Durga Puja (ISO: , ), also known as Durgotsava or Sharadotsava, is a major Hindu festival honouring the goddess Durga and commemorating her victory over Mahishasura. It is one of the biggest festivals among Assamese, Bengali Hindus, Maithils, Bhojpuriyas and Odias and is widely observed in eastern India, Bangladesh and Nepal. In 2021, Durga Puja in Kolkata was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The festival is observed in the Indian calendar in the month of Ashvin (September–October) on the Hindu luni-solar calendar. It lasts ten days, with the final five being most prominent. Even though Durga Puja and Navaratri are both dedicated to the Hindu goddess Durga and are observed simultaneously, they are not the same festival.
The puja is performed in homes and public spaces with temporary structures (known as pandals), religious recitations, cultural performances, visiting, feasting, and processions; it is central to the Shaktism tradition.
In Shakta theology and Puranic scriptures, particularly the Devi Mahatmya, the festival marks Durga's annihilation of the demon Mahishasura, signifying the preservation of Dharma and the cosmic supremacy of the feminine divine Shakti. The ritual cycles also incorporate seasonal and vegetative elements, notably through the consecration of Navapatrika. Durga Puja coincides with Navaratri and Dussehra celebrations observed by other traditions of Hinduism.
Alongside Durga, devotees commonly venerate Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesha and Kartikeya in West Bengal. Major public celebrations run from Mahalaya to Vijayadashami and conclude with immersion of the images; practices vary by region.
Durga Puja is an old tradition with medieval textual references on Shaktism and detailed manuals from at least the 14th century; elite and community forms expanded under early modern and colonial patronage.
Names In West Bengal, Odisha, Assam, Jharkhand and Tripura, Durga Puja is also called Akalbodhan (literally, "untimely awakening of Durga"), Sharadiya pujo or puja ("autumnal worship"), Sharodotsab ("festival of autumn"), Maha pujo ("grand puja"), Maayer pujo ("worship of the Mother"), Durga pujo, or merely Puja (in Odisha and Bihar) or Pujo. In Bangladesh, Durga Puja has historically been celebrated as Bhagabati puja. Maa Durga is known as the Goddess of Power (feminine) which represents triumph of Goodness over evil.
Durga Puja is also referred to by the names of related Shakta Hindu festivals such as Navaratri, celebrated on the same days elsewhere in India; such as in Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala, and Maharashtra; Kullu Dussehra, celebrated in Kullu Valley, Himachal Pradesh; Mysore Dasara celebrated in Mysore, Karnataka; Bommai Golu, celebrated in Tamil Nadu; Bommala Koluvu, celebrated in Andhra Pradesh; and Bathukamma, celebrated in Telangana.
History and origins
Durga is an ancient goddess of Hinduism according to available archeological and textual evidence. However, the origins of Durga Puja are unclear and undocumented. Fine stone and metal carvings of Mahishasuramardini (Goddess Durga slaying Mahishasura) from the 12th century (Pala-Sena period) show that the iconography of the goddess was well-established and deeply revered at the time.
The name Durga, and related terms, appear in Vedic literature, such as in the Rigveda hymns 4.28, 5.34, 8.27, 8.47, 8.93 and 10.127, and in sections 10.1 and 12.4 of the Atharvaveda.Monier Monier-Williams (1899), Sanskrit English Dictionary with Etymology, Oxford University Press, page 487Maurice Bloomfield (1906), A Vedic concordance, Series editor: Charles Lanman, Harvard University Press, page 486; A deity named Durgi appears in section 10.1.7 of the Taittiriya Aranyaka. While the Vedic literature uses the word Durga, the description therein lacks legendary details about her or about Durga Puja that is found in later Hindu literature.
A key text associated with Durga Puja is Devi Mahatmya, which is recited during the festival. Durga was likely a well-established deity by the time this Hindu text was composed, which scholars estimate to date between 400 and 600 CE. The Devi Mahatmya scripture describes the nature of evil forces symbolised by Mahishasura as shape-shifting, deceptive, and adapting in nature, in form and in strategy to create difficulties and thus achieve their evil ends. Durga calmly understands and counters the evil in order to achieve her solemn goals. Durga, in her various forms, appears as an independent deity in the Indian texts.
In the Mahabharata, both Yudhisthira and Arjuna invoke hymns to Durga. She appears in Harivamsa in the form of Vishnu's eulogy and in Pradyumna's prayer. The prominent mention of Durga in such epics may have led to her worship.
Some versions of the Puranas mention Durga Puja to be a spring festival - observed as Chaitra Navaratri across other traditions and celebrated as Basanti Puja ("Basant" meaning spring) in Bengal, believed to be the actual time for Durga Puja.
According to Devi-Bhagavata Purana and two other Shakta Puranas mentions it to be an autumn festival. The Ramayana manuscripts are also inconsistent. Versions of the Ramayana found in the north, west, and south of the Indian subcontinent describe Rama to be remembering Surya (the Hindu sun god) before his battle against Ravana, but the Bengali manuscripts of Ramayana, such as the Krittivasi Ramayana, a 15th-century manuscript by Krittivasa, mention Rama to be worshipping Durga. As per the legend, Rama worshipped Durga in the autumn to have her blessings before defeating Ravana. While he was preparing for the worship of the goddess, Durga hid one of the 108 flowers of lotus, very essential for her worship. Having found only 107 of 108 lotuses at the time of the worship, Rama decided to offer one of his eyes in place of that lotus. When he was about to offer his eye, Durga appeared and told him that she had only hidden the flower in order to test his devotion and she was satisfied with it. She blessed Rama and he continued with her worship. Since the gods are believed to be sleeping during autumn, the awakening rite of the Durga puja is also known as akālabodhana.
Surviving manuscripts from the 14th-century provide guidelines for Durga Puja, while historical records suggest the royalty and wealthy families to be sponsoring major Durga Puja public festivities, since at least the 16th-century. The 11th or 12th-century Jain text Yashastilaka by Somadeva mentions an annual festival dedicated to a warrior goddess, celebrated by the king and his armed forces, and the description mirrors attributes of Durga Puja.
Between the 12th and 16th centuries, regional Sanskrit scholars authored specialized liturgical manuals (nibandhas) that standardized Durga worship based on Puranic texts. Key works include Jimutavahana's Durgotsavanirnaya, and Raghunandana's 16th-century Durgapujatattva organized these practices in Bengal, alongside Vidyapati's influential 15th-century Maithili treatise, Durgabhaktitarangini. These texts established formal instruction for central rites, such as preliminary awakening (bodhana) and the crucial juncture of sandhi puja. These grounded the regional practice in classical Shastric orders.
According to some scholars, the worship of the fierce warrior goddess Durga, and her darker and more violent manifestation Kali, became popular in the Bengal region during and after the medieval era, marked by Muslim invasions and conquests.
The significance of Durga and other goddesses in Hindu culture is stated to have increased after Islamic armies conquered regions of the Indian subcontinent. According to yet other scholars, the marginalisation of Bengali Hindus during the medieval era led to a reassertion of Hindu identity and an emphasis on Durga Puja as a social festival, publicly celebrating the warrior goddess.
Rituals and practices
Texts The puja rituals involve mantras (words manifesting spiritual transformation), shlokas (holy verses), chants and arati, and offerings. The worship begins with a reading of the Sanskrit Devī Mahātmya from the sixth-century Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa. The shlokas and mantras praise the divinity of the goddess; according to the shlokas, Durga is omnipresent as the embodiment of power, success, courage, victory, nourishment, memory, forbearance, faith, forgiveness, intellect, wealth, emotions, desires, beauty, satisfaction, righteousness, fulfilment and peace.
Scriptural References Source: Markandeya Purana (Devi Mahatmya / Chandi Path): The primary text narrating the battle of Durga with Mahishasura. Devi Bhagavata Purana: Expands on the cosmic significance of Maa Durga and her victory. Skanda Purana: Mentions Durga's various forms and their purpose in destroying evil. Varaha Purana: Contains references to the goddess as Mahishasura Mardini. Tantra Texts (e.g., Devi Mahatmyam in Shakta Tantra): Emphasize her as Shakti, the supreme power.
Relation to harvest While ethnographic accounts frequently highlight seasonal and post-monsoon associations, canonical Shakta ritual manuals and Puranas—such as the Kalika Purana and Raghunandana's Durgapujatattva—frame vegetation rites within the doctrine of divine immanence. Central to this is the Navapatrika (nine plants), often colloquially misidentified as Kola Bou (banana bride). Rather than representing a folk harvest deity, the bundle comprises nine specific botanical species—banana, turmeric, wood apple, pomegranate, Ashoka, arum, colacassia, barley/rice, and manaka—each consecrated as an embodiment of one of the nine forms of the goddess (including Brahmani, Kalika, Durga, and Chamunda).
The festival is a social and public event in the eastern and northeastern states of India, where it dominates religious and socio-cultural life, with temporary pandals built at community squares, roadside shrines, and temples. The festival is also observed by some Shakta Hindus as a private home-based festival.
Before Durga puja there is Paata Puja, the ritual of making an idol on the day of the Rath Yatra, usually around July. 'Paata' is the wooden frame that forms the base for the idols.
Day Zero Durga Puja is a ten-day event. The festival begins with Mahalaya, a day on which Hindus perform tarpaṇa by offering water and food to their dead ancestors. The day also marks the arrival of Durga from her marital home in Kailash.
Mahalaya marks the transition between the fortnight of ancestors (Pitru Paksha) and the fortnight of goddess (Devi Paksha). This invokes the descent of the goddess. Artisans traditionally perform Chakshu Daan (ritual paiting of the eyes) around this period. This symbolizes the awakening of the image prior to formal consecration (prana pratishtha) on Sahashthi.
Day One to Five Day one(Pratipada) to five(Panchami) mark the remembrance of the goddess and her manifestations, such as Kumari (goddess of fertility), Mai (mother), Ajima (grandmother), Lakshmi (goddess of wealth) and in some regions as the Saptamatrikas (seven mothers) or Navadurga (nine aspects of Durga). On the sixth day major festivities and social celebrations start. The first nine days overlap with Navaratri festivities in other traditions of Hinduism.The specific practices vary by region.
Day Six to Nine The next significant day of the festival is the sixth day (Shashthi), on which devotees welcomes the goddess and festive celebrations are inaugurated. Rituals typically performed on the sixth day include:
Bodhana: Involves rites to awaken and welcome the goddess to be a guest. The amorphous sight of the goddess is consecrated into a ghata or noggin while the visible sight is consecrated into the murti or idol. These rituals are known as ghatasthapana and pranapratistha respectively.
Adhivasa: Anointing ritual wherein symbolic offerings are made to Durga, with each item representing a remembrance of subtle forms of her.