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For five days a year, the eastern Indian metropolis of Kolkata takes on a Nocturnal flavor.
While the city celebrates a variety of "Pujos", none is Grander than the Durga Puja, which coincides with the second half of Navratri and culminates in the Grand Celebration of Vijaya Dashami - also know as Dusshera in other parts of the country.
Every locality, every sub locality organizes its on "Puja" , with its own uniquely themed "Pandals" and lightning arrangements.
The entire city comes alive in the evening with a festive atmosphere and millions of people hopping from "Pandal" to "Pandal" admiring the workmanship and design of each of these unique creations. People go "Pandal" hopping from early in the evening till early hours of the morning the following day with their friends and family, helping themselves to a myriad of street food along the way, which is also one of Kolkata's specialties.
Five days of festivities culminate in the Vijaya Dashami celebrations and immersion of the Durga idols in the holy Hooghly river.
Being in Kolkata during the Durga Puja is an experience bar none -- one which I have been lucky to witness countless time since my childhood days int he city.
This time, I headed home to capture some of that spirit through my camera and lenses.
Durga-puja is one of the most celebrated festival of India. In Eastern India the images of Goddess Durga is made and worshipped for 10 days, most important being the last five days at the end of which the statues are immersed in water. The statues take almost or more than 3 months to make following a ver y stringent process of making it layer by layer!!
Here the mud structure is almost ready!! It will be painted in appropriate colours, dressed up with jewellery and a crown and in gorgeous saree before the Puja begins!!
Durga (Sanskrit, f., दुर्गा, durgā, wörtl.: die schwer Zugängliche, die schwer zu Begreifende) ist die wohl populärste Form der Göttin im Hinduismus, die in unterschiedlichen göttlichen Erscheinungsformen existiert, gütig und strafend: Sie ist eine Göttin der Vollkommenheit, die als Sarasvati, Lakshmi und Ishvari sowie in anderen Formen erscheinen kann und unter anderem Kraft, Wissen, Handeln und Weisheit verkörpert. Im Tantrismus ist sie Shakti. Während sie etwa als Lakshmi zu Vishnu und als Sarasvati zu Brahma gehört, ist sie in der Form der Durga keinem männlichen Gott zugeordnet. Sie kann vier Arme haben, acht, zehn oder zwanzig, manchmal auch achtzehn, was große Kraft (Shakti) symbolisiert. Auf der Stirn befindet sich das dritte Auge und sie reitet auf einem Löwen oder Tiger. In ihren zornvollen Manifestationen tritt sie als Kali oder Camunda auf. In ihren meist zehn Händen trägt sie verschiedene Symbole, die variieren können. Typisch sind Muschel, Diskus, Dreizack, Pfeil und Bogen, Schwert, Schild, Gebetskette, Glocke und Keule. Sie gilt als Mahadevi (Große Göttin) und Allmutter. Im Shaktismus stellt Durga die höchste Göttin dar, die alle anderen Götter überragt und eins ist mit dem Absoluten. Die Mädchen-Göttin in Nepal, die Kumari, gilt als eine Inkarnation der Durga.
Album Esoteric - Ezoteryka www.flickr.com/photos/arjuna/sets/72057594082135474/
Camden Town Hall, Camden Centre, Bidborough Street, London WC1H 9JE (See Map)
[2011 Puja Dates : 2nd October 2011, Sunday to 6th October 2011, Thursday]
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
Images of Durga Puja at Kolkata: www.google.co.uk/search?q=durga+puja+kolkata&hl=en&am...
Goddess Durga in Hindu religion is the mother of the universe and believed to be the power behind the work of creation, preservation, and destruction of the world. Since time immemorial she has been worshipped as the supreme power of the Supreme Being and has been mentioned in many scriptures - Yajur Veda, Vajasaneyi Samhita and Taittareya Brahman.
Durga incarnated as the united power of all divine beings, who offered her the required physical attributes and weapons to kill the demon "Mahishasur".
Durga is depicted as having eight or ten hands. These represent eight quadrants or ten directions in Hinduism. This suggests that she protects the devotees from all directions.
Durga also known as three eyed Goddess. The left eye represents desire (the moon), the right eye represents action (the sun), and the central eye knowledge (fire).
Shot @ Bangalore,Sept 2014
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Barisha Udayan Palli
Durga Puja - the ceremonial worship of the supremely radiant 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 worshiped with great passion and devotion. 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.
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.
Experience Durga Puja in Kolkata........ An Experience of A Lifetime! September 30-October 4, 2014
Duera Puja” in an old mansion in Kolkata.
“Durga Puja” the greatest festival in Eastern India is celebrated in many rich families in Kolkata beside huge number of public celebrations. Where public celebration of “Durga Puja” is full of new thoughts, the family Puja is still now celebrated in century old traditions. All the family members gather in the ancestral house during puja and follow the old traditions that were started by their forefathers. Family Pujas contain the flavor of lost days that is nice indeed. All the male members put on traditional dress instead of western dress and all the female members of family put on heavy gold ornaments with traditional dress “Saree” during puja days. One can get back to 100 to 150 years ago while visiting these family puajas.
(The above shot is dedicated to someone who is my inspiration to search story through lens)