It is that time of the year when Jai Durga Mayi Ki chants fill the air as conch shells and drums are played to usher in the festivities during Durga Puja.
Celebrated in September itself this Durga Puja there are memories and nostalgia with evenings litup with sounds of bells and a soothing breeze. While India is observing
Navami and Dussehra is on 30th, an age old tradition called Sanjhi still remains a little known facet of some revellers.
Durga Puja can be seen across the city with effigies of Ravana and Pandals of Godess Durga in every nook and corner.
Sanjhi used to be observed in parts of Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Western UP.
A 10-day festival where people, particularly women and young girls worshipped Sanjhi, a crude image of a woman made of stars, moon and sun made of cow dung.
Sanjhi is seen as form of Durga, the Goddess.
Mata Sanjhi
Written pieces on Sanjhi suggest images of Sanjhi are suggestive of Durga, Uma and Katyayani. Sanjhi festival also ends with the immersion of Sanjhi on the day of Dussehra.
Sanjhi is said to be the goddess of common folk, mainly peasants and their young children.
Sanjhi is usually asked by her worshippers what she would like to eat and wear.
Adolescent girls holding earthen light lamps worship the deity assembling around her.
They sing chorus songs, that are centuries old, to please the goddess.
It is believed Sanjhi would get the girls, good husbands.
On tenth day of Dussehra, the images on walls are scratched and removed. Only the head of the deity is secured and kept in a small earthen vessel whose belly is ridden with several holes.
In the evening, the girls float their lighted pots in the village pond with the help of earthen vessels. The youth in village try to stop the vessel from reaching another end of the pond with cudgels.
Legend has it none of the bowls should float across the pond and touch the other end, otherwise misfortune would fall on the village.
But Sanjhi isn’t celebrated anymore
In Delhi, it has almost ceased to exist in even in the villages where things have gone highly urban.
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