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When the last showers of the monsoon are beginning to fall sparsely between spells
of bright sunshine, comes the month of Ashwin. In this month/the festive season
in India reaches a crescendo with the beginning of the nine-day Navaratri festival.
For weeks, people eagerly look forward to this time of gladness and celebration.CNavaratri
is a combination of many concepts. Durga or Shakti, the goddess of power and
vitality, has nine forms called Navadurga. On each day of the nine days, she
takes a new form, with an arsenal of weapons, to ride a lion and fight the demon
Malahishasura.
Her eight arms hold different weapons given to her by various gods to annihilate
this enemy of dharma. The legend about this battle relates how the demon was
so powerful that no god could individually defeat him. The whole pantheon prayed
to Shakti (Durga) to fight him with the collective weapons given by them. On
the ninth day Durga killed the demon. ViJayadashami or Dussera, the 10th day,
is celebrated with feasting and rejoicing as her day of victory Venerated all
over the country as the mother goddess, here Durga assumes her awesome warrior-like
aspect in order to annihilate the forces of evil and darkness and bring harmony
and light.
This icon from Gujarat shows Durga mounted on a lion, combining grace and beauty
with power and fierceness.
The most joyous celebration of Navaratri is seen in Gujarat, Karnataka Tamil
Nadu and Bengal Gujarati women plant nine pulses and cereals in earthen pots
on the first day and worship the growing plants for nine days. The plants are
then dried and kept till next Dussera or immersed in a river or the sea.
Every night, people gather in courtyards to gaily dance the dandiya raas and
garba, a community dance in which men and women dressed in festive clothes, dance
in pairs with dandiyas or painted wooden sticks with tiny bells attached to them
The raas originated from the state of Guiarat. where the worship of the mother
goddess has always assumed a large role in the lives of the people.
