सनातन पुस्तकालय Sanatan Cultural Library

Jagaddhatri is Durga in her aspect of serene, sustaining power: golden-hued, four-armed, riding a lion that stands upon the elephant Karindrasura, symbolising the mastery of the restless mind. Her worship draws on a story told in the Upanishadic tradition, in which the gods, proud after victory over the asuras, could not so much as move a blade of grass placed before them by Brahman appearing as a yaksha — until the luminous Mother revealed that all strength is hers alone. Tradition holds that public celebration of Jagaddhatri Puja in Bengal was fostered in the eighteenth century by Raja Krishnachandra Ray of Krishnanagar, who is said to have instituted the worship after being unable to attend Durga Puja one year; from Krishnanagar it spread to nearby Chandannagar, the former French settlement on the Hooghly, which made the festival entirely its own.

Unlike Durga Puja's five days, Jagaddhatri Puja centres on a single tithi: on Kartik Shukla Navami the rites of saptami, ashtami and navami are commonly performed one after another in a single, intense day of worship, though many pandals keep the image and festivities going for four or five days around it. Chandannagar is the festival's great capital. Its images are famously tall — often reaching towards the pandal roof — dressed in distinctive silver-foil ornamentation, and its lighting artisans are celebrated across India for animated tableaux of light. The immersion procession, with illuminated tableaux carried through the town, is among Bengal's most spectacular sights. Krishnanagar keeps its own proud traditions, including the beloved image known as Buro Ma. Households and neighbourhood committees offer bhog of khichuri, fried vegetables and sweets, and the mood is that of a second, more local Durga Puja.

The grand form of this festival belongs to Chandannagar and Krishnanagar, and there is no substitute for standing under those lights; families planning a trip to West Bengal in the Kartik season sometimes time it for the puja. In Canada, Bengali families can keep the navami at home with a simple worship of the goddess — a picture of Jagaddhatri, flowers, a lamp, and recitation of her dhyana mantra or of Durga hymns — and by cooking a small bhog of khichuri and offering it before the evening meal. Live streams of the Chandannagar processions circulate widely each year and are a joyful way to share the festival with children. Some Bengali cultural associations in Canadian cities include Jagaddhatri Puja in their annual calendar, so it is worth checking local community listings as Kartik approaches.