Kumari Puja celebrated

Hindu devotees yesterday celebrated Kumari Puja, a major attraction of Maha Ashtami, amid fanfare at Ramkrishna Mission's puja mandaps across the country.

Bijoya Dashami will be celebrated today but the idols of Goddess Durga and her four children -- Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kartik and Ganesha – will be immersed in ponds, rivers or the sea tomorrow.

Goddess Durga is worshipped in various forms during the five-day Sharodiya Durgotsab and one of those is Kumari, the virgin form of the deity.

Maha Navami began just after Kumari Puja yesterday and will continue until 7:33am today. Dashami Puja will begin later on to run until 9:57am, according to the lunar schedule.

Nirmal Chatterjee, joint secretary of Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad, said around 4:00pm tomorrow they would bring out a Bijoy Dashami procession from Palashi in the capital and head towards the Buriganga for immersing the idols.

To celebrate Kumari Puja, people started to throng Ramkrishna Mission in Dhaka from yesterday morning.

The puja is organised only at the temples of the mission in Bangladesh, added Nirmal.

Devotees of all ages offered flowers at the feet of the Durga. Arati was performed. It is customary to offer the girl gold, silver and clothes, which is considered a pious act.

The young girl fasts the entire day till the puja ends.

She is made to sit on a throne before the goddess, as the priest chants religious hymns amid the sound of dhak (traditional drum). After the puja, the divinity of the goddess is said to descend into the Kumari.