Durga Puja is the grandest festival of my city, Kolkata. I remain excited and impatiently wait for it to come every year. I have been shooting and documenting the various aspects of the Durga Puja since my college days for almost a decade, and every year the festive aura is different.
Every year, the art [and] the festive galore keeps changing and upgrading [for the better]. The entire Bengal is decked up during this time. The potters hub, where the Durga idols are made, start their work some 4-5 months back, as the artists' annual earnings are dependent on this festival. I start shooting the preparatory elements of Durga Puja two months before and document the thematic artwork of pandals that creates magic with their new concepts every year. The roads, lanes and every corner of the city is illuminated and decorated during this time.
My story on Pateshwari Durga is different from the usual grand celebration of Durga Puja that happens in the city. I came across the story in [the] Bardhaman district of West Bengal, which is 110 kilometres away from Kolkata.
The Pateshwari Durga Puja is unique and unusual. Idols are not made here, [so] no sculpted incarnations of [the] goddess are created for this pujo. What makes [the] Pateshwari Durga Puja different from [the] usual Durga Puja is the painted form of goddess Durga, along with her family, [is created] on plain wooden structures and preserved for 12 years. The painting of [the] goddess’s image is done by special artists after every 12 years.
What drew me to document and photograph this subject is [that] this Durga Puja has its roots across borders. It was started by a Khatri Punjabi merchant who came to Bengal from Lahore, which is now in Pakistan, with a chandi murti (silver idol) in his hand. The Durga Puja that was initiated by Maharaja Mahatab Chand about 350 years ago is still celebrated with great fervour even to this day. The grandeur of the festival may have [been] toned down, but all puja rituals are strictly observed. Here, the goddess is worshipped as “Pateshwari,” and she is represented in the traditional, cloth-based scroll painting. The deities are elaborately decorated with ornaments made of sola (the pith of a shrub). The painting is framed with sal (Shorea robusta) wood. Devi Durga is depicted as the warrior goddess, mounted on a lion (that resembles a horse, though), annihilating Mahishasur. Lakshmi, Saraswati Ganesh and Kartik are also in the frame. However, one very interesting aspect of the patachitra is that all the deities, other than Ganesh, are shown looking sideways, so viewers get to see only a side profile of the deities. The painting is given a makeover after every 12 years. This ritual is known as Anga-raag. Durga is worshipped here as “Maa Chandi.”
During Maharaja Mahatab Chand’s reign, betel nuts were “slaughtered” as a symbolic gesture. Later, betel nuts were replaced by ash gourd. On the eighth day (Ashtami), Mohun-bhog is offered to the goddess. On both Ashtami and Navami, the deities are offered elaborate bhog that include, among other foodstuffs, puri, chana and halwa (an Indigenous sweetmeat). This is then offered to all devotees. During the heyday of [the] Burdwan kingdom, 51 types of food items were offered to Devi Pateshwari during the puja. The same tradition in lesser numbers still prevails today.
On Navami, Kumari Puja is performed in front of Pateshwari Devi. A girl child is worshipped as a form of [the] goddess Durga. In the evening, the temple complex reverberates with the sound of folk music as Bengali, Sikh, Gujarati and Marwari women of all ages come in colourful attire and perform [the] dandiya dance. Dandiya is performed during Navratri because [the] Pateshwari Durga, despite being worshipped in Bengal, is [also] worshipped by non-Bengali merchants and tenants who [have] lived since generations and ages around the Lakshmi Narayan Jiu Temple of Bardhaman district (where Pateshwari Durga is worshipped). These nine days give us a chance to purify negative thoughts and start afresh. The temple complex gets very crowded during the performance, and devotees sway to the rhythmic music and many join in the dance rituals as well. This old, dilapidated temple comes alive during these nine days of festivity.