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Kolkata's Durga Puja May Get UNESCO Heritage Status

The annual Hindu festival Durga Puja — a potpourri of events celebrated differently in different parts of India in honor of mother goddess — is popularly regarded as an occasion to commemorate good triumphing over evil. Subsequently, Goddess Durga, with the weapons provided to her by the Gods of the Devalok, took over the talk of vanquishing Mahishasura and destroying his invincible strength that was acquired by terrific austerity. She was called by the God Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva to kill demon and make the world free of him.

Today these structures are innovative, artistic and decorative at the same time, offering a visual spectacle for the numerous visitors who go ‘pandal-hopping' during the four days of Durga Puja. Having been religiously carried out since ages during the festival of Navratri or Durga Puja, the fast has become an intrinsic part of the festival.

I hope that in this Puja, all of us take a moment to contemplate on what implications Goddess worship has in our daily lives. The nine-day worship of Goddess Durga is celebrated with dance, prayers and lots of colour. As a child in Calcutta, as soon as we got a new calendar, I'd rush to see when Durga Puja, the five-day homecoming of the Goddess Durga, would fall.

Thus, Durga Puja honours the Supreme Goddess in an elaborate manner. Stages are set up for these figures in neighborhoods throughout the city, and for four days throngs of people admire the clay tableaux, often showing Durga on a lion slaying demons. This powerful form of Mother Goddess is highly revered in Kolkata which is why her return is celebrated with much grandeur and ceremonies.

In the months leading up to Durga Puja, highly decorated, life-sized idols of Durga that depict her slaying Mahishasura are created by potters out of clay. In this temple, Goddess Durga is worshipped in the form of Mother Goddess Kamakhya. The writer is a professor of history and author of In the Name of the Goddess: The Durga Pujas of Contemporary Kolkata.

Mythological significance of the festival is attributed to numerous versions of stories, including those of Goddess Durga killing demon king Mahisha and King Rama killing demon king Ravana. A typical Bengali's day starts with reading every inch of the newspaper while sipping a cup of tea.

In Bengal , Durga Puja or worship of Goddess Durga, an incarnation of Shakti, is the most pious and popular form of Mother Worship. Goddess Durga is considered by Hindus to be the mother of Ganesha, and Kartikeya. It had come down on the Mamata Banerjee government for deciding not to allow immersion of Durga idols on Bijoya Dashami, which marks the end of the nine-day festival and had coincided with Muharram in 2017.

However, according to some sources it is said that BhabanandaMazumdar of Nadiya or Raja Kangshanarayan of Taherpur first initiated autumn Durga Puja or Sharadiya, as it is called in Bengali. As Durga Puja 2019 fever catches up in the country, Ayandrali Dutta—a journalist by profession and a wanderess by passion—shares an exclusive guest piece on traditional family Durga Puja celebrations in Kolkata.

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Essay On Durga Puja For Children And Students

Durga Puja, the ten-day long festival in honour of the goddess Durga, is eastern India's most important festival. The most widely celebrated festival in West Bengal however, is Durga Pujo. While references to Durga Puja in Bengal can be found as far back as the middle ages, it did not become popular among the zamindars, or wealthy landowners of Bengal, until the 17th and 18th centuries.

Durga puja at the Shobhabazar Rajbari , in Kolkata, example of a bonedi puja. Thrikkavu Temple , a famous Durga Devi Temple at Ponnani , Malapuram District of Kerala, is also famous for Navaratri festival and vidyarambham (beginning of formal education). Durga Puja myths - This was the one of the myths, but did you know there are some other facts about Durga Puja, like: nine aspects of Maa Durga is worshipped in the nine days of Navratri or Durga Puja.

On this day, the devotees get up early and pray to the goddess Durga. The actual worship of the Goddess Durga as stipulated by the Hindu scriptures falls in the month of Chaitra , which roughly overlaps with March or April and is called Basanti Durga Puja. This collective form of celebrating Durga Puja was first initiated in Kolkata by Raja Harinath of Cossimbazar in 1832.

The Bengali's obsession with meat and fish takes no break even during Pujas. It celebrates Her victory over the demon Mahishasura and symbolises the victory of good over all evil. Apart from West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Odisha and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, where Durga Puja is celebrated more or less the same way, other states in India celebrate it in different ways.

In Sanskrit, Durga means ” She who is incomprehensible or difficult to reach” Goddess Durga is a form of Shakti worshipped for her gracious as well as terrifying aspect. Long story short, Durga defeated the evil Mohashashur and it is this victory over evil that Bengalis celebrate today during the Durga Puja festival.

The worship or Puja of the goddess Durga dates back to the late 1500s. It is also celebrated in regions and by people culturally and historically distinct from India. Since Ram had started his worship on the sixth day of Ashwin's Shukla-paksha after the Amabashya (Mahalaya), it is that day - known as Sashthi - which marks the beginning of Durga Puja for Bengalis.

Kerala: Keralites place a lot of value on education, and the presiding deity during Durga Puja here is Goddess Saraswati. She then proceeded to fight a great battle with Mahishasura lasting nine days, finally killing him with her trident. The first Durga Puja Celebrations in Kolkata were held in 1909.

It is dedicated to the worship of Goddess Durga. This grand social event of Durga Puja 2019 showcases the beautiful culture of the Bengalis in India. Typical of any auspicious Bengali event, be it a wedding or a festival, Ulu Dhwani can be heard echoing through the walls.

So, when in Kolkata during Durga Puja, visit these 10 puja pandals to make sure you get your fill of the sumptuous and satiating bhog (food served at lunch hour for everyone). Meanwhile, several people believe that the first Durga Puja was organized by Bhabananda Mazumdar of Nadiya or Raja Kangshanarayan of Taherpur around 1606.

People go out and enjoy the days. At the end of the Durga Puja, these were immersed in River Thames, for the first time in 2006, after "the community was allowed to give a traditional send-off to the deities by London's port authorities". The holy ritual of this Indian festival involves ten days of fast, worship and grand celebration.