I am not sure how old I was, maybe in my sixth or seventh grade, when my father took me for a "nouks bihar" in the Ganga in Calcutta. I still remember the day; it was early in the morning the sky was radiant with the sunlight and it was Ashwin month. We took the boat and my father asked the majhi to go toward Belur. When we were at the middle of the river to my utter surprise exactly the same scenario of the above picture began to happen execpt instead of the Kali idol it was live woman who was being forcefully immersed in the water. This was to make sure all the vermillion (signs of a married woman in Benga/Hindu) goes away for ever in the water of the Ganga. Can you guess why? Because she became a widow. Thats how the immediate families and others would do it.
I wept then because I was scared. The woman was crying or moaning; I don't know for usre but there was a pain in her voice. When we came back home my father explained to my mother what we saw and my mother explained it to me. From then I was never comfortable with such a scene in the river. The only good part of that day was that I had a chance to go out with my father. Hope you will caome to know something new. I am not sure if this practice is still being done. I hope not.
Ashwin Mahajan writes:
The practice of killing widows is called Sati. From what I remember this was reformed in most of Bengalway back in the late 1800's. I did hear similar stories, mainly from Rajasthan when growing up in Delhi but the practice is illegal now and definitely not something people are proud of. Dowry deaths were more common, but that again is changing.
The immmersion of Durga is entirely a different concept, and that is done with all idols after the festival in India. Similar scenes can be seen in Bomaby where Ganapati - the elephant god is submerged. This has something to do with idols not placed in temples, but worshipped in festivals. I am not very sure, though I am a Hindu.
prodyut paul writes:
[This story was posted by a company but I thought it interesting enough to leave up. --kk]
We are one of the famous Idol maker (Protima Shilpi) in WestBengal, known as M/s Gora Chand Paul & Sons located at Kumartuli in the heart of North Kolkata. We are engaged in the making of different types of Idols (viz. Durga, Kali, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Jagadhyatri etc.) for the very own festivals of Bengali community of the world. We make idols in various medium like Clay, paper pulp, glass, metal, jute etc keeping in mind the aspiration of our customers. We are meeting the demands of various Puja Mandaps, Bengali Associations in India and abroad, Barwari Puja Samiti etc from different parts of India as well as abroad for many years. We prepare the idols in different sizes as per the requirement of the Puja Samiti's budget, it's location and transportation facilities.
Sarbari Rayi writes:
I am not sure how old I was, maybe in my sixth or seventh grade, when my father took me for a "nouks bihar" in the Ganga in Calcutta. I still remember the day; it was early in the morning the sky was radiant with the sunlight and it was Ashwin month. We took the boat and my father asked the majhi to go toward Belur. When we were at the middle of the river to my utter surprise exactly the same scenario of the above picture began to happen execpt instead of the Kali idol it was live woman who was being forcefully immersed in the water. This was to make sure all the vermillion (signs of a married woman in Benga/Hindu) goes away for ever in the water of the Ganga. Can you guess why? Because she became a widow. Thats how the immediate families and others would do it.
I wept then because I was scared. The woman was crying or moaning; I don't know for usre but there was a pain in her voice. When we came back home my father explained to my mother what we saw and my mother explained it to me. From then I was never comfortable with such a scene in the river. The only good part of that day was that I had a chance to go out with my father. Hope you will caome to know something new. I am not sure if this practice is still being done. I hope not.
Ashwin Mahajan writes:
The practice of killing widows is called Sati. From what I remember this was reformed in most of Bengalway back in the late 1800's. I did hear similar stories, mainly from Rajasthan when growing up in Delhi but the practice is illegal now and definitely not something people are proud of. Dowry deaths were more common, but that again is changing.
The immmersion of Durga is entirely a different concept, and that is done with all idols after the festival in India. Similar scenes can be seen in Bomaby where Ganapati - the elephant god is submerged. This has something to do with idols not placed in temples, but worshipped in festivals. I am not very sure, though I am a Hindu.
prodyut paul writes:
[This story was posted by a company but I thought it interesting enough to leave up. --kk]
We are one of the famous Idol maker (Protima Shilpi) in WestBengal, known as M/s Gora Chand Paul & Sons located at Kumartuli in the heart of North Kolkata. We are engaged in the making of different types of Idols (viz. Durga, Kali, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Jagadhyatri etc.) for the very own festivals of Bengali community of the world. We make idols in various medium like Clay, paper pulp, glass, metal, jute etc keeping in mind the aspiration of our customers. We are meeting the demands of various Puja Mandaps, Bengali Associations in India and abroad, Barwari Puja Samiti etc from different parts of India as well as abroad for many years. We prepare the idols in different sizes as per the requirement of the Puja Samiti's budget, it's location and transportation facilities.