Rituals, Puja Rituals, Rituals and Durga Puja

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Rituals

The Greek God of Wine, Dionysus that represents not only the intoxicating power of wine and festivity, as well as the patron deity of agriculture and the theatre, the traditions of drinking cider and harvesting ale in Ireland while Japan's ritual associated with paddy harvest repelete with revelry have a commonality that can be traced in the rituals involving our worship of Goddess Durga.

Rituals have formed a part of the human culture for thousands of years. They have become integral part of religion and can be traced to the pagan religion. Be it the West or far East man's livelihood was dependent on nature and man worshipped Nature for bountiful harvest.

Nabapatrika, the Goddess

Popularly known as Lord Ganesh's wife, 'Kolabou' in our scriptures call her Nabapatrika. Interestingly enough, Nabapatrika was actually a popular ritual performed by the peasant folks for prosperous harvest. As idol worship was not common then, people worshipped nature. It was during the autumn (Sharat), the time for reaping crops ("Amondhan"), peasants worshipped Goddess Nabapatrika for good harvest.

Later when Durga Puja became a popular festival of "Sharat", all the nine holy rituals of the Nabapatrika, were added to the ceremonies of Durga Puja. Infact Nabapatrika represented the primitive form of Durga Puja. This primitive form of worship is still prevalent in some places.
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Nabapatrika___
The nine plants comprising Nabapatrika are: Banana plant Colacassia plant Turmeric plant Jayanti tree Wood apple tree Pomegranate tree Arum plant Rice plant Ashoka tree
Nabapatrika being an important part of Durga Puja, is worshipped during Bodhon. The nine plants of Nabapatrika represent the nine Goddesses. The Banana plant or the "Kola Gaach" represents Goddess Brahmani, Colacassia plant represents Goddess Kalika, Turmeric plant symbolises Devi Durga, Jayanti denotes Kartiki, 'Bel' or wood apple Goddess Shiva, Pomegranate (Dalim Gaach) Raktadantika, Ashoka tree symbolises Sokrahita and Arum plant ("Maankochu") represents Chamunda and the Rice plant Goddess Lakshmi.These Goddesses are the nine forms of Devi Durga.