I had gone to visit my parents for the nabami evening. My parents are both quite active these days in the durga puja preparations and execution in your locality. My father I guess spends hours at the pandal because of the fun and the photographs he gets to click, whereas my mother, who has always been a partially devout worshipper, directly participates in the preparations of the puja. While having a light conversation with her yesterday, she casually mentioned that a woman at the locality had expressed concerns that Shiva was nowhere visible in the pandal decorations. My mother’s guess was that the tiny picture of Shiva that always hangs at the top of Ma durga’s idol had somehow been hidden from the view for sake of the pandal decorations. All in all the point was, how can you have a proper puja without Shiva being present there!
Well my point is, you can and you should. There is a very simple story surrounding Durga puja, that every married Indian woman will be able to relate to. It is believed that Durga leaves her heavenly abode at the Kailash along with her four children and travels to her parents’ house and stays there for the four days and then again journeys for her husband’s home on Dashami, or the last day of the festival. Okay, so that considered why on Earth (or heaven?) do we celebrate her by showing her as the one defeats evil (Mahisasura here being the evil one)? It could have well been a joyous homecoming celebration- a daughter coming back to her home.
Then again, there is another story about Durga herself which we so often get to here on the wee hours of Mahalaya. Durga was created by the Gods themselves and each endowed her with one weapon each (the ten weapons in ten of her hands), in order to defeat the evil Mahisasura who was wrecking havoc on Earth. Now who or what does Mahisasura is a separate question altogether, but just to keep it simple let’s just presume that Mahisasura here is the evil one and he is destroyed by the power of Durga.
So if you round up the two stories then Durga comes home with her four children and she is celebrated for being the one to vanquish evil from Earth. However, when we here about the story of the creation of Durga, there is no mention whatsoever of her bearing children, let alone be married to Shiva. Shiva is the one who presents her with the trident with which she defeats Mahisasura, but that’s just it. She till date stands as the epitome of the celebration of the power of a woman, but then again how do you fit in the image of woman who is to worshipped being moulded into one who conveniently fits into the social norms surrounding the functions, responsibility and more importantly identity of an ideal Indian woman? Why of course! Domesticate her. This is exactly where the question of her children and her being married to Shiva comes in. To be more precise, as far as myths go, Shiva was married to a woman named Sati. So technically as far as myths go, Shiva is a grieving widower. So it all pans out every conveniently. We have a widower on one hand and a woman who symbolises power and a free spirit (but how can she be kept free for long? A free woman is bound to wreck havoc if she is allowed to run lose, right?), on the other. So the most practical (?) of all arrangements were made- she was married off to Shiva, initiated into motherhood by propping four children and as far as myths go, given a new name Parvati. So from the inaccessible one (Durga) she became the one who dwells in mountains (Parvati). Thus a woman who is the slayer of evil and a free spirit roaming here and there, she is domesticated and confined as a woman who lives in the hills by marrying her off to Shiva- in short she becomes domesticated. And hence today when we celebrate her power we place her in a domestic setting- defeating evil on one hand, keeping her children company in the other and of course with her husband watching over her! When and how this practise started is an uncertain one and the fact that there are many stories of the Ramayana too interspersed with the practise of celebrating Durga’s power, makes it difficult to pin point a single narrative.
Whatever the story might have been the woman that we worship today is a one who is loyal, strictly bound and watched over by her husband. And while she is raising four children she is also busy curbing the evil that so called threatens humanity. Sounds familiar? Ah the too well heard chant of your family members- you are supposed to work and manage the household equally effectively, women are stronger than men and they can do both etc etc.
So next time when you worship Durga, decide which woman do you want to worship- the one with a free soul and powerful will to defeat all evil or the one who is picture of a modern and working woman, created by the oh so well planned ploys of patriarchy. The point is not to judge the choice, but rather to make an informed choice and if need be asking the questions that need to be asked.
Subhoya Bijoya...
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