not rice. Other unique rituals are lighting 108 lamps on Navami day, doing Aarti only once a day, and moving the Goddess's head through the village on a palanquin before immersion. After immersion, the ladies of the family wait there to watch Brahminy kites flying on the horizon of the village. This signifies the Goddess's returning home from her fathers place at the end of Puja. 

This Durga made of Gold needed Human Sacrifice once

She lives in the dense forest of Chilkigarh, a location at the border of West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha. Her temple is believed to be established around five hundred years ago, near the Dulung rivulet. Some say that it was first built in the year 1348 AD, and later reconstructed.

Old Kanakdurga Temple in Chilkigarh. Source: Wikimedia commons

The area was then ruled by Dhalbhum kings who originally came from Madhyapradesh. King Jagatdeo, who took the name Jagannathdeb Dhabaldeb influenced by Puri Jagannath, married the Junglemahal king Gopinath’s daughter Subarnamani. And this Gopinath once saw Devi Mahamaya in a dream. The Goddess ordered him to build her idol and built a temple. Next morning, the king had two visitors, One Brahmin Ramchandra Sarangi and a sculptor Jogendranath Kamilya who had the same dream the same night. Obviously the king had to obey the order of the Goddess now while the sculptor created her idol and the Brahmin took charge of the rituals. The Idol is two feet high and made of gold, hence she is Kanakdurga. They say that the first idol was made of stone which later changed into gold miraculously. The sacrificial site in the temple tells about practice of animal sacrifice since ages here. There is also a belief that while setting up the idol of the temple, numerous human sacrifices took place while the ritual could complete only after the flow of blood reached the flow of Dulung river. Anyway, the temple we see today is surrounded by a forest full of medicinal plants and rare species of animals and birds. The numerous shrines of Shiva found around the temple are believed to be emerged overnight, by some miraculous power of the Goddess.

In fact there are dozens of stories describing the power of the Goddess. Once King Kamalkanta planned to shift the temple somewhere else. But the Goddess appeared in his dream wearing a blue saree and forbade her to do it. The temple remained in the same place and the royal women stopped wearing blue saree showing respect to the Goddess.

Another story tells that once there began a draught in this area. The starving people prayed to the Goddess. Suddenly a big cloud covered the sky. An unprecedented rainfall filled all water bodies and made all the fields green again, but no human or animal was harmed. Entire Chilkigarh became her worshipper.

There is another example of her protecting her people. The temple priests were initially scared of going back to village crossing the dense forest every night after Puja. But the Goddess assured them of protection appearing in their dream. And no priest has been ever attacked by an animal or rogue human while passing through the forest till date.

There is a story about the inner chamber of the temple. They say that a large stone lying in the courtyard of the temple is actually the key of the actual doorway to the inner chamber which only a Sarangi Brahmin can open and enter.

The Goddess is worshipped performing Panchopachar puja following tantric tradition. Only the Brahmin with surname Sarangi is eligible to be a priest. We see a remarkable mix of tribal and sanskritised rituals in this temple. 

During the time of king Mangobinda, kite festival was part of Durgapuja festival. Local artists made large kites for the king- and participation of people from entire region made the festival lively.

There is no question of immersion of a golden Goddess. She is not even accompanied with her children here. Don’t we know that Durga worshipped in Madhyapradesh region has a stronger connection with forest and Tantras than with family life? That way, even though Jhargram (West Medinipur) lies in West Bengal, the medieval Chilkigarh Kanakdurga has less to do with later Bengali tradition.  

New Kanakdurga Temple in Chilkigarh. Source: Wikimedia commons

Family Durga invites local Tribal community

This Durgapuja began in 1815.

Maldah, the area washed by rivers Bhagirathi, Mahananda and Punarbhaba, was a trading spot where traders from North India came with their goods. Abodhnarayan Ray, a rich lentils trader from Ghazipur in Uttarpradesh used to sail to Calcutta via Maldah. Once while sailing through Punarbhaba by the end of 18^th century, he received the news about the death of a Dinajpur Zamindar. The British government had called for an auction of part of the estate as the family could not submit tax on scheduled date. Abodhnarayan took part in auction and purchased the area on sale for three thousand rupees. The Roy family started ruling and growing their estate in Bengal. One Aghorbaba, who had a hermitage in his area, advised him to start Durgapuja. The Durga temple was finished during his son Shibaprasad Roy’s rule. Unfortunately the family lost three fourth of their estate to East Pakistan, now Bangladesh as Bengal was divided as a condition of India’s freedom from British rule in 1947. However, the Durgapuja still takes place in the village Tilasan, 36 km from Maldah city.

Many aspects of this Durgapuja are remarkable. Durga was the family Goddess of the Tilasan Roys from long before. The gold idol of that Durga was already brought and established in the Zamindar’s palace in this Santhal village by 1800 AD. That Durga idol is worshipped daily in the inner chamber of the palace temple. The golden Durga is supposed to be seen by none outside family, not even by the married daughters of the family. Hence when they had to start Durgapuja following Bengali ritual, they decided to do it by making an earthen idol. Following same tradition both the golden and earthen Durga is worshipped here and six priests are engaged in the Puja altogether.

The male family members hand invitation letters to 300 families in the village, a section of who are from tribal community to attend the festival. Lunch is arranged for all villagers on third and fourth and last day of the Puja.

Once the Puja was inaugurated by firing five rounds of cartridge on the bank of river Punarbhaba where some rituals took place on the Sasthi day. As this has become an international border area, getting permission from neighbouring country for ritual firing became an issue. Yet devotees from Bangladesh come to attend the Puja. The local Santhali traditional drummers accompany the Goddess to the immersion ghat. The once riverside rituals take place at the pond of the palace.

Same way, the traditional sweets which was once mandatory during Puja cannot be made due to the loss of skill.

Time flows, many traditions are lost with time. Still Bengali sticks to the idea which encouraged their ancestors to organize Durgapuja–festival for the people where all communities and religions unite in the name of mother Goddess.

Durga in Churaman is symbol of communal harmony

A traditional Bengali Durgapuja with a history of contribution from both the Hindu and Musalman community? We have to go to Churaman Zamindari Estate in the district of Uttar Dinajpur, West Bengal. The Zamindari estate presumably came into existence in 18^th century while the first landlord Ghanashyam Chowdhury was served under of Bengal Nawab Aliwardi Khan. His descendants took the title “Roychowdhury”.

History:

The Zamindar JagatBallabh Roychowdhury was the founder of this Puja. Legend is, the land for his Durga temple was donated by the Bengal Nawabs. The zamindars had built many temples as well as dargah of a Pir in this area. The original Durga temple sank into the local Marasuin river after a large landslide. The royal palace and the temple had to be rebuilt in Durgapur area. But the villagers from both communities participated with same enthusiasm once again.

Rituals:

The Puja starts by setting a Ghat, the sacred water vessel on the New moon day that is called Mahalaya in Bengali calendar. All the temple and the dargah is cleaned and decorated this time. The Goddess is not offer rice here. Even salt and turmeric is prohibited in her food. In the old days, a buffalo was sacrificed on Nabami day. Later buffalo was replaced by goat. Recently animal sacrifice is stopped. The Moulavi from the dargah takes part in the puja rituals.

And the celebration:

However a bigger celebration starts with a village fair on Dashami the immersion day. But festival is inaugurated by hoisting a flag on the roof of the Pir Dargah. Bangali cultural  programs like Jatra and folksongs are integral part of this village fair. Once this Zamindar family had contributed in growing the folk cultural tradition in this area; the descendants are trying to maintain the same even after losing the material wealth they had those days.  

Pateshwari Durga worshipped by Bardhaman royals

When it comes to worshipping a hand-painted Durga, the Goddess in the Bardhaman royal palace is a unique one in form and from ritualistic point of view.

The founder of the House of Bardhman, Maharaja Sangam Rai Kapoor, was a Khatri from Punjab. They became influential during Mughal period by supporting them during the war against Sher Afghan in 1610. During its peak under the British rule, the royal family in the 18th century owned a sprawling area of 13,000sqkm spread over neighbouring districts as well. The Goddess Durga came in the period of Maharajadhiraj Bahadur Mahatab Chand Rai (1820–1879).

Their family goddess was Chandika, the warrior form of Mother Goddess though they established many temples including Shiva temples and Lakshminarayanjeu. However the king wanted to worship Durga too, but the family priest forbade him to make an idol. That was reason the king had to go for a hand-painted Durga on an around five feet high wooden frame. The name of this Durga became Pateshwari, the painted Goddess.

The Durga was once worshipped in her temple where today’s Women’s college exists. The temple could not survive the wrath of time and hence, now she resides in the Natmancha of Lakshminarayan temple. Her colour is golden and Asur the evil she kills is dark green. Durga in the Singhabahini (boarding a lion) and her children are painted on blue background along with a traditional backdrop called Chalchitra. All their faces except the Ganesh’ are painted as sideview. During royal era, she was immersed in Krishnasayar, the royal lake for few hours so that the colour from the frame faded. Immersion has been stopped since the end of royal rule. Now she is repainted in every twelve years.  

Following Navaratri tradition, the nine day long Puja starts from Pratipad. She was once served fifty two items as Prasad but now it reduced to only Luchi (Bengali version of Puri) and Halwa due to lack of fund. Also the custom of sacrificing areca nut and Dandiya dance by Gujarati community has been stopped.

Nothing of the previous pomp could sustain till date. Also organizing a Puja with the temple trust allocation, the value of which constantly lessens today, is difficult.  Nevertheless, the devotion to follow traditional ritual remains the same. The descendants of the Royal family still attend the Puja for a day every year.

Worshipping a Pat painting instead of Durga idol, Midnapore

We know about worshipping Durga in various forms, but do we know that some old landlord families in West Bengal worship Durga in traditional painting called Pat instead of the Goddess in an earthen idol?

The Chakrabarty family in Mirzabazar, Midnapore is one of them.

This Durga was first worshipped around 300 years ago, by the pious Rakhal Chandra Chakrabarty. He is also remembered as the founder of the famous Krishna (named Kalachand Jew here) temple. Both his Kalachand Jew and Goddess Durga are being worshipped till date. Only difference is, Kalachand Jew is given life in a stone idol which is worshipped daily while Goddess Durga comes only during the five day festival in a Pat painting. Why it is so? Simple reason is, the Midnapore royals, probably the Singh dynasty of Karnagahr permitted this Zamindar family under them to worship mother Goddess but did not permit curving of an idol. Since that era the family members paint the Goddess on a 5”/5” cloth frame. The Durga became associated with famous Midnapore Patachitra painting. Rakhal Chandra Chakrabarty was the first priest of the puja.

Following the schedule of Bengali Durgapuja, the Puja starts on the day of Sashthi, and the Goddess enters the temple on the next day, i.e. Saptami. The uniqueness also lies in her food. Except on Nabami, the ninth day of Navaratri, every day the Goddess is fed river fish and rice with other vegetarian delicacies, fruits and sweets. No, animal sacrifice does not take place here. They sacrifice pumpkins instead. On the last day, the Prasad or this sanctified offering has to have ridge gourd and catfish-both smoked.

 

Painting from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Medinipur_Patachitra_-_durga.jpg

Once during the era of royal regime, elephants were used in the procession to immerse this Pat painting into the river. The extravagance is reduced a lot, but the rituals follow the same tradition as it was three hundred years ago.

Durga in Dantan eradicates epidemic

Today is the first day of Navaratri, 2021. I wrote on Bengali Durga worship and it's political, economic and social aspects before. However this year, I have a desire to write on some traditional Durgapuja which are being organised in different parts of West Bengal for over hundred years. And each one of these are unique its own way. 

Let's start from the southern part of West Bengal. There is a district called Midnapore which was once included in Dandabhukti area - that is a story of fourth century CE. No, we did not worship Durga those days. History of Durgapuja in its current form is not more that four hundred years old.

We know the name of Dantan in Midnapore district of today’s West Bengal in association with a 12^th century Buddhist monastery in Moghalmari. The name Moghalmari must have been evolved during Mughal period. The ancient name of this region was Dandabhukti. But today’s Dantan celebrates the mother Goddess Durga more than Buddha or any other ancient god.

From learningobjects.wesleyan.edu/naya/intro.html Durga as depicted in a Midnapore scroll painting of Chandimangal

The Durgapuja of Dantan DasMohapatra family started presumably in the year 1742.

Like most of the old Bengali Zamindar families, they too have unique legendary stories and unique custom associated with the Durga festival.

Sometime in 17^th\18th century, Birinchi Mohanti from Cuttack left home to go to Murshidbad, the Capital of Bengal in search of a job. Those days, people had to walk entire route to reach the destination. He lost the direction somewhere near Dantan and fell unconscious. The local Brahmin landlord rescued him. After getting cured, he began working for the landlord and in course of time, became a trustworthy person. As the landlord decided to move to the sacred temple city of Kashi in his old age, he divided his estate between his daughter and Birinchi Mohanti. Later, Birinchi’s share was divided between his two sons. Durgapuja was started by the descendant of his younger son during British era. Same Puja rituals are maintained till today.

This Durgapuja does not follow the Bengali DurgaPuja schedule. It starts from first day of Hindu Navaratri and ends in last day of Navaratri. Starting from this day, hundred fifty kg of popped rice is burnt every day before the goddess praying for an epidemic-free life in the region. Needless to say, disease and epidemic were common threat at a time when medical science was not developed. During this Covid19 era, this prayer for epidemic eradication, Mahaamaari Pujaa in Bengali, adds special significance. 

Another interesting custom followed in this Puja is, the entire loads of sweetmeat prepared for the Goddess by the family is distributed among the visitors, while the family members are not supposed to eat those. Concept is, food given to the divine should be given to people; should not be kept for self consumption. 

Though not directly, traditional Bengali plays (jatra), Mangalsong- medieval Bengali devotional songs, of which Chandimangal is one, are part of this Durgapuja. Villagers from this area come here in large numbers during the festival days to pray to the Goddess, attend the rituals and enjoy the music and plays.