Pratap Chandra Ghosh

“ Yet she says she will come again and after the sun has travelled through the world in search of the beloved, when he is in the threshold of death, and is going to end his solitary life, she appears again in the Gloaming, the same as the Dawn, at the end of the dreary day when the sun seemed to die away in the far west, the heavens opened and the glorious image of the Dawn rose again, her beauty deepened by a gloaming darkness. ”

“ Decidedly she is none of these, for a goddess so universally and contemporarily adored could not be the creature of fiction, which is local in its very nature. What then could this prodigy riding on a ferocious lion be? She could not be Veritas, the goddess of Truth, subduing the lion by the force of her charms, for she is represented as a martial goddess in the act of fighting. But how could nature give birth to a monstrous being with ten arms and three eyes? ”

“ Om you are rice, om you are life, you are the life of the gods, you are our life, you are our internal life, you are long life, you give life, om the Sun with his rays gives you the milk of life and Varuna nourishes you with water. Similarly the other grains are scattered, and the ghata is then placed upon them with the following mantra. Om noble-souled jar, you please the gods, you held in your cavity the sacred nectar, from you oozed out a thousand drops of liquor, which made the gods immortal, om you saved the gods, may you save me. ”

“ The Kalika Purana says, whoever in the great festival of Durga does not worship the Devi whether from ignorance, vanity, or jealousy, or from any other cause, the wrath of the Goddess falls on him and destroys all his wishes. ”

“ Indeed, the Durgotsava is of all Hindu festivals, the most solemn and the most popular. Every Hindu, who can afford to enjoy the luxury of celebrating the festival, begins to make preparations for it from the commencement of the year. So dear is the festival to the Hindus of Bengal that few forego the pleasure of worshipping the autumnal Goddess. ”

“ Usha the goddess Dawn, plays a most important part in the Rig Veda. "She goes to every house, she thinks of the dwelling of man, she does not despise the small or the great, she brings wealth, she is always the same immortal divine, she does not grow old, she is the young goddess, she was born of the gods to slay the powers of darkness (the Dasyus) , she fills the air with light and she spreads the sky, she hides her face in water when she sees her husband. ”

“ On the other side of Virgo of the heavens stands the constellation Leo almost as far removed from Virgo upwards as the Centaur is downwards, Virgo, Virgin, is the Devi, Centaur is the Demon Mahisasura, and Leo, the Devi's Lion.
Some have supposed her to be the planet Venus, the beauty of heaven, while others have taken her for the fair harvest moon of autumn; but the fixed lady Virgo can not be properly identified with these moving male luminaries of the Hindu Sastras. The moon is called the lord of stars (tarapati) , while Venus is known as the beauty of the stars (tarasundari) . ”

“ Dawn having vanquished the demon Darkness establishes the reign of Light. Durga is therefore designated Vijaya, Victoria, or the bestower of victories. It is remarkable that the constellation of Berenice is on the north of Virgo. The dark fortnight of a lunar month is the period, when darkness predominates and is therefore considered unfit for certain ceremonies. In the bright fortnight also for seven or eight days there is a contest as it were between Darkness and Lights, and it is only on the dasami tithi, the tenth lunation, that the dominion of light is thoroughly established. ”

“ Durga in the Puranas is said to be the light of fire, the light of the sun, the light of electricity, and the light of the stars, and indeed the best of all lights. The above four are indeed the sources of all light. The light generated by chemical and vital actions is the only remaining source of light, which has not been mentioned, but it needs be remembered at what age the Puranas were written, for Western Science has only so late as the eighteenth century discovered these as the only sources of light. ”

“ Because the goddess is none other than Aurora, the Dawn of the Vedas.
In the mythology of the Puranas and in the mysticisms of the Tantras this, the first and grandest of festivals so universally observed and so solemnly celebrated throughout India, was associated with a portentious event in the history of the heavens. The kingdom of heaven was in danger, the Demons and Asuras made all powerful by the suffrance of the Almighty attacked the regions of the gods, dethroned them, reduced them to the most abject condition of poverty and defied the command of the Creator himself. ”

“ Dawn knows no destinction of rank of wealth in her visitations. As the poet says the moon does not withhold his [7] light from the house of even a Chandala, so Dawn, Durga, according to the Puranas may be worshipped by men of all castes, aye even by the mlechchhas or the infidels. In her capacity of a bringer of wealth Dawn is worshipped in the form of Durga, and is prayed to bless men with plenty. Dawn never grows old, nor does Durga, she is said to be full with the freshness of youth. ”

“ According to certain interpretations of the Puranas and Tantras, Durga has been made to assume a different character, that is Force, Prakrti, Sakti. But when it is remembered that man's idea of the godhead in the infancy of the world was derived from the manifestations of the sun, moon and stars, the identification of Durga with Dawn, it is to be hoped, will not appear altogether extravagant. Indeed, this theory finds a remarkable confirmation in the Invokation to the Goddess sung by Kalidasa in his Sakuntala or the Lost Ring quoted in the title-page. ”

“ Before the goddess is worshipped she has to be awakened. Indra is said to rise about the time of the new moon of Asvina, and from time immemorial the Sakrotthana or the rising of Indra has been observed as an agricultural festival. The Devi Purana says, in the month of Isha i.e. Asvina, in the waning fortnight, when the sun enters the sign Virgo, on the ninth day, the Goddess is to be roused with sport, pleasure, and prosperity. ”

“ Does she then reside in the heavens? The early Chaldæans and Phœnicians from their knowledge of the heavenly bodies fell at last to their worship. The Hindus as well as the other Arian nations have adored from time immemorial the heavenly luminaries as beings superior to man, and have from their supposed extraordinary influence adorned them with suitable attributes. In the heavens therefore we must seek for the Devi, for in the heavens we find the heavenly Virgin shining in full lustre and throwing light on the grand mystery of her origin. ”

“ Durga stands with one foot on a lion whose Sanskrit name is Hari, the god of day, the sun, and the other on the demon Darkness, for Dawn may be said to stand on both. The left foot of Durga, with which she crushes the demon, is raised a little in the attitude of employing force, for Dawn virtually makes the demon Darkness bear her weight. ”

“ In some families, again, the principal ornaments of the idols are made of earth. But Kartikeya is most susceptible of change. His dress depends much upon the fancy of the head of the family. The heads of Kartikeya, Ganesa and the demon are the same in every house. The heads of the three goddesses may be either slightly flat or oval. Many have an elongated head for the lion, more like that of a horse and a dragon, while others, delineate the natural face of the lion. ”

“ Modern scholars have elevated comparative religion or mythology like comparative philology to a science, and in investigating the origin of the religious festivals and ceremonies of the ancients nothing perhaps strikes the student more forcibly than the reproduction of the same principles, the same thoughts, the same sentiments, and even the same forms in different climes and among different families of man. ”

“ Some have a round chal, which is in Bengali called Bangala, others have three separate semi-circular, triangular, spherically-triangular pieces, with truncated conical top.
The figures are, in the central group, a representation of Durga, the ten-armed goddess, standing with the right foot upon the back of a lion, which is again described in the attitude of a combatant attacking an Asura, (the buffalo-demon) on whom rests her left foot. The goddess has many-braided locks of hair, the crescent moon on her forehead ”

“ A piece of new cloth dyed yellow with turmeric is tied round the neck of the ghata, and a figure of a God with two arms and two legs is described on the central portion of the ghata, with a paste made of vermillion and ghee. The ghata thus decorated is placed upon a lump of fine dough of clay, brought from the River, over which are scattered the five grains. In a small earthen pot a mixture of curd and rice is made, which is sprinkled on the ghata. Every process above described is performed by the priest with a separate mantra. ”

“ The Bhavishyottara Purana says, the gratification of Bhavani is the assurance of happiness for the whole year, is for the destruction of the spirits, goblins and ghosts, and also for the sake of festivity. ”

“ But why should Nature, Energy or Illusion be represented by the lovely form of a Virgin, made terrific with her rows of arms, triple eyes &c? Or why should Nature our common mother, divine Omnipotence, be portrayed as waging everlasting war with Demons and not nursing her children with fostering care? ”

“ In this manner others, who likewise hold rent-free lands, from the priest who performs the worship to the suppliers of different edibles including the musicians and other attendants on the occasion, render their annual tribute of service, and the festival is celebrated without subjecting the family to additional expenses. At places where the ulu straw is not available the substratum of the figures is made with the straw of paddy. In some families however the same frame-work is used every year, and when the plank gets rotten, a bit from the old plank is attached to the new. ”

“ The idea of the co-existence of a co-eternal female co-partner of the male creator of the universe is not at all compatible with our intuitive knowledge of the Self-Existent God, though the Darsanas regard her as some conspicuous object in nature, for instance the Sankhyas call her Prakrti or Nature, the Naiyayikas, Adya Sakti or Prime Energy of the Deity, and the Vaidantias, Maya or Illusion. ”

“ The Buffalo-demon is represented by some as coming out of the carcass of a buffalo and is somewhere painted gray. Kartikeya is always represented as seated on a peacock. Sometimes we meet with a standing Kartikeya and then he is painted yellowish white. In some families the clothes of the three female idols are made by the architect with plasters of earth, and in others, pieces of cloth are actually placed round the idols, and in the latter case the color preferred for the golden colored female idols is red and for pure white Sarasvati blue or purple. ”

“ The Vedas present no evidence of even the existence of the system of asterisms, indeed it is remarkable how little notice is taken of the stars by the Vaidic poets, even the recognition of some of the luminaries as planets i. e. those which change their position in the heavens with regard to the fixed stars does not appear to have occurred until considerably later. ”

“ From the above it would appear, that the commencement of the ceremony of arousing the goddess may be deserved on either the ninth day of the dark fortnight preceding the Durgotsava, or on the sixth day of the waxing fortnight. These two are the days of Bodhana or arousing, but the Kalpa or the resolution to worship the Goddess may be commenced on the first day after the new moon preceding the Durgotsava, this is called the Pratipadadikalpa. ”

“ As soon as the painting of the idols is finished, the remnants of the paint are taken to the ladies of the house, and they paint with the same a particular spot in the room alloted to the family idol. ”

“ The ravens, which accompany this idol, have their counterpart in the constellation Corvus in the heavens which follows Virgo. It might be mentioned that the asterism Svati is held in the Tantras to be an auspicious junction star of the new moon for the worship of Kali. ”

“ The materials are scrupulously collected, and every precaution is taken to preserve their purity (i. e. freedom from defilement by unbelievers.) The materials are pieces of bamboo-slits, unpealed garan (Ceriops Roxburghianus, Arn) yearlings, dried ulu grass, (Imperata cylindrica, Beauv) and a plank from mango timber. ”

“ The chals (4) constitute the most interesting part of the entire group. The principal and prominent picture in the central chal, is that of Muktakesi, a form of Kali. She is painted purple and in every respect she is a Kali. Her red tongue projecting out of her purple though well-formed face, four-armed, decorated with a necklace of human skulls and dressed in elephant-skin. She also stands upon Siva, but unlike the Dakshina Kali her left leg is foremost. ”

“ Sankalpa.—On the day of pratipada having finished the usual morning ceremony, (9) with kusa in hand, and having done the achamana (10) , repeat the achamana sukta. The achamana is a peculiar process of washing and purifying one's self. ”