In pictures: Devotees bid teary farewell to goddess Durga and her children on ‘Bijoya Dahasmi’
Devotees immerse an Idol of Goddess Durga in a pond after the end of Durga Puja festival. PTI Photo Kolkata: Devotees across West Bengal on Friday bade teary farewell to goddess Durga on ‘Bijoya Dashami’ as she went back to her abode in Kailash after her five-day-long annual sojourn along with her four children to her maternal home.
Following the Dashami rituals, clay idols of Devi Durga and her children were taken from beautifully decorated pandals and households for immersion in rivers and other water bodies. Women pay their obeisance to the goddess with betel leaves, betel nuts, turmeric and bael leaves, known as ‘Debi Baran’ and urge her to come back again next year.
An Indian Hindu devotees offers sweets to a statue of the goddess Durga as part of a ritual known as ‘Sindhoor Khela’ on the occasion of the Dushhera-Vijaya Dashami festival on the final day of Durga Puja. Photo by NOAH SEELAM / AFP
Indian Hindu devotees apply vermilion powder on their forehead and offer sweets as part of a ritual known as ‘Sindhoor Khela’ on the occasion of the Dushhera-Vijaya Dashami festival on the last day of Durga Puja in Hyderabad. Photo by NOAH SEELAM / AFP
Indian Hindu devotees apply vermilion powder to each other faces and offer sweets as part of a ritual known as ‘Sindhoor Khela’ on the occasion of the Dushhera-Vijaya Dashami festival on the final day of Durga Puja in Hyderabad. Photo by NOAH SEELAM / AFP
In the metropolis, idols were taken in processions that included bands, colourfully decorated tableaus and people dancing to the beats of dhak, the traditional drum associated with Durga Puja, to the banks of river Hooghly for immersion.The immersions will continue till well after midnight with most of the idols being taken to Babughat area on the bank of the Hooghly. Similar rituals are witnessed all over West Bengal with idols being taken for immersion to river banks or other large water bodies.
On the banks of river Icchamati on the Indo-Bangladesh border at Taki in North 24 Parganas district, the idols are brought on boats from both sides of the border and are immersed in the river. The sight of the culturally similar people on both sides of the border together going through the rituals of immersion of the idols with equal fervour is a visual delight and is witnessed by thousands of tourists coming from various places.
Birbhum: Hindu married women dance during ‘Sindur Khela’ (applying vermilion) on the occasion of Bijoya Dashami at a Durga Puja pandal at Bolpur in Birbhum district of West-Bengal.(PTI Photo
Allahabad: Bengali married women dance during ‘Sindur Khela’ (applying vermilion) on the occasion of Vijay Dashami at a Durga Puja pandal in Allahabad, Friday. PTI Photo *** Local Caption ***
Indian Hindu devotees immerse an idol of the goddess Durga in the polluted Yamuna river as part of the Durga Puja festival. Photo by DOMINIQUE FAGET / AFP
People of all hues and age forgot their worries and monotonous daily chores as they participated in the almost week-long extravaganza, which is described as the largest community festival in the world by the West Bengal Tourism.
Part of the Durga Puja festivities are good food, merriment, night-long pandal hopping and an escape from the daily routine, which will all be missed along with the going back of Devi Durga with her four children – Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kartik and Ganesh, till the next year’s ‘Sharad Utsav’.