Sunderban Delta Publication

If the wind gets cooler, and the paddy harvest reaches the rural  homes, the people who live in the vast hinterland of mangroved riverine  delta  of  aluvial soil  begin to celebrate the annual festivity of prosperty and wealth ( Kojagori Lokhi  variously known as Laxmi, Mahalaxmi) on the night of full moon, the Purnima as per Hindu calendar Evolving Vedic belief and  Puranaic text revers  Laxmi  as the vedic Goddess  and worshiped as the spouse of Vishnu. However, the discourse on Sri Laxmi over various scriptures, Ramayana and Mahabharata point out that Laxmi has two  other lineages - one with Indra, the first amongst the  Gods mentioned in  the Vedas;Kuber cannot be ignored while worshipping Laxmi. The Purana says that Laxmi came out of the great churning of the sea by the Gods and the Assuras. In period of vedic conquer of forest and hill tribes, Laxmi remained a lucky  daughter of the local tribes, the Asurras.it is interesting part of social engineering that  took place during th

All Riverine civilisations worship  water as  the mother and reservoir of life on this planet. Earth or the soil is the other reservoir of life, when later life evolved on land. No wonder, when a human life ceases to exist, some civilisational ritual like the  Vedic  bestows respect to the leaving soul by merging ashes of mortal remains  into the  flowing river.  We often wonder how rituals of #durgapuja  in Bengal draws its cultural lineage from the human practices of a time period  which has no recorded but only inferred history. #MahaDashami, the last day of festive fervor and floating dreams of madness and desire, and artists shall put pale shades of color on their artworks. Here our eternal mother, Ma Durga, who drew life from river-water and river-bed  shall surrender into the river, while the drums would beat to a crescendo and the children of God chant and cry  'Asche Bochor Abar Hobe' ( Shall celebrate again in the coming year). That is the cycle of life - ashes to ash

https://youtu.be/TlSD2OAbnfQ Come Durga Pujo, Dhaki cannot be far behind. The Dhakis are so intermingled with the blood and sweat of Dugga Pujo craving race, it is often difficult to separate them and keep our focus on DHAK and  DHAKI alone. Here is a rare piece in the domain of DHAKIs, written by late Durga Bhattacharya. Whether it rains or not,will never miss the sound of DHAK, even if one hesitant to go for pandal hopping  in the pandemic. https://youtu.be/TlSD2OAbnfQ #DHAK #Durga #DHAKI #Bengal