Bijoya Dashami is the last day of the Puja, and it starts with a goodbye. In Bengal, Durga is not only a warrior goddess. She is also Uma, a daughter who comes home to her parents for a few days each autumn and must then go back to her husband, Shiva, in Kailash. The songs of the season, agomoni for her arrival and bijoya for her leaving, are full of a mother’s longing for her daughter.
Debi baran
After the Dashami puja, the women of the household or the neighbourhood perform debi baran, the farewell to the goddess. They come up to the idol with a tray holding paan, sweets, a lamp and sindoor, the red vermilion that marks a married woman in Bengali Hindu tradition. They touch the goddess’s face with the sweets, offer her paan, and touch sindoor to her forehead and feet. Many whisper a few words to her. Some cry.
Sindoor khela
Then the women turn to each other. Sindoor khela, playing with vermilion, means smearing sindoor on one another’s foreheads, cheeks and hair. Within minutes the space in front of the idol is a crowd of red faces and white-and-red saris, with conch shells blowing and the ululation, the ulu, rising over the dhak. It is joyful and sad at once: a celebration of the women of the para, and the last time this year that they will stand together before the goddess.
The ritual is traditionally a prayer for a long and happy married life. In recent years it has also become a conversation about who is included. At some pujas widows, unmarried women and transgender women have joined in, and the question of who may take part has become part of the ritual’s story.
After the sindoor
Once the farewell is done, the idol is lifted from the stage and carried to a waiting truck, and the procession sets off for the river with the dhak playing. At the ghat the idol is immersed in the Hooghly. Back at home, people greet each other with “Shubho Bijoya”: the young touch their elders’ feet, friends embrace, and there are sweets, naru and nimki for everyone who visits over the next few days.
If you would like to watch
- Sindoor khela usually happens from late morning on Dashami, after the Dashami puja. The exact time depends on the tithi, so check this year’s schedule.
- Bagbazar Sarbojanin’s sindoor khela is one of the best known, and the bonedi bari pujas of north Kolkata keep their own family traditions.
- It is a ritual, not a show. Watch from the side, and ask before photographing anyone up close.
- If you join in, wear clothes you do not mind turning red.