Origin Of The Durga Puja

This book explores the origins and significance of the Durga Puja festival, one of the most important religious events in the Hindu calendar. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including ancient texts, oral traditions, and contemporary scholarship, the author provides a detailed and nuanced understanding of this complex and multi-faceted festival. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

The book is an introduction to Durga Puja, the grandest festival ineastern India, a celebration that provides a glimpse into the richcultural heritage of Bengal. It is also a ready reckoner of all aspectsof the Puja-its mythical origins, its socio-cultural evolution, itseconomic ramifications and its elaborate rituals. Spiced up withanecdotes and trivia collected from journals and newspapers from the19th century to the present day, it is a compendiumof knowledge associated with the worship of theMother Goddess, one of the oldest surviving Hindutraditions.

Each year, Kolkata's Durga Puja scales new heights as the most spectacular and extravagant event in the city's calendar. From the turn of the twenty-first century, the festival has taken on a particular artistic dispensation that is unique to the contemporary city, demanding a new order of attention and analysis. Based on field-research conducted between 2002 and 2012, this book unravels the anatomy of this newly-congured 'art' event, by tracking the new production processes, the mounting trends of publicity and sponsorship as well as the practices of mass spectatorship that make for the transformed visual culture of the festival. This new visual aesthetic, it is argued, has become the most important marker of the rapidly mutating identity of today's Durga Puja in Kolkata, bringing into the fray new categories of artists and designers, new genres of public art, and new spaces for art production and reception in the city. The book's central concern lies in conceptualizing a specically contemporary and artistic history of the urban festival. In keeping with its title, the book examines the diversity of images and practices - from the consumerist spectacle and the bonanza of awards to the efflorescence of public installations and art and craft productions - that unfurls in this season 'in the name of the goddess'. While proling the Durga Pujas as Kolkata's biggest public art event, the book also addresses the ambivalence of the designations of 'art' and 'artist' in this eld of production and viewership. One of the main aims of this study has been to lay open the claims of 'art' in this festival both as a set of insistent projections as well as a mesh of incomplete formations. The new artistic nomenclature of the festival, it is shown, is not easily secured and has to struggle to assert itself within the body of the religious event and the ephemeral mass spectacle.

This book is compiled with the goal of explaining the hidden history, significance, and meaning of the mantras used in common Hindu puja rituals performed by the Bengalis to the Bengali immigrants.

This book examines the making of the Goddess Durga both as an art and as part of the intangible heritage of Bengal. As the ‘original site of production’ of unbaked clay idols of the Hindu Goddess Durga and other Gods and Goddesses, Kumartuli remains at the centre of such art and heritage. The art and heritage of Kumartuli have been facing challenges in a rapidly globalizing world that demands constant redefinition of ‘art’ with the invasion of market forces and migration of idol makers. As such, the book includes chapters on the evolution of idols, iconographic transformations, popular culture and how the public is constituted by the production and consumption of the works of art and heritage and finally the continuous shaping and reshaping of urban imaginaries and contestations over public space. It also investigates the caste group of Kumbhakars (Kumars or the idol makers), reflecting on the complex relation between inherited skill and artistry. Further, it explores how the social construction of art as ‘art’ introduces a tangled web of power asymmetries between ‘art’ and ‘craft’, between an ‘artist’ and an ‘artisan’, and between ‘appreciation’ and ‘consumption’, along with their implications for the articulation of market in particular and social relations in general. Since little has been written on this heritage hub beyond popular pamphlets, documents on town planning and travelogues, the book, written by authors from various fields, opens up cross-disciplinary conversations, situating itself at the interface between art history, sociology of aesthetics, politics and government, social history, cultural studies, social anthropology and archaeology. The book is aimed at a wide readership, including students, scholars, town planners, heritage preservationists, lawmakers and readers interested in heritage in general and Kumartuli in particular.

Durga Puja is here! What does it mean to a child? Step into this book and watch the festival come alive!This book is part of the series 'From The Toddler Diaries' and celebrates Durga Puja as experienced by 3 year old Riya. This artfully portrayed '5 Days of Pujo' appeals to young and old alike. Shashti, Saptami, Ashtami, Navami and Bijoya Dashami - the cultural colors have a pronounced Bengali connection, but are universal to Durga Puja celebrations across several communities. With 5 star reviews, this book is easy to read and is enthusiastically endorsed by kids and their parents alike!From The Toddler Diaries is a series of illustrated books which celebrates the spectrum of Indian festivals as experienced by a toddler. Presented in poetry and color, 'From The Toddler Diaries' is designed to drape parents and children in vivid hues of India's cultural fabric. The inspiration behind this collection comes from an appreciation of a child's clarity in perception, which becomes magical because of its simplicity. Also, check out 'Celebrate Holi With Me!', which is part of this series.A charming and informative book. A great way to introduce children to the culture.~ Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Award winning author of 'The Mistress of Spices' and 'Before We Visit the Goddess'When I read Shoumi Sen's Celebrate Durga Puja With Me, brilliantly illustrated by Abira Das, I must admit that I want to witness at least one Durga Pujo in my life?~ TokaBox