For many, the autumn festival of Durga Puja is the most important religious festival in the Bengali calendar. Few other festivals occupy so much media coverage each year or mean quite so much in terms of spiritual fulfilment. Just

Just like Rama in Krittivasa’s 15th c Bengali Ramayana, those who perform puja to Durga do it as a vow that brings numerous benefits. Although it has lost its martial aspect, Durga puja still symbolises victory over evil both on a personal level and in society at large. So it is not surprising to find that Durga herself is called Durgatinashini, she who removes all obstacles and puts down calamities or to find that the name Durga can mean a fortress, something that is inaccessible. But Durga is not remote. She is Ma, mother, as well as much loved daughter of Himavat, the Himalayas, who visits for a short while and then returns to her mountain home. A glimpse of her face, as in Satyajit Ray’s film Pather Panchali, evokes a whole range of thoughts and emotions.

The experience of being present in the sight of Durga and her family of Ganesh, Saraswati, Lakshmi and Kartik, of having darshan, is often an emotional one. Worshippers can bring whatever feelings and thoughts seem most appropriate in these private moments of prayer, reflection and meditation. When the priest gently requests 'ma go' (Mother dear) to listen to the prayers of those attending, his reactions and movements set the tone of the whole proceedings. The involvement of participants at every level of the proceedings, including the choice of flowers and cooking the food, the raising of the funds and sending out invitations, ensure that Durga puja is a lively social occasion. Physical contact with the images during puja such as the offering of bhog and sindur brings the worshipper in closer spiritual contact with Durga too for those fortunate enough to attend celebrations.

Perhaps the words attributed to the influential 19th c Swami Vivekananda, who inaugurated Durga puja in 1901 at the Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math, Kolkata using a clay image from Kumartuli, best sum up the way to think about the worship of the image of Durga: 'The Hindu does not worship an idol made of wood and clay, he sees consiousness within the earthneness and loses himself in it.' This is the religious experience of Durga puja.

Many of the older families of Kolkata claim to have been practising Durga puja for at least two centuries or more in succession, some say from before the time of the foundation of the city in 1690. Durga puja then and now is not undertaken lightly since it is expensive and beyond the means of the average individual. So only wealthy, aristocratic families, rajas, zemindars, the landed gentry have in the past celebrated Durga puja as a family occasion. Their homes were open to the public who came to see the Durga protima in the thakur dalans, enjoy the entertainment and receive prashad. Families competed with each other to have the best, most lavish celebrations.

In Kolakata in 1790, the first collective puja celebrations took place in Guptipara in the Hooghly district organised by a group of twelve friends, hence its name baroyari puja, after they had been denied entry to one of these household pujas. It was a puja to Durga as Jagaddhatri and occurred at the time of an epidemic. Subscriptions reaching Rs 7,000 were raised from neighbours and it soon became the model for pujas in neighbouring towns. Durga puja for the masses was born. At the time, most of those involved in baroyari puja were respected traders who elected a secretary to the committee once sufficient funds had been raised by the annual contributions of various shop-keepers and money lenders. But by 1840 baroyari puja was beginning to cause problems with cases of puja committees forcing residents into paying for the celebrations. By 1910 baroyari puja transformed once again into sarvajanin puja, that is puja for all or 'for the universal good'.

Nowadays puja pandals of sarvajanin puja committees have overtaken dalans as crowd pullers with pandal hopping, business sponsorship and prizes for the best pandal emphasising the more commercial side of celebrations. Puja committees in the UK have been importing images from the centre for clay image making, Kumartuli in North Kolkata and elsewhere since the 1960s and many are now celebrating at least 40 years of Durga puja. There are several sarvajanin puja committees in London as well as Birmingham, Leicester, Liverpool, Milton Keynes, Grimsby, Glasgow and Cardiff. Some have even conducted bishorjon or immersion of Durga images, such as the Cardiff puja committee in Cardiff Bay in 2004 and the Camden puja committee in the Thames with the protima made by Nemai Chandra Paul of Krishnanagar for the British Museum ‘Voices of Bengal’ exhibition in 2006.

Durga puja has always been something of a social barometer. The Statesman newspaper in 1965 referred to Durga Puja as being: 'For the welfare of the state, for the protection of the weak, for peace and happiness in the world.' and referred to Durga as 'this divine incarnation of the supreme power of womanhood with feminine charm and its spell binding aspects' . Another article in the same paper goes on to say how with the power crisis and spiralling prices 'Puja 1979 seems to have come as a symbol of joy amidst the gloom'. It seems that the spirit of Durga puja will continue to capture the imagination and speak to every generation in a fresh, new, energetic way.