☬ What Is Mahalaya ?
Mahalaya is an annual Hindu festival in India that marks the start of the autumn Navratri season. It is also the day when the goddess Durga is believed to have descended from heaven to earth to battle the demon king Mahishasura. The festival is observed by Hindus across India, and is particularly popular in the eastern states of West Bengal and Odisha.
Mahalaya is considered to be an auspicious day, and many Hindus will fast and perform puja (worship) to the goddess Durga. The festival is also marked by the broadcast of the Devi Paksha radio programme, which features recitations of sacred texts and devotional songs.
For Hindus, Mahalaya marks the start of the Navratri season, which is a time of fasting and in prayer. The nine-day festival culminates in the festival of Dussehra, when the goddess Durga is worshipped, and the effigies of the demon king Mahishasura.
☬ What Is The Cultural Significance Of Mahalaya ?
Roughly one week after Mahalaya, the Durga Puja festivities start. People accept as true with that on this day, Goddess Durga officially begins her descent from Mount Kailash, after vanquishing the demon Mahishasura.
We have officially entered the festive season, with simply days to head for Navratri and Durga Puja celebrations which might be devoted to Goddess Durga and her avatars.
Both these festivals overlap, and even as they may be extra or much less similar, there are moderate variations in terms of customs. ‘Mahalaya’, however, is an crucial day that gives a window into the festivities that appear inside the latter half of of the year.
The Hindu network believes that Mahalaya marks the last day of ‘Krishnapaksha’, that's a dark fortnight of the month of Ashwin. The day that follows marks the start of ‘Sharad’ that signals the 10-day Durga Puja/Navratri festival. This year, Mahalaya falls on September 25.
The Bengali network, specially, gives a lot of significance to the day and it is also a public excursion in some elements of the country. Mahalaya marks the start of ‘Devi Paksha’ and the cease of the ‘Pitri Paksha’, the latter of which is a period of mourning and dedicated to the ancestors on the paternal side of the circle of relatives.
The motive Hindus do not forget Pitri Paksha to be inauspicious is because ‘shradhh’ or demise rites are achieved throughout this era, that is a 16-day lunar event, in the course of which people pay homage to ancestors through imparting meals and water.
The Bengali network, which celebrates the once a year Durga Puja with numerous enthusiasm and cultural zest, believes that at the day of Mahalaya, Goddess Durga begins her descent to Earth after vanquishing the evil demon ‘Mahishasura’.
The auspicious day, basically, is a reminder of this victory, of courage and of the regularly occurring truth that in the end, excellent usually prevails over horrific. In West Bengal, Mahalaya is depicted in a display-inform manner, with songs, enactments and dances on positive regional tv channels.
They display the exact series of activities from Mahishasura’s delight, to him wreaking havoc, to the boon that granted him immortality. According to legends, it become promised that no man may want to ever harm him, least of all kill him. He can also shapeshift and count on the form of a buffalo. His arrogance and routine assaults on mortal beings and different divine creatures provoked the gods to create a fierce female, Durga, who changed into armed with lethal guns, which include Lord Vishnu’s discus Sudarshana Chakra and Lord Shiva’s trident.
Every time Durga attempted to cease Mahishasura’s existence, a new Mahishasura could be created with his blood. Finally, as he changed into shapeshifting and turned into in-among paperwork, 1/2-buffalo and 1/2-guy, the Goddess — main a war of the devas together with her equally-fierce lion — slayed him and hence earned the name of ‘Mahishasuramardini’, that means ‘the slayer of the demon Mahishasura’.
All of this has historically been depicted in songs, dances and chants. The most popular rendition of it, however, has been in the sonorous voice of Birendra Krishna Bhadra, whose series of songs and mantras called Mahishasura Mardini are performed customarily at the day of Mahalaya in every Bengali household early in the morning. The mantras are stated to invoke the Goddess. The maximum well-known one is ‘Jago Tumi Jago‘ (‘wake up, oh Goddess!’).
Roughly a week after Mahalaya, the Durga Puja festivities begin. People trust that on this day, Goddess Durga officially starts her journey from Mount Kailash — where she is living with her husband Lord Shiva — to her maternal domestic on Earth together with her four children, Lord Ganesh, Lord Kartik, Goddesses Lakshmi and Saraswati for the four-day long Durga Puja festitivies.