Durga
Puja is celebrated with joy all over India,
especially West Bengal in worship of Goddess
Durga. Singing, dancing, sweets & gaiety
are an integral part of the Durga Pooja Festival. People
send Durga Puja Gifts to dear ones and express good wishes.
This is also known as Dussehra and Navaratriin
other parts of India. Durga is the Goddess of
divine power against all evils. The story goes that Mahisasur,
the Buffalo Demon, through years of praying, received blessing
from Lord Brahma, that no power can kill him which means
he is invincible. But once gaining this power he started
ravaging the whole world and killing people. And finally
he wanted to uproot the Gods too. The Gods, in dismay, combined
their powers to create a beautiful maiden, and each placed
his or her most potent weapon in one of her ten hands riding
a lion. Her return in each year in the Bengali month of Aswin (September-October)
commemorates Rama's invocation of the goddess Durga before
he went into battle with Ravana. The traditional image of
the Bengali Durga follows the iconographic injunctions of
the Shastras. It is similar to the Durga of Aihole and of
Mahabalipuram (seventh century). The tableau of Durga with
her four children - Kartik, Ganesh, Saraswati and Lakshmi,
representing respectively the Protector, the Initiator
of the puja, Knowledge and the Provider - signifies the
complete manifestation of the goddess |