Pujo Gyan
Pujo in the Villages of Bengal
Long before theme pandals and traffic jams, Pujo lived in the villages: in a pillared Chandi Mandap, in a pond where the Kola Bou was bathed, in rice-paste alpana on a mud floor, and in a whole village carrying the goddess to the river. Much of it still does.
The Chandi Mandap: where the village meets
In many Bengal villages the Durga Puja happens in the Chandi Mandap (chandimandap), a raised, roofed hall, often open on three sides with pillars, built facing the courtyard of a landowning family or in the middle of the village. For the rest of the year it was the village's common room: children learnt their letters there in the pathshala, elders settled disputes, travellers rested and the village gathered for news and kirtan. When Pujo came, the same hall became the goddess's home for five days.
That is the real meaning of a village Pujo: everyone has a job. One family gives the rice for bhog, another the flowers, the potter's family makes the idol, the dhakis come from the next village, the women draw alpana and the children run errands. The Pujo belongs to the whole community, not to a ticket queue.
🤝 Play Barowari Committee: run your own village Pujo
From Rath Yatra to Mahalaya: making the goddess
- Rath Yatra
Khatamo puja: in many villages and in Kumartuli the work begins with worship of the wooden or bamboo frame (kathamo) on which the idol will be built. A small puja, a blown conch, and the countdown to Pujo has started.
- Monsoon weeks
Straw is tied onto the frame to give the body its shape, then layers of clay are added: a coarse, sticky clay mixed with straw or husk first, then fine river clay for a smooth skin. Each layer must dry, which is hard in the rains.
- Weeks before
Painting and dressing: the skin colour, the sari, the jewellery. Many village idols wear shola (pith) ornaments, or daker saaj, the shining silver foil work whose name is often explained as 'what came by post (dak)', because the foil was once imported.
- Mahalaya
Chokkhu daan, the gift of eyes: the artist paints the goddess's eyes last, traditionally on or around Mahalaya. Until the eyes are painted, the idol is clay; after, she is Ma.
🎨 Play Kumartuli: build a pratima and paint her eyes yourself
The five days, village style
Bodhon under the bel tree
On Shashthi evening the goddess is awakened (bodhon) with a ritual at a bel (wood apple) tree, or a bel branch, recalling Rama's untimely autumn worship. In villages this is often a real tree near the mandap, decorated for the evening.
Kola Bou's bath
Early on Saptami, nine plants tied around a banana plant (the Nabapatrika, fondly called Kola Bou) are carried to the river or village pond, with the dhak playing and conches blowing. She is bathed, dressed in a red-bordered sari and set beside Ganesha.
Sandhi Puja: 108 lamps
In the 48 minutes when Ashtami ends and Navami begins, the goddess is worshipped in her fierce form as Chamunda. 108 earthen lamps are lit and 108 lotuses offered; where lotuses are scarce, some homes offer other flowers. The dhak is at its loudest.
Symbolic bali
Some old family and village pujos once offered animal sacrifice. Most now offer a symbolic bali instead: a white pumpkin or ash gourd (chal kumro), a length of sugarcane or a banana, cut with a single stroke. The idea of giving up something is kept; the blood is not.
Alpana and shiuli
Women draw alpana on the floor with a paste of soaked, ground rice, using a fingertip or a scrap of cloth: lotuses, conches, paddy, creepers and small footprints. Shiuli (night jasmine), white with an orange stem, blooms in autumn and falls at dawn; for many Bengalis, a carpet of shiuli under the tree is the first sign that Ma is coming.
Sindoor at the goddess's feet
On Dashami, before she leaves, married women do boron: they offer sweets and betel leaf, touch sindoor to the goddess's forehead and feet, and then smear it on each other's foreheads and cheeks. That is sindoor khela: a goodbye and a blessing in one.
🪔 Play Sandhi Puja: light 108 lamps in 48 seconds
🍌 Play Kola Bou: name the nine plants and bathe her
🌼 Open Alpana Studio: draw your own alpana
Bisarjan: the whole village walks her to the water
There are no trucks in a village bisarjan. The idol is lifted onto bamboo poles and carried on shoulders, the dhak leading, lanterns and torches lighting the path, to the river or the big pond. In riverside villages two boats may carry the idol out and let her go between them. People call out 'Asche bochor abar hobe' (it will happen again next year), and then the village goes home to touch elders' feet, embrace friends (kolakuli) and share narkel naru: Bijoya.
Customs differ from village to village and family to family; this page describes common practice, not a single rule. Ask the elders of your own village: every Pujo has its own story.
What is a Chandi Mandap?
A raised, roofed hall, usually with pillars, in a family courtyard or village centre where Durga and other deities are worshipped, and which served the rest of the year as the village's school, meeting place and rest house.
Where was the first barowari Durga Puja?
The most commonly cited answer is Guptipara in Hooghly district, around 1790 (some sources say 1761), started by twelve friends who collected money from the village.
What is khatamo puja?
The worship of the wooden or bamboo frame (kathamo) on which the idol will be built, held in many places on the day of Rath Yatra. It marks the start of idol-making.
What is chokkhu daan?
The painting of the goddess's eyes, the last and most important step in making the idol, traditionally done on or around Mahalaya.
What is offered in a symbolic bali?
Usually a white pumpkin or ash gourd (chal kumro), sugarcane or a banana, cut in one stroke in place of an animal.