Durga Puja in Rome, 2021

Durga Puja. Rome, October 2021

Durga Puja, also known as Durgotsava (Bengali দুর্গোৎসব, Feast of Durga) is an annual Hindu festival from South Asia that celebrates the goddess Durga. It refers to the six days named Mahalaya, Shashthi, Maha Saptami, Maha Ashtami, Maha Navami, and Bijoya Dashami. During this long holiday, Durga is celebrated as the savior of the world from the threat of evil. In some cases, it's celebrated for nine days, called Navaratri. 

But who is Durga? Also known as “The Impenetrable” or “The Ineffable”.

Before her, no female figure had her strength, indeed, completely overturned the vision of the perfect Hindu woman embodied by Sita, the wife of Rama, who is still the ideal type of woman and wife: beautiful, virtuous, modest, and faithful.

There are two traditions that tell of Durga's exploits.

That of the Visnu Purana, in which the Great Goddess was generated by the magical force of the god Visnu, who turned to her to defeat a demon who wanted to kill little Krishna; so it was that the goddess took the place of Davaki's womb, letting the demon kill her, making him believe that, in this way, had destroyed the embryo containing Krishna. From that moment she became one of the major deities to be worshiped.

But the best known and most common version dates back to the 5th-7th century AD.

That is the one that tells of Mahisasura, the powerful buffalo-demon, who – thanks to a special power – could not be killed by any man, so that he first conquered the earth, then threatened Indra to also take possession of the skies. After a battle lasting a hundred years, the buffalo-demon became the Lord of all worlds, which made him arrogant and proud.

It was then that Indra, having no other alternative, turned to ask for help from the Trimurti Brahma, Siva and Visnu, whom, full of anger, together with all the Hindu deities, made a very powerful energy come out of their mouths full of rage in the guise of fire. As the fire condensed, it took the form of the beautiful goddess Durga, who was given the task of destroying the terrible buffalo-demon.

Because, according to the power Mahisa enjoyed, only a woman could have killed him. To help her in this task, each of the gods gave her one of their attributes: the cup of wine, the trident, the spear, the rosary and vase with water, the luster, the shell, the tiger, the thunderbolt, and still others.

This is the reason for Durga's classic iconography which can be eight to thirty-two arms.

Her thunderous laughter made the whole world tremble, to the point of alarming the demons’ servants of Mahisa, who warned him of the advent of a beautiful virgin woman, who, as never before her, embodied two qualities that existed in the same person: eroticism and heroism.

The perfect bride to have, the demon thought immediately.

But Durga before killed all the demons sent by Mahisa to convince her, then she refused the same demon who took the features of a beautiful man.

Nothing to do, Durga was created only to protect the righteous.

Then a long battle began between the ferocious Goddess and the demon who continually assumed the guise of different animals.

But eventually, Durga killed him with Shiva's trident and then decapitated him with the disc. Only then did Mahisa return to his real human form from the body of the slain buffalo and Durga became “the goddess who kills the buffalo demon”, and she was worshiped with hymns and dances in her honor.

Silvia Vona

The Hindu community of Bangladesh celebrated this holiday over four days, in the large Sarbojonin Hindu Puja and Om Hindu Mondir temple, at a branch venue for dance performances.

I have only been able to join them in the last three days.

If the first two were not great news for me, as I have been following and photographing this event since 2009, but the last day was special.

After the ceremonies and dances, which also saw the presence of Silvia Vona, a dear friend I have known for years and who has been studying the Orissi dance for a long time, who performed in two classical dances: the first Durga stuti, and the second Moksha.

On the last day, called Bijoya Dashami, it concluded the prayer in the first part of the day. Then the friends of the temple told me that they would go to Ostia to leave the flowers of the Goth (the golden copper vase) in the sea, as happens in India in the Ganges, and in every place of Bangladesh to conclude this festival.

We got in the car and arrived on the beach I witnessed this surreal and beautiful scene: in the cold and in total solitude, the faithful approached the shore, singing and playing the drums, and then let the blessed flowers go to the surface of the water.

 

Ostia beach

In the evening there was the real festival, with the long procession of women to mark with the red powder, the sindur, the effigy of Durga and to receive from the brahmin the red lucky charm bracelet called pola, used as protection from evils and calamity as mentioned in the Puranas.

Unfortunately, the festival was ruined by the news that arrived in real-time from Bangladesh, where a group of bigoted Muslims attacked two Hindu temples in Comilla and Noakhali, destroying the icon of Durga and killing four faithful.

The anger was mitigated by the brahmin who asked everyone to join in silence, praying for a few minutes.

Then the delirium began, as in a kind of techno-rave with men and women dancing and sprinkling their faces with red dust.

These are the photographs that I think are the most emblematic of these three long days.

 

Post Scriptum
Religions are designed to unite and not to divide men.
There should always be tolerance and respect for one another.
And, more importantly for me, the desire to know.
Knowledge is the only thing that makes us superior to the baseness of existence.
And whoever really has the desire to know in his heart can only feel respect and never hate.

All the photos were taken at the Sarbojonin Hindu Puja Mondir and in the location used by the Om Hindu Mondir, in Torpignattara and Ostia, from 13 to 15 October.

Italian version