There is something beautiful and serendipitous about Bengalis coming together anytime after Mahalaya. The discussion invariably turns to Durga Pujo and steadily and surely finds its way to bhog. One of those lively discussions a couple of weeks ago, between friends, who are all food enthusiasts, led us to share the heart of the matter. bhog offered to Durga and the ritual feasts our families ate during the five days of push. The variations are mind-blowing. Not for nothing is it called the ‘Maha Puja’, the most complex of all.
An interesting detail that emerged was that in many Bengali families, particularly those originating from ancient East Bengal or Bangladesh, it is customary to offer a bhog Fish to the Goddess on Dashami, the last day of the festival. The same can be seen in some Shakta sects in Assam and Odisha. The presiding goddess Vimala from the Vimala Temple located within the Jagannath Temple complex in Puri is also offered fish from the holy tank of the Markanda Temple, cooked and offered, according to the tantric rituals during Durga Puja.
Besides the gleaming silver hilsa wave rohu, mostly bottom feeder without scales, dark-skinned, like the snake-headed murrel (shol in Bengali), spotted snakehead (chang / taki) and wallago catfish (boal) offered. Dashami is traditionally the last day of the hilsa-food season and Bengalis sign their favorite fish with an offering to their favorite goddess. They ship both on the same day hoping ‘Ashchhe bochor agar hobe‘or’ until next year ‘. To find an answer to why dark-skinned bottom feeders are offered, we will have to understand the origins of both the Durga myth and the significance of the fish in Bengal.
Durga’s origins are rooted in the indigenous pre-Aryan cultures of India. the Bans or the Vedic traditions do not mention it; neither the Ramayana nor the Manusmriti. In fact, the warrior goddess is not mentioned in any literature or epigraphic writing until the 5th century AD, except for two mentions in the Mahabharata, where she is described as the dark-skinned, four-headed, four-handed maiden of the Savara tribe of the Vindhya Mountains (Vindhyavasini), who killed the demon Mahisasura.
The Savara are an ancient indigenous tribe from eastern India, now mainly found in Odisha. Only towards the end of the 7th or early 8th century AD the poet Vakapati in his poem Gaudavaho kavya describes Vindhyavasini in a dual form: the non-Aryan Kali, dark-skinned, lover of wine and blood, and the Vedic Parvati. So, throughout the process of evolution, assertion and assimilation, the warrior maiden Durga of the hill tribes became the Vedic Durga, married Shiva and was the mother of four children by Brahmanic order.
As we know, as new religions and religious orders develop and grow, they assimilate and rework existing symbols and images from an older historical period of religion. When the Vedic Durga emerged from the Savara Vindhyavasini, it carried with it the pre-Vedic spiritual meaning that the indigenous cultures of Bengal and other eastern states attributed to the fish.
Socio-anthropological evidence as old as that of various pre-Dravidian indigenous tribes suggests that fish, which was an important article of the diet, formed an important totem in these indigenous cultures. It was considered a temporary seat for the departed soul before it achieved liberation from the mortal realms. This symbolism was assimilated by the Vedic traditions and therefore the scaly, superficial or intermediate fish became an important symbol of life and fertility; and the scaleless bottom feeders were associated with the souls of the deceased.
Even in tantric practice, fish (matsya) is considered one of the five panchakaras, and the two varieties mentioned above are considered one of the Devi’s favorites. More allegorically, the twin fish represents the channel through which life flows.
It is in an amalgamation of this symbolism that the fish ended up becoming a bhog offering to Durga during the push rituals. While silver and scaly fish are said to be Gauri’s favorites, scaleless ones are preferred by Kali. Durga, as we know him now, is an affirmation of these dual forms.
While a hilsa or rohu Offered as a curry or in fried form, the bone-fed and bottom-fed fish is roasted over a fire in a clay oven or chulha and offered as bhog. In some families, chulha is done in a corner of the pandal or thakurdalan (the courtyard where the deity resides) where the fish is roasted and offered to the Goddess before the idol is immersed in Dashami. In a folk symbolism, married women representing mortal mothers eat the fish bhog and do the ‘baran‘before sending the daughter to her husband Shiva, at the end of five days of festivities. The grilled fish here is believed to keep all evil eyes at bay and keep the daughter safe on her journey back to Kailasha.
In her spiritual allegory, the goddess, who is invited to assume her ‘mrittika‘During the five days of the workshop, her spiritual sphere is liberated from her by means of a fish offering that is symbolic of a seat of the soul, the conduit between the mortal and the spiritual.
Maachh pora. Photo: courtesy of Tanushree Bhowmik
Recipe
Shol Maachh Pora
Ingredients:
Whole snakehead murrel (cleaned, gutted and headless) 250 g
Young ginger finely cut in julienne 1 tablespoon
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Rock salt, to taste
Juice of a small lime
Mustard oil, 2 tablespoons and 1 teaspoon
Method:
Wash and dry the fish. Spread with 1 teaspoon of mustard oil.
Grill over a grill or open fire until both sides are cooked through and the skin is charred.
Remove the skin as much as possible, bone and shred the fish.
Mix the rest of the ingredients and stir well.
Serve with steamed hot rice or add some fresh cilantro and serve over crackers or between tacos.
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