Worship of the Primordial Power
According to the scripture of Hinduism, Worship of the Primordial Power is mandatory. Asuras always wanted to capture the Heaven but every time they fought with gods and lost. At that time powerful demon called ” Mahisasur “arose. He got this name because he was born in the belly of Buffalo. By worshiping Brahma, he gets the gift of immortality and then tries to conquer the heaven.
He defeated all the gods in heaven and drove them from there. All the gods became immortal and worshipped “Devishakti”. So finally, Devi Durga come into existence. And then Devi Durga killed all the demons, and their soldiers restored the gods in heaven.
Devi Durga festival is very popular among Bengalis. They wait for this day throughout the year. During this time every house buys new cloths and organizes various kinds of foods. To be honest, this festival is very important from economic point of view because there is tide in buying and selling during this time. Those who are from outside of Bengal they may think that it is mainly a Kolkata centric festival but in reality, it is not. In rural areas also of west Bengal a heavy number of Durga Puja can be seen.
However, the pujas of Kolkata are very budget rich, so they easily catch the eyes of the world. If anyone wants to see Durga Pujas in Kolkata my recommendation to come on Sasthi or Saptomi because on Maha Astomi and Nabami Kolkata become very crowdy. It is not so surprising to see only one Idol with pandal very strongly even after trying all the night. Personally, I avoid Kolkata on those days and visit Pujas in rural areas of West Bengal.
Pujas in Kolkata are now mostly theme based. So i miss that old tradition of Bengali Hindu Sanatani People. But The good thing is even in nowadays where peoples’ attractions only theme of Puja, there are some royal families in Bengal they organize Durga Pujas by their own initiative, they have been following the old traditions Sanatani rules in Durga Pujas. Bengalis enjoy this time very much especially in terms of eating. Everyone’s mind becomes very sad on the day of Dasomi because wait of a year.
