More Durga

Last night I joined a procession bringing a Durga statue from the temple, around the whole town, to the water. It was nuts! These people know how to throw a party.

What the photos leave out here is the blaring music from the truck with many loudspeakers, the brass band and drums, and ear deafening pop of small bombs (don't know what else to call them - a kind of firework), smell of smoke, red paint all over my face and consequently on my clothes and camera as well (I was ambushed by a crowd of women).

It went on for 4 hours before I left. I'm sure they had another hour or two left in them.

Durga Visragan

Here, religious waste is treated differently than household waste. Broken statues, incense packets, song books, and other items are saved and accumulated in the home, sometimes for years. On a certain day, the lot is finally released into the Yamuna River, which is considered to be a goddess herself. Robyn came upon this scene in Agra this summer.

Smaller versions of this take place daily at the river. Men and women come with plastic bags full of ashes or garlands. They either chuck the bag into the river unceremoniously, or they empty the contents and save the bag.








These women sell little bowls of flowers with a candle that you can release into the water.

David Haberman wrote a great book about how massive environmental damage to the Yamuna is affecting its identity as the “goddess of liquid love”, preparing all who bathe in her waters for loving devotion of Krishna. One interesting thing that Haberman observed is that environmentalists get the best results when they tie working for the health of the river to service of the goddess. Also, some see the river’s divinity as protecting it from pollution, while other see the pollution as killing the goddess.

A few days ago I went with Robyn and Ravindra to some temples to see statues of Durga the festival Navaratra. I read an article, by Patrick J. Finn, about the process by which these statues are made. They are sculpted out of local mud and then elaborately painted, dressed, and accessorized. They are installed in temples all over the city for nine days. Parties are thrown with lots of food. At the end of Navaratra, the statues are taken in a procession and submerged into the Yamuna River. The mud statue dissolves.




Look at all the food! 51 different kinds of sweets.

We were given a tip that one of the statues was going to be taken to the river tonight. We went at around 6 PM, and waited for over an hour. It was getting dark, and we had expected the statue to come by then, so we gave up and started walking home. On our way back, we met with the procession, which consisted of a music-playing-vehicle in front, then a crowd of dancing young men, then women walking, and then a tractor with the statues and some kids. Everyone was celebrating. We joined the procession and followed it to the river. The statues were set on the river bank, given puja (worship with food, incense, and candles), and then some young men waded with them into the river and submerged them.

Here are some photos. Try also to imagine the sound of singing and drumming and the smell of incense and sweets and smoke, as well as the commotion of a crowd of happy people.