The first time you stand in front of a Durga Puja idol there is a lot to take in. The goddess is not alone: in Bengal she arrives with her whole family, and every figure on the stage has a story. Here is who is who.
Durga
At the centre is Durga, with ten arms, each holding a weapon. In the Chandi, the scripture behind the festival, the gods cannot defeat the buffalo demon Mahishasura, and their combined power takes the form of a goddess. Each god then gives her a weapon: the trident from Shiva, the discus from Vishnu, the thunderbolt from Indra and the conch from Varuna, among many others. The mountain Himavat gives her a lion to ride.
In Bengal she is also Uma, a daughter coming home. The Puja tells the story of a married woman visiting her parents, the mountain king and his queen Menaka, for a few days before she returns to her husband Shiva on Mount Kailash. In many traditional idols Shiva himself looks down from the top of the arch.
Mahishasura
At the goddess’s feet is Mahishasura, the demon who could take the form of a buffalo. In the popular telling he had won a boon that no man or god could kill him, which is why it took a goddess. The idol shows the climax of the battle: the buffalo’s head lies severed, and the demon, emerging from its body in human form, is pierced by the goddess’s trident while her lion bites into him.
Her four children
Around her stand her four children, two on each side, each with an animal companion, the vahana.
- Lakshmi, goddess of wealth and good fortune, with her owl.
- Saraswati, goddess of learning and music, holding a veena, with her swan.
- Ganesh, the elephant-headed remover of obstacles, with his mouse.
- Kartik, the young warrior god, with a bow and arrows and his peacock. In Bengal he is usually shown as a dashing young man with a moustache.
Elsewhere in India, Lakshmi and Saraswati are not usually counted as Durga’s daughters. The family on the stage is a way of telling the story that belongs to Bengal and its neighbours in the east.
The banana bride
Beside Ganesh stands something many first-time visitors miss: a young banana plant, bundled with eight other plants and dressed in a white sari with a red border. This is the nabapatrika, often called kola bou, the banana bride. People joke that she is Ganesh’s wife, but in the rites she is the goddess herself.
One frame or many
In a traditional, sabeki idol the whole family stands in a single frame under one arched backdrop, the ekchala. Many modern pujas make each figure separately and arrange them across the stage, and in theme pujas the style can change completely, from folk forms to sculpture close to modern art. The cast stays the same.
Small things to look for
- The eyes. By custom they are painted last, and an idol is said to come alive only once they are done.
- The chalchitra, the arch behind the family, which in traditional idols is painted with figures of gods.
- The lion. In a few old family pujas it has the face of a horse.
- The weapons. Try to name everything in the goddess’s ten hands; it is harder than it sounds.