Durga, the Great Goddess

Durga Puja. Torpignattara.
ROME – 28 October 2017

This year, with great sadness, as for many other religious events and celebrations, the feast of Durga, one of the most waited in the Hindu calendar, was canceled. The risk of gatherings in temples is too high.

Durga Puja was one of my first festival I attended when I was just starting to photograph, back in 2009. It was still celebrated in the great park of Centocelle, with the Indian community. Since then I have followed it every year when I was in Rome.

Durga Puja. Centocelle.
ROME – 26 October 2009

This year it is not celebrated, so I am pleased to tell its story and remember it with the photographs of the last Puja of 2017, before leaving for Malaysia.

My homage to the Hindu community.

Durga Puja 2020 will be celebrated in the month of October with Mahalaya on 17 September and Maha Panchami on 21 October.

As the legend of the Hindu Mythology goes, the warrior goddess Durga was brought into existence by the collective effort of all the gods in heaven. When one of the asuras – the evil beings who reside in 'pataal', or below the earth – was granted a boon which stated that he cannot be killed by any man, he began to try and take over the abode of the Gods. This made the divine beings anxious, who inevitably failed in defeating the cunning asura. As a solution to this worrisome issue, all the gods came together and projected their energies and powers to create an invincible woman, named Durga, or the impenetrable.

When Mahishasura first laid eyes on the goddess, he was captivated by her fierce beauty and wished to marry her. The goddess, however, was ready to marry only the one who could defeat her in battle. Since Mahishasura was not careful enough to choose his boon wisely, he forgot to ask for immunity from women. Following a five-day battle between Durga and Mahishasura, the former emerged victorious, thereby returning peace back to the gods and their homes.

In the Vedas there is still no trace of an independent “Great Goddess”; it appears only in the most recent Brahmanism, in which it's considered the most important and popular manifestation of the Devi: Caṇḍika (the “fierce”), more often called Durga (the “inaccessible”).

As a last consideration, Durga is also seen as the one who overturned the traditional Hindu vision of the woman, embodied in Sita, modest, faithful, devoted and submissive to man, with a more powerful and rebellious image.

The 2020 Durga Puja shall be celebrated in the month of Karthik of the Bengali calendar, thus coinciding with the month of October in the Gregorian calendar.

They start from Mahalaya on Thursday 17 September and the first day of Maha Panchami on Wednesday 21 October, Maha Sashti on Thursday 22, Maha Saptami on Friday 23, Maha Ashtami on Saturday 24, Maha Navami on Sunday 25 and the last day Bijaya Dashami on Monday 26.