Durga Puja@Kolkata
Destination : West Bengal - World Tourism Day (Sept 27, 2012)
Durga Puja - the ceremonial worship of the mother goddess, is one of the most important festivals, is celebrated every year in the month of October with much gaiety and grandeur in India and abroad, especially in Bengal, where the ten-armed goddess riding the lion and killing the Buffalo-Demon (Mahishasura) is worshipped with great passion and devotion.
The traditional icon of the goddess worshiped during the Durga Puja is in line with the iconography delineated in the scriptures. In Durga, the Gods bestowed their powers to co-create a beautiful goddess with ten arms, each carrying their most lethal weapon. The tableau of Durga also features her four children - Kartikeya, Ganesha, Saraswati and Lakshmi.
More, hinduism.about.com/od/durgapuja/a/durga_puja_history.htm
The huge temporary canopies - held by a framework of bamboo poles and draped with colourful fabric - that house the icons are called 'pandals'. Modern pandals in Kolkata 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.
Images of Durga Puja at Kolkata: www.google.co.uk/search?q=durga+puja+kolkata&hl=en&am...
The Asiatic Society of Calcutta estimates that the first formal "puja" of Durga was held around 1606 A.D. at the present Baghbazar area in Kolkata by a zamindar Pran Krishna Halder. Four years later, the Kumartuli's "Kumars" started making the idols of "Maa" (mother goddess) Durga in clay for the neo-rich feudal lord Laxmikanta Roy Mazumder, who is the first patron of Kolkata's potter's town and initiator of the "puja" of Durga in clay idols. More: www.littleindia.com/india/1289-kumartuli-potters-town.htm...
Images of Bengal, India
Durga Puja@Kolkata
Destination : West Bengal - World Tourism Day (Sept 27, 2012)
Durga Puja - the ceremonial worship of the mother goddess, is one of the most important festivals, is celebrated every year in the month of October with much gaiety and grandeur in India and abroad, especially in Bengal, where the ten-armed goddess riding the lion and killing the Buffalo-Demon (Mahishasura) is worshipped with great passion and devotion.
The traditional icon of the goddess worshiped during the Durga Puja is in line with the iconography delineated in the scriptures. In Durga, the Gods bestowed their powers to co-create a beautiful goddess with ten arms, each carrying their most lethal weapon. The tableau of Durga also features her four children - Kartikeya, Ganesha, Saraswati and Lakshmi.
More, hinduism.about.com/od/durgapuja/a/durga_puja_history.htm
The huge temporary canopies - held by a framework of bamboo poles and draped with colourful fabric - that house the icons are called 'pandals'. Modern pandals in Kolkata 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.
Images of Durga Puja at Kolkata: www.google.co.uk/search?q=durga+puja+kolkata&hl=en&am...
The Asiatic Society of Calcutta estimates that the first formal "puja" of Durga was held around 1606 A.D. at the present Baghbazar area in Kolkata by a zamindar Pran Krishna Halder. Four years later, the Kumartuli's "Kumars" started making the idols of "Maa" (mother goddess) Durga in clay for the neo-rich feudal lord Laxmikanta Roy Mazumder, who is the first patron of Kolkata's potter's town and initiator of the "puja" of Durga in clay idols. More: www.littleindia.com/india/1289-kumartuli-potters-town.htm...
Images of Bengal, India