Since only 50 days are left for the festival and the artists of kumortuli have already started giving their final touches to the idols of Goddess Durga and others.I thought of writing this blog to let you all know about our Indian culture and its biggest festival.
picture courtesy - Google
About Kumortuli
picture courtesy - Google.
Kumortuli is a traditional potters’ quarter in northern Kolkata , the capital of the east Indian state of West Bengal. The place is famous as a sculpting hot-spot which manufactures clay idols for various festivals and also regularly exports them.This has been an area of significance and culture for ages.
About Durga Puja
Durga Pooja is one of the most important festivals of Hindu. It is celebrated every year by the people of Hindu religion with great enthusiasm and belief. It is a religious festival which has various significances. It falls every year in the autumn season.
Story and Legends of Durga Puja
There are various stories and legends of Durga puja which are mentioned below:
It is considered as, once there was a demon king, Mahishasura, who was ready to attack on Gods of heaven. He was too powerful to defeat from God. Then an eternal power was created by the Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwar and was named as Durga (a magnificent woman having ten hands with special weapons in each). She was given eternal power to destroy demon Mahishasura. Finally She killed that demon on tenth day called as Dussehra or Vijayadashami.
Another legend behind Durga puja is Lord Rama. According to the Ramayana, Ram had performed a chandi-puja in order to get blessings of mata Durga to kill Ravana. Rama had killed Ravana on tenth day of Durga puja called as Dussehra or Vijayadashami. So, Durga puja is the symbol of victory of goodness over evil power forever.
Once Kautsa (son of Devdatt) has decided to offer gurudakshina to his guru named Varatantu after completing his education however he was asked to pay 14 crore gold coins (one for each 14 sciences he studied there). In order to get the same he went to the king Raghuraj (ancestor of Rama) however he was unable because of the Vishvajit sacrifice. So, Kautsa went to Lord Indra and he again summoned Kuber (god of wealth) to rain the required gold coins over “shanu” and “apati” trees in Ayodhya. In this way, Kautsa got gold coins to offer to his guru. That event is still remembered through a custom of looting leaves of the “apati” trees. At this day, people gift these leaves to each other as a gold coin(as per books and other sources).
picture courtesy - Google
All the other four idols are said to be goddess Durga's childrens. To the extreme right of her is lord Ganesh beside him is goddess Laxshmi and to the extreme left of Durga is lord Kartik and beside him is goddess Saraswati.And if you carefully have a look at the place where Durga is standing ,you can see that she is standing upon a person its her husband Lord Shiva.
Durga Puja is a nine days long festival. Days of Durga pooja celebration varies according to the place, custom, people’s capacity and people’s belief. Some people celebrate it for five, seven or full nine days. People start worship of Durga statue on ‘Shashti’ which ends on the “Dashami”. Some people in the community or society celebrate it by decorating a ‘pandal’ in the nearby regions. In these days, all the nearby temples become full of devotees especially in the morning. Some people do worship at home with all the arrangements and go for statue immersion to the river Ganga at last day.Before the immersion ceremong all the females out there play Sindur as a gesture of happiness and let go of the bond between them and the goddess happily
picture courtesy -Google
Thereby,being an Indian I feel its my duty and honour to invite you all out there to come, live and experience our festival and our culture.
Hope you would have a good time here.
Thank You
Sincerely
@ifrankenstein