C T Online Desk: Oct 21, 2023- The five-day Sharadiyo Durga Puja, the biggest religious festival of the Bangalee Hindu community, is being celebrated for the second day today with Maha Saptami puja amid due religious fervor and gaiety.
Maha Saptami puja is being held across the country this morning as nabapatrika, nine plants including a banana tree tied together and wrapped in a white saree with red borders, were bathed in the water of nearby rivers or ponds (the holy Ganges) and later placed next to Lord Ganesha.
Some Bangalees call it ‘Kolabou’ (the banana-bride) and it is regarded by many as one of the wives of Lord Ganesha. But this is actually not one of Ganesha’s wives. It is considered a representation of Goddess Durga.
It is also known as ‘Nabapatrika’ as nine plants are tied together to form it and each plant represent the nine forms of the goddess -Brahmani (banana), Kalika (colocasia), Durga (turmeric), Kartiki (jayanti), Shiva (wood apple), Raktadantika (pomegranate), Sokrahita (ashoka), Chamunda (arum) and Lakshmi (paddy).
Maha Saptami puja was offered later to Goddess Durga at temples and makeshift mandaps countrywide followed by offering of Anjali to Goddess by devotees who kept fasting till the puja.
Later, prashad (food and water offered to a deity during worship), was distributed among devotees.
About the rituals performed at Dhakeshwari National Temple on Maha Saptami today, Mahanagar Sarbajanin Puja Committee president Manindra Kumar Nath said nabapatrika snan was held in the morning followed by Maha Saptami Puja, offering of Anjali and distribution of Prashad.
In the afternoon, Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader will visit the temple and join a view-exchange meeting at the Dhakeshwari temple, said Manindra adding a delegation of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) will visit the temple later in the evening.
