Durga Puja

by Pratap Chandra Ghosh

DURGA PUJA;

 

WITH NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS

 

BY

 

PRATÁPACHANDRA GHOSHA, B. A.

 

या सृष्टिः स्रष्टुराद्या वहति विधिहुतं या हवि र्या च होत्री,
ये द्वे कालं विधत्तः श्रुतिविषयगुणा या स्थिता व्याप्य विश्वम्।
यामाहुः सर्व्वबीजप्रकृतिरिति यया प्राणिनः प्राणवन्तः,
प्रत्यक्षाभिः प्रसन्नस्तनुभिरवतु वस्ताभिरष्टाभिरीशः॥

Kalidasa.

 

Calcutta:
PRINTED AT THE "HINDOO PATRIOT" PRESS
No. 108, VARANASI GHOSHA'S STREET.

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1871.

PREFACE.

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About a week before the Durga Puja holidays ensued I requested the author to write a paper on this chief national festival of the Hindus of Bengal, giving an account of the rites and ceremonies connected with it. He readily complied with my request, and although written at the spur of the moment and necessarily in great hurry, the paper has proved so interesting and has been so favorably received by the public that I have thought it proper to reprint it in the present form, chiefly with a view to circulate it among oriental scholars and others, who take interest in the religious institutions of the Hindus. The difficulties, which the author has met with in rendering into English the peculiar forms and expressions of Sanskrit Mantras and Slokas, may be easily imagined by those who have an experience of such work, and it is I think sufficient to mention that he has paid more attention to matter than to manner.

The Introduction and the Notes have been added by the author and the illustrations executed by Babu Tulsidas Pal, a student of the Government Arts School of Calcutta.

Calcutta, The 18th December, 1871.

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EDITOR, Hindoo Patriot.