A complete Durga Puja samagri checklist for home worship: essentials, flowers and leaves, bhog, items for Ashtami anjali and Dashami, plus easy substitutions.
A worship plate with a conch, lamp and offerings. Photo: Vish79, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
If you follow the Navratri tradition, add: a wide clay tray, clean soil and barley (jau) seeds for the sprouting pot, a red chunri (scarf) for the Goddess, and the ingredients for Navratri fasting food and kanya pujan.
Idols take shape in a workshop lane at Kumartuli, north Kolkata. Photo: Pinakpani, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
A picture of Ma Durga or a water-filled ghat, a lamp, incense, flowers, a little sindoor or sandalwood paste, and some fruit or sweets are enough for a simple home puja.
Women smear sindoor on each other on Bijoya Dashami. Photo: Diganta Talukdar, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Red hibiscus (jaba) is the flower most associated with Durga in Bengal, along with lotus and bel (bael) leaves.
A kalash (ghat) with a lamp, leaves and flowers, set up for worship. Photo: Ashish Suryavanshi858, CC0, Wikimedia Commons.
Brass, copper, silver or earthenware are traditional, but many families accept any clean pot for home worship when nothing else is at hand.
A worship plate with a conch, lamp and offerings. Photo: Vish79, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Fresh flowers (especially red hibiscus), bel leaves, a little Ganga or clean water to sprinkle, and the pushpanjali mantra.
Devotees raise flowers for pushpanjali on Maha Ashtami at a Kolkata pandal. Photo: Biswarup Ganguly, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Commonly curd and flattened rice (doi-chire), sweets, betel leaf, sindoor for women who take part in sindoor khela, and a plant or clean water to receive the ghat's water.
Women smear sindoor on each other on Bijoya Dashami. Photo: Diganta Talukdar, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
A complete Durga Puja samagri checklist for home worship: essentials, flowers and leaves, bhog, items for Ashtami anjali and Dashami, plus easy substitutions.
Durga Puja samagri list → Next story: Durga Puja and UNESCO: Kolkata's living heritage All photo storiesMusic: Indian Folk Classical Flute Music (1), MayankSingh33, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.