Durga Puja

Durga Puja celebrates the Goddess Durga's victory over the buffalo-demon Mahishasura, a triumph of good over evil that the gods could not achieve alone. In Bengal it is also the Goddess's yearly homecoming, when she is welcomed as a daughter returning to her parents before departing on Vijayadashami.

As told in the Devi Mahatmya, the demon Mahishasura won a boon that no man or god could slay him and seized the heavens. The gods poured their combined power into a radiant Goddess, Durga, armed her with their weapons, and she battled and slew the demon with her trident, earning the name Mahishasuramardini.

Over five days communities build elaborate pandals housing clay images of Durga and her children. The days pass in worship, drumming, dance, feasting and pandal-hopping, with Sandhi Puja at the Ashtami-Navami junction. On Vijayadashami women play sindoor khela and the images are carried in processions for immersion in water.

The central deity is Goddess Durga, the warrior form of the Divine Feminine, Shakti, shown slaying the demon Mahishasura. In the Bengali tradition she is flanked by her four children: Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesha and Kartikeya, and across the days she is also honoured in her forms as Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati.

In 2026 the main days of Durga Puja run from Maha Shashthi to Vijayadashami in the month of Ashwin, falling roughly from 16 to 20 October. The festival follows the lunar calendar, so its dates shift each year against the common calendar.

On Vijayadashami the clay image is carried in procession and immersed in a river or pond, a ritual called visarjan. In the Bengali telling it marks the Goddess returning to her husband Shiva's home after visiting her parents, the form dissolving back into the waters from which all creation arises, with the promise she will return next year.

Mahishasuramardini means the slayer of Mahishasura, the title Durga earned by defeating the buffalo-demon. Because his boon protected him only from men and gods, and never from a Goddess, Durga was able to strike him down with her trident, embodying divine power rising to restore balance when evil grows unchecked.

Beyond the scriptural victory, Bengal cherishes Durga Puja as a family homecoming: the Goddess returns each autumn as a beloved daughter with her children. This tender vision, joined with grand artistic pandals, community spirit and shared feasting, makes it the region's largest and most emotionally beloved festival.

Sindoor khela is a Vijayadashami ritual in which married women smear one another with vermillion, or sindoor, before the Goddess is taken for immersion. It is a joyful, tearful farewell to Durga as she departs for her husband's home, and a blessing exchanged among women for well-being and long, happy marriages.