Agomoni and Bijoya songs explained: Bengal's Shakta songs of Uma's homecoming to Menaka and her return to Kailash, the poets behind them and where to hear them.
Durga with her family, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesha and Kartik, at Maddox Square, Kolkata. Photo: Biswarup Ganguly, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
The songs draw on the household of the mountain. Uma (Parvati) is the daughter of Giriraj (giri-raj, king of mountains) Himalaya and his queen Menaka.
Sovabazar Rajbari's Durga is readied on boats at Baghbazar Ghat for immersion in the Hooghly. Photo: Biswarup Ganguly, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
The emotion is drawn directly from Bengali family life. In the past, girls were often married young and sent to live with their husband's family, sometimes far away, and visits home were rare.
Durga with her family, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesha and Kartik, at Maddox Square, Kolkata. Photo: Biswarup Ganguly, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Agomoni and Bijoya songs belong to the Shakta padavali, the body of Bengali devotional songs to the goddess that flourished from the 18th century.
Festival of the Goddess Durga at Calcutta, a 19th-century print. Photo: Louis-Henri de Rudder / After Alexei Dmitriyevich Saltykov, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
In rural Bengal, songs of Uma's arrival were once carried from village to village before the puja by wandering singers, including mendicants and folk performers, who would be given rice or a little money in return.
Durga with her family, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesha and Kartik, at Maddox Square, Kolkata. Photo: Biswarup Ganguly, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
You do not need Bengali to feel these songs; the melodies carry the emotion.
Sovabazar Rajbari's Durga is readied on boats at Baghbazar Ghat for immersion in the Hooghly. Photo: Biswarup Ganguly, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Agomoni and Bijoya songs explained: Bengal's Shakta songs of Uma's homecoming to Menaka and her return to Kailash, the poets behind them and where to hear them.
Agomoni and Bijoya songs → Next story: Akal Bodhon: why Durga is worshipped in autumn All photo storiesMusic: Sitar sample yaman, Tito Dutta, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.