The Mahalaya Twins

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Durga's Abode For The Next Few Days

.. Cause You Know Sometimes Words Have Two Meanings

The theme : Mahalaya - today 14th October

Part 1 - The Mahalaya Twins

The post: my response to a one word prompt "Mahalaya" - I asked friends for words to build posts on -  from my friend  Kaanchan  ☺

#inkflowswarmprompt

Where do I even start? Let's get the bad stuff out of the way, shall we? Disturb the comfortable? Rather disturb the uncomfortable so that some of the discomfort may be resolved?

With the Puja season come those incessant rumblings - and ramblings. 
Enter social media, enter the ubiquitous greetings for every blessed occasion and non occasion. 
The heated conversations have taken off on the appropriateness of greeting people with Shubho Mahalaya.  And these conversations while interesting, seem so unnecessary to me, when people overall just want to be cordial.
First - let's get a few uncomfortable facts/myths out of the way. And being me, I'll combine sensitivity and sense while doing so. Harder than you think!

I'll start with a question - did this day ever mean anything other than the concluding day of Pitru Paksha when people give offerings to honor the souls of their deceased ancestors? No it did not. Not that I know of. 

Not until one fine year almost a century ago, during the very early days of broadcasting in India, somebody in the newly set up radio station All India Radio made a mistake. They aired a program welcoming Goddess Durga on the wrong date. A beautifully crafted innovative musical offering that cut across several barriers  to emerge in just that manner and format. That date happened to be Mahalaya Amavasya (dark moon or the null phase). And when they realized the error they decided not to correct it. And nobody, just nobody seemed to mind. Except the small bunch of naysayers who didn't approve of such an unconventional addition to the sacred soundscape, in any case, regardless of date or day.

That little glitch spun off a tradition of bonding across generations and social backgrounds over the old valve radios that many homes had acquired. One that has held generations of folks in Bengal and subsequently elsewhere in the country and the world, in thrall, as it races towards a century.

Has anybody ever tried to reschedule this? No way. Because Durga's arrival has been firmly tied up in people's minds with this now 90 year old tradition. So much so, accredited sources when queried about Durga Puja, will tell you that this is the day Durga descends from the Himalayas or that it's the day the Trimurti created her. She takes exactly a day to float down I guess, because the first day of her worship or the official start of the worship as per the sacred texts, is the very next day - the first phase of the waxing crescent moon. 

Solemn/celebratory days are chosen for their purpose,  through evolving traditions that are ascribed to numerous (sometimes conflicting) myths. Likewise this one. Coming as it does on the no-moon - a liminal zone - it is about a mingling of energies. 

The aforementioned question - the clash of the Mahalayas - never bothered me through all the decades of my life, because I took this coexistence of ancestor worship and the goddess's welcome so much for granted. And it wasn't just me, my relatively orthodox - when it came to observing rites around the deceased - parents seemed so accepting of this merging of the solemn and the celebratory. If memory isn't playing tricks with me, my mother would oftentimes set up the kalasha inaugurating the Navaratras,  on this very day, without a second thought. While almanacs give very precise timings, the lay observer tends to embrace a zone.

People point out to me. that mistakes need to be rectified. I point out to them that mistakes that don't harm anyone, can stay. Especially when they bring joy to so many and have created a firmly rooted unifying tradition.  The short story is, on any day of celebration, someone somewhere will be actually grieving. I mean for real, not merely observing a ritual. Do all celebrations stop? 

Pow-wow done, let's come to what is special about this 20th Century tradition? What does the word Mahalaya mean to you? The word means something pretty simple - maha=great, alaya=abode. Mahalaya Amavasya - the new moon of the great abode, indicating the cusp of this special fortnight called Devi Paksha - the fortnight of the Goddess. 

A close look at the Great Abode. Don't miss another pretentious abode in the background vying for greatness

I have always found something about the word Mahalaya, that pushes frontiers - a limitless abode, the universe. And as a child lying in the dark surrounded by family, with the green "magic eye" of the old radio lighting the vicinity,  I would experience a sense of the whole universe descending and surrounding me. There were parts of the oratorio where Birendra Krishna Bhadra's voice would evoke a sense of unreality, almost fear in my childish imagination. The rise and fall, the cadences. Back in the day, it wasn't a canned product. It would be put together afresh each year, if I am not mistaken even performed live. I wish my parents were alive  to tell me. I wonder if there are recordings of old broadcasts - they would reveal so much. Has the packaged product reduced the charm with its predictability? There have been years when I admit, it feels weary. The tendency to spin it off out of context from start to finish at pandals or street corners too, has detracted from its charm. 

Generations need to come full circle, break patterns,  discover and connect afresh. I say more power to them. My family would refer to this early morning program by various names - Agamani, Mahishasuramardini and perhaps even Mahalaya. The kids around me think of it only as Mahalaya. Maybe that's what popular usage does? Or the internet guru's gyaan? The word means above all, that 90 minute feast of music played at that hour on that day. And the greeting is sans any malice. So let the twins thrive! Our ancestors who have enjoyed this with us once upon a time would want our lives to be nothing but Shubho - auspicicious. Even as we offer them food, they would love to share the music. 

PS - be careful when you google. You are actually told things like All India Radio founded Mahalaya!!!!

Footnote: When  you explore myths and traditions you will always find clashes and mixups. They are part of the territory. Ours is anyway a culture of paradoxes. I'd say there are more vital  issues to spar over. However my advice to readers - greet people with caution. What you do on your social media timeline is your business. Don't mess around on anybody else's. And please don't hail all the people you run into with a cheery greeting. Not everyone feels the same way as  you do. Enjoy the festival - love and peace to all

To be continued ... the second part will be about my personal experiences and how in my isolation, connecting with people I've never met in person over this profoundly beautiful music, has added to the mystique as well as the comfort and joy it offers. It's been an unusually lonely year for me. I seem to be fighting battles I lack the words to explain to others. Perhaps the Goddess understands and has my back. I'm sure the ancestors do.

Plenty of links are given in this post for those not familiar with the cultural terrain. I have given links from wikipedia though wiki has become a pretty unreliable source and is quite compromised by agendas as well. But it offers links to source that you can follow. 
Please do read this one without fail - an article that gives you the recent history of celebrations that we have come to take for granted.