Faith in the feminine manifestation of the Divine reflects the leftover ray of hope to reform the society in a country which has recorded an average of 87 rape cases daily in 2019 and overall 4,05,861 cases of crime against women during the year, a rise of over 7% from 2018, the latest data eleased by National Crime Records Bureau, India on September 29, 2020.
As per information received from High Courts, the status of pending cases related to rape and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, as on December 31, 2019, is 2,44,001.
The history of ancient civilizations of Indus, Greece, Rome, Babylon, and Egypt bears evidence to the worship of the Divine Mother in different forms – nature, art, learning, culture and enlightenment. But it has reached the highest level of devotion and faith in the feminine manifestation of the Divine in the state of West Bengal, India. This festival is all about women’s empowerment, whereby a form of the Hindu goddess, Shakti, incarnates as goddess Durga inculcating the purest power of all the gods to kill the demon named Mahishasura. It resembles the deep symbolic significance in recent times even though the story of goddess Durga is mythological lore.
Kumari Puja is called Kanya Pujan in North India. Bengal celebrates it on Maha Ashtami, the eighth day of Durga Puja, while it is held on the ninth day or the last day of Navaratri in other states of India. Depending on the age of the unmarried girls they are worshipped in the various forms of the Goddess. A one-year-old girl is worshipped in the Sandhya form of the Devi while a two-year-old is worshipped in the Saraswati mould of the Devi. A three-year-old girl is worshipped in the Tridha form of Durga and a four-year-old is worshipped in the Kalika mould of the Devi. Subhaga and Uma are the forms of Durga for a five and a six-year-old respectively. Malini form of the Goddess represents a seven-year-old while Kujjika represents an eight-year-old girl. Kalsondarbha and Aparajita stand for a ten-year-old girl and an eleven-year-old girl. Bhairavi is represented by a twelve-year-old girl and Mahalakshmi by a thirteen-year-old girl. Pitnayika, Khetragya and Ambika by a fourteen, fifteen and sixteen-year-old girl respectively.
