So another Durga Puja is over. The only time of the year when the otherwise shy Bengali crowd gets jovial is over at least for another year. Sitting here in Los Angeles... 15K KM from West Bengal, the heart of all activities I could do nothing but look at the Durga Puja calender and sigh. Oh yes, I gathered some new mythological info also about how Durga was created, whether it indeed makes any sense to talk about her parental home when she actually was formed out of the divine powers of different deities and stuff like that. One integral part of Durga idol is her carrier.... the mighty Lion (not as strong as Aslan though) as one can see in the picture in the left. According to Hindu mythology Himalaya gave her this fierce lion.
This little point is disturbing me. I mean OK...the Himalayas are covered by trees doesn't mean there will be lions residing in there. The only place in India where you get to see a lion(in the wild of course) is the Gir National Park which is pretty far off from the Himalayan mountain range. So, how could Himalaya have given a mighty lion to the Goddess? I don't know. I think a tiger from Himalayas would have been better.
Several "once upon a time " feudal families in Bengal still hold the Puja every year. The Coochbehar estate's Puja is one such. Interestingly enough Durga has both a tiger and a lion by her side. What is more fascinating is that the lion is white and has a somewhat horselike face. Somewhere I had read this is because the earlier artisans had never seen a lion and thats why probably their imagination of a lion was closer to another mighty animal... the horse. Anyone has any more info in this regard?
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