Durga Puja – Adoration of Durga – Kangra Painting

An Illustration form the Markendeya Purana, Adoration of Durga, Kangra, 1810-20

Durga Puja, a very important Hinduist festival that celebrates the goddess Durga’s victory over the shape-shifting demon king Mahishasura, has just ended, but I thought why not prolong the festive mood with this beautiful Kangra miniature painting from the early nineteenth century.

Durga Puja celebrations last for ten days and are overlapping with Navratri, a nine day long festival that celebrates the divine feminine (shakti). The first day of Durga Puja is Mahalaya which signals the arrival of the goddess, celebrations and worship begin on the sixth day and the following days the goddess is worshipped in her various forms as Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati. Durga Puja is most popular in the Indian states of West Bengal, Odisha, Assam, Jharkhand and others. Durga Puja in Kolkata has been a part of the intangible cultural heritage list of UNESCO since December 2021. On the occassion of Durga Puja grandiouse pandals are erect in the temples and parks and great care is taken to make and decorate the idols of the Durga accompanied by four other gods and goddesses; Ganesh and Lakshmi, and Saraswati and Murugan (Kartikeya). On the tenth day the celebrations end with loud chanting and drumbeats and the goddess is carried in a large procession to the nearest river where she is immersed.

This beautiful example of Durga, interestingly, doesn’t come from West Bengal or Odisha, but from Kangra which is a modern-day northern state Himachal Pradesh. Kangra is one of the schools of Pahari painting. “Pahar” means “mountain” in Hindi and Pahari painting literally means “a painting from the mountanous regions”. It is actually an umbrella term used for Indian miniature paintings that originated in the lower Himalayan hill kingdoms of North India in the early seventeenth century and thrived until the mid nineteenth century. Notable schools of Pahari painting are Kangra, Guler, Mandi, Garhwal, Basohli, Nurpur, Chamba and Mankot. The central theme of Pahari painting is the love between Krishna and Radha, their love adventures and frivolities, and that is why it was a bit unusual for me to see the theme of adoration of Durga in a Kangra miniature painting.

Durga occupies the central place in this Kangra painting and is shown seated comfortably on a big lotus flower on a little pavillion. She is being adored by other gods; by her left are Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma. There are four more gods on the right to her. Beneath Durga’s feet is a tiger, an animal connected to her (although sometimes it is lion instead), and two more gods. The composition is very balanced in this way, with Durga seated in the centre and three figures on each side. Technically, it’s four figures to her right but the last one isn’t even painted in its entirety. The simple background is painted in green and blue tones; meadows and sky.

Let us admire just how beautiful Durga is in this painting! With her almond eyes and raven hair, with her jewellery and flowing purple skirt, and the lovely bosom under the transparent dupatta. In her hands she is holding various weapons such as trident and a bow and arrow, given to her by other Gods, chakra (divine discus) and a conch shell. Her face radiates a quiet joy, her eyes seem to be smiling as well, or maybe it only seems that way to me. I love all the details of different jewellery that she is wearing; necklaces, white flower garland, earrings, bracelets… Another interesting detail is the crescent moon on her forehead which symbolises the waxing and waning of time, the cycles of growth and decline.

And now some more details of the painting bellow because Kangra miniatures should really be enjoyed to the last detail:

Details