Akal Bodhon explained: Rama's autumn worship of Durga in Krittibas Ojha's Bengali Ramayana, the 108 blue lotuses, his offered eye and why the puja is in autumn.
Bodhon, the awakening of the goddess, on the evening of Shashthi. Photo: Goutam1962, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
The best-known source is the Krittivasi Ramayana, the Bengali retelling of the Ramayana by the poet Krittibas Ojha, usually dated to around the fifteenth 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.
The war in Lanka is going badly. In the Bengali telling Ravana is himself a devotee of the goddess and enjoys her protection, and Rama cannot defeat him.
Effigies of Ravana and his brothers before Ravan Dahan on Dussehra. Photo: Thesocialtalks, CC0, Wikimedia Commons.
For the worship Rama needs 108 blue lotuses (nil padma), a rare flower.
Durga slaying Mahishasura: a popular print from Bengal. Photo: Unknown, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
Why call the autumn puja "untimely" at all? Because tradition places the original worship of Durga in spring, in the bright fortnight of Chaitra (March or April).
Clay diyas lit for Diwali. Photo: Alokjain19883105, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
The story lives on in the ritual calendar.
Bodhon, the awakening of the goddess, on the evening of Shashthi. Photo: Goutam1962, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Akal Bodhon explained: Rama's autumn worship of Durga in Krittibas Ojha's Bengali Ramayana, the 108 blue lotuses, his offered eye and why the puja is in autumn.
Akal Bodhon → Next story: Durga Puja around the world All photo storiesMusic: Sitar sample yaman, Tito Dutta, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.