DURGA PUJA : RITUALS AND ECOLOGY

RK. Bhakat*

Abstract

Durga Puja is a popular socio-cultural festival in India. Despite it's mythological and religious significance, the
worship of Durga has agrarian and ecological roots. This paper attempts to dissect the relationship between
Durga puja, more specifically the worship of nabapatrika along with other plants and ecological sustainability.
It thus illustrates how religion, environment and conservation arc complementary to one another.

The goddess Durga, one of the most formidable yet popular personifications of the Hindu
pantheon, is revered by innumerable Indians as the symbol of divine cosmic energy. The
goddess is represented as Shakti whose foremost function is to maintain the balance of the
cosmic order by vanquishing the demons who are considered antidivine forces. The Durga
puja which falls in the autumn when the goddess is propitiated for nine days is one of the
1110st popular festivals of India in general and Bengal in particular.

In the days of yore, Durga Puja was carried out by Hindu kings, Zamindars and well-to-do
families. But gradually, this festival has evolved into a community festival organized by puja
committees and temple trusts. And today, with an increased democratization, the puja far
transcends it's Bengali roots, and is celebrated both in India and abroad by Hindus.

(
\
"Department of Botany and Forestry, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore - 721 102, WB., India
 Durga Puja : Rituals and Ecology 17

The Devi Mahatmya , an authentic and most comprehensive account of the functional
significance of the goddess, recounts that Durga was created at a time of critical cosmic
crisis unleashed by the unrelenting Mahisasura - a demon who could transform himself
into a buffalo. But according to another version ofthe myth following Kritivasa Ramayana,
Rama solicited the goddess's favour to vanquish Ravana and free Sita. Yet, the third and
most popular folk imagination oLBplgal has given Durga another identity of a grace­
bestowing mother who leads a family life on Mount Kailasha. She visits her mother every
autumn during puja, coming down to the plains with her children for ten days. Her arrival
begins with the new moon day of Mahalaya and her stay ends on Dashami (the tenth
day). This period, popularly celebrated as Nabaratri (nine nights), heralds great rejoining
in all mortal households. On Dashami, the idol of Durga is immersed in water to symbolise
her return to husband's abode (Coburn, 1984; Kabiraj, 1991; Banerjee, 2006).

Notwithstanding all the narratives, it is generally believed that Durga puja is primarily
performed to commemorate Durga's victory over Mahisasura to remind of the victory of
good over evil and to respect the compassionate mother who bestows fortunes and prosperity,
and also reorders and restores the balance of life.

During the autumn festival in Bengal, along with the earthen icons of Durga and her family
members, nine plant incarnations of Durga referred to as nabapatrika representing nine
aspects of the goddess are propitiated. The goddess is said to be one who resides in nine
plants. These are: Aegle marmelos (bel or woodapple), Alocasia indica (mankachu or
wild arum), Clerodendrum phlomoides (jayanti), Colocasia antiquorum (kachu or arum),
Curcuma longa (haridra or turmeric), Musa sp. (kala or banana), Oryza sativa (dhan
or paddy), Punica granatum (dalim or pomegranate) and Saraca asoka (asoke)
representing Kalika, Brahmani, Camunda, Durga herself, Kartiki, Shakti/Uma, Raktadantika,
Sokaharita and Lakshmi respectively (Pal, 1970; Khanna, 2000).

However, what is interesting and equally significant is the association of Durga with nature
and ecology. Since the worship is performed on icons along with ceremonial pot (mangala
ghata) holding cosmic waters of creation set on the freshly sprouted barley seedbed, it
reveals its intimate connection with lands, fields, forests and groves. The three symbols of
goddess - soil, water and vegetation - are the most fundamental elements of the nature
which are in constant symbiotic relationship through the biogeochemical cycles that restore
ecological balance on the earth. Even a closer and deeper look at the puja rituals and
performances reveals that the roots of Durga Puja lie in the larger context of nature-based
pro-ecological rural agricultural traditions of India which have a bearing on the seasonal
rhythms and crop cycles. This is the original motive and intent behind the worship.

Madhu Kanna (2000), in an essay in the book Hinduism and Ecology says, "For millions
in India, the goddess Durga lives in freshly sprung paddy saplings or in the tender shoots

Indian Journal ofGeography and Environment

Hi R. K. Bhakat

of barley; in golden spikelets of harvest grains; in deep forest groves hidden among clusters
of green shrubs, trees, and creepers; in the spices and roots used in the daily diet; in the
bilva, or wood apple tree, and its fortune-bestowing fruit, sriphala, and in the rich produce
of the harvest season. These nature personifications of the goddess represent the fecund
power of the earth with which the goddess Durga is identified. The unity of agricultural
productivity and festive activity is integral to all the traditional societies, and Durga worship
presents but one 'ecocosmic' model ofthis worship". But over a period of history, the primal
link between seasonal celebration and ecology has been superimposed and blurred by the
mythification of Durga. Today, we recognise Durga as a demon slayer, but not as one who
is responsible for preserving the natural balance of our environment. This write-up, therefore,
attempts to dissect the relationship between Durga puja, more specifically the worship of
nabapatrika, and ecological sustainability. In doing so, it then illustrates how religion,
environment and conservation are complementary to one another.

Though the goddess is synonymous with the cosmic energy, she is vitalised through her
natural symbols or swambhu murtis, such as the sacred waters of mangala-ghata, the
wood apple tree and the nabapatrika. Before the commencement of the main puja on the
sixth day (sasthi), the goddess is aroused (bodhana) and welcomed in the wood apple
tree. On the seventh day (saptami) and thereafter, the nabapatrika is purified and anointed
by invoking sacred waters of oceans, rivers, streams and lakes. Besides.this, almost all the
bounties from nature - plants, plant parts, soils etc. enter into the ritual cycle of Durga
worship. And this affirms that the goddess's association with plants, trees, groves, soils
and waters is perennial. The Durga-stava in Mahabharata also states that the Durga's
abodes can be found on the mountain peaks, by the rivers and in caves, forests and groves.
Her association with trees and forests may have been the very basis of the goddess's
survival as sacred tree or grove based folk deity Bana Durga or Bana Devi in rural areas
of Bangladesh and India, particularly in Sundarbans and South West Bengal forest belts..
Among the folk and tribal cultures of Bengal, trees and forests are worshiped as Bana
Devatas, or deities of the forests (Mitra, 1922; Kamilya, 2002). A parallel of this belief is
also found in Devi Mahatmya in which the earth mother proclaims that she will slay the
asura (demon) that personify drought, and sustain the whole world with the life-giving
vegetables that grow from her body (Shiva, 1989).

A direct relationship ofthe worship with ecology is evident in the selection of plant varieties
(including nabapatrika) for the rituals. The large number of plants, plant parts/organs and
products (Table 1) used during puja as puja ingredients and for making idols to immersion
have a sustenance value, and are therefore significant in terms of ecology, environment,
economy and health. Making these species available along with other earth-borne resources
like different kinds of holy waters, soils etc. year after year in the age of environmental
destruction is the easiest, safest and surest way of natural resource management in general \
and biodiversity conservation in particular. The innumerable rituals of Durga puja, the
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 Durga Puja : Rituals and Ecology 19

bodhana for example, where plants are awakened, preserve a norm for the ecological
ethics. They unambiguously show and record the ethos and sensibility of the people who
care for the nature. Therefore, the ritual of Durga puja and similar other religious beliefs
and ethics as they exist today have the potential to inspire people to use symbols rooted in
the earth for environmental activism and ecologicalpreservation. In fact, this kind of religious
and sacred tags on the environment has been one of the many arguments put forwarded
by the rural communities in India to protect and preserve ecosystems. In the tribal-dominated
village of Chilkigarh .(near Jhargram) in West Midnapore district of West Bengal, villagers
have formed a committee to protect a 6O-acre forest patch which houses the holy temple
of Kanak Durga (a lesser known local forest deity). This sacred grove, a piece of uncut
original forest vegetation, typical of the South Bengal, harbours around 400 species of plant
populations (Table - 1). It acts as a last sanctuary for more than 100 different kinds of
regional ethnomedicinal plants which are fast becoming rare in the rural hinterlands (Bhakat,
2003; Bhakat and Pandit, 2006). And the method of degraded forest revival, protection and
conservation due primarily on socio-religious grounds by the adivasis in India in general
and Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Madhyapradesh in particular through the network of sacred
groves variously known as sarna, jahirthan, deovan etc. is an eye-opener in this respect.
This network of sacred groves that covers India so impressed Sir Dietrich Brandis, the
first inspector general of forests in colonial India, that he urged a system of forest reserves
and preserves modelled upon it. Therefore, there is an urgent need to respect, revive and
reinvent these traditional ecological attitudes. And also, these strategies should be given a
new-found significance in modem discourses on environmental conservation.

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20 R. K Bhakat

Table 1: Ingredients used for Durga Puja (modified after Pal, 1970 and Khanna,
2000).

A. PLANT-DERIVED ITEMS: 'Y. Pancha Kasaya (Five types of

I. Pratima prastuti (Idol preparation) barks)
1. Aeschynomene aspara (Sola) 1. Mimusop elengi (Bakul)
2. Bambusa aurandinacea (Bans) 2. Salmalia malabarica (Shimul)
3. Gossypium herbaceum (Karpas) 3. Sida rhombifolia (Berela)
4. Oryza sativa (Dhan) 4. Syzygium cumini (Jam)
5. Saccharum spontaneum (Keshay) 5. Zyzyphus jujuba (Kul)
II. Nabapatrika (Nine plant-forms of VI. Pancha sarsa (Five types of seeds)
Durga) 1. Brassica hirta (Sweta sarsa)
1. Aegle marmelos (Bel) 2. Hordeum vulgare (Jav)
2. Alocasia indica (Mankachu) 3. Oryza sativa (Dhan)
3. Clerodendrum phlomoides (Jayanti) 4. Phaseolus mungo (Mung)
4. Colocasia antiquorum (Kachu) 5. Sesamum tndicum (Ttl)
5. Curcuma longa (Haridra) VII. Pancha guri (Five types of
6. Musa sp. (Kala) powders)
7. Oryza sativa (Dhan) 1. Aegle marmelos (Bel leaf)
8. Punica granatum (Dalim) 2. Carthamus tinctorius (Kusum phal)
9. Saraca asoka (Asoke)
3. Curcuma longa (Rhizome)
III. Homagni (Fire oblation/sacred fire)
4. Oryza sativa (Burnt paddy)
1. Aegle marmelos (Bel)
5. Triticum aestivum (Wheat grain)
2. Areca catechu (Supari)
VIII. Sarbaaushad (Medicinal plants)
3. Ficus sp. (Dumur)
1. Barberis aristata (Darhaldi)
5. Ocimum sanctum (Iulsi)
2. Curcuma longa (Haldi)
6. Piper betle (Pan)
3. Curcuma zedoaria (Sati)
Iv. Pancho pallava (Five types of
twigs) 4. Cyperus rotundus (Mutha)
1. Mangifera indica (Am) 5. Michelia champaca (Champa)
2. Ficus bengalensis (Bat) 6. Nardostachys jatamansi (Jatamansi)
3. Ficus infectoria (Pakur) 7. Saussurea lappa (Brahmakamal)
4. Ficus raccmosa (Jagna-dumur) 8. Zingiber zerumbet (Bach) \
\
5. Ficus religiosa (Aswatha)
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 Durga Puja : Rituals and Ecology 21

IX. Mahaausadhi (Medicinal Plants) 5. Crocus sativa (Kesar/Saffron)

1. Asparagus racemosus (Satamuli) 6. Syzygium aromaticum (Lavanga)
2. Eclipta alba (Bhrtngaraj) 7. Zingiber officinalis (Ada)
3. Ichnocarpus frutescens B. MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS
(Shyamalata) I. Different types of waters
4. Sida rhombifolia (Swet berela) 1. Pure water
5. Tinospora cordifolia (Gulancha) 2. Conch water
X. Prasada (Holly food) 3. Ganges water
1. Carica papaya (Pepe) 4. Metal-bathed waters
2. Cocos nucifera (Narikel) 5. Honey water
3. Cicer arietinum (Chhola) 6. Kush grass water
4. Citrus maxima (Batabilebu) 7. Lotus water
5. Citrus reticulata (Kamal lebu) 8. Green coconut water
6. Cucumis sativa (Sasa) 9. Honey water
7. Mangifera indica (Am) 10. Milk water
8. Musa paradistaca (Kala) 11. Coconut water
9. Phaseolus aureus (Mash-kalai) 12. Curd water
10. Phaseeolus mungo (Mung) 13. Water from holy places, etc.
11. Phoenix sylvestris (Khejur) II. Different types of soils
12. Ptsidium guajava (peyara) 1. Soil from Icing's door
13. Pisum sativum (Matar) 2. Soil from cowshed
14. Trapa bisponosa (Paniphal) 3. Soil from sacred hill
Xl. Siddhi (Tonic with hemp) 4. Soil from meeting points of sacred
1. Amomum zeylanicum (Dalchini) rivers
2. Cannabis sativa (Sidhi) 5. Soil from the Ganges
3. Cinnamomum tamala (I'ejpata) 6. Soil from different pilgrimages
4. Cocos nucifera (Narkel jaal) 7. Soil from courtesan's door, etc.

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22 R. K. Bhakat

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Indian Journal of Geography and Environment