Thirteen Festivals: A Ritual Year in Bengal

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An expression common among Bengali Hindus says baro mase tero parban, "in twelve months there are thirteen festivals." While each of these occasions is built around the worship of a particular god or goddess, they are also performances where setting. attire, ornamentation, recitation, music, and sometimes theater are brought together. Thirteen dramatically understates the number of such occasions around the year. Previous books in this series have described and analyzed the axial rituals in the annual cycle in the village of Kelomal, Purba Medinipur, West Bengal These are the famous Sanskritic Durga Puja, the high point of the autumn in Bengal, and the less well known vernacular spring ritual of Gajan, devoted to Siva.

The present work deals with the great variety of rituals that take place during the remainder of the year, including worship of Sitala, goddess of disease and mother of the village, Manasa, goddess of snakes, Laksmi, embodiment of prosperity dwelling in the rice crop: Krsna, who offers the possibility of liberation. Satya Narayana, who has a Muslim personality as Satya Pir, and the goddesses worshiped by women within the house Sasthi, goddess of children: the auspicious Mangal Candi; and Bipattarini, who saves people from danger.

Ralph W. Nicholas is the William Rainey Harper Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago, where he received his post-graduate education. He began anthropological research in Bengal in 1960 under the supervision of the late Professor Nirmal Kumar Bose. He has remained engaged in the study of Bengali society and culture throughout his professional career. He has been active for many years in the American Institute of Indian Studies, an educational and research organization that has advanced the study of India in the U.S. for over fifty years. From 2002 until 2010 he was President of the Institute, and since that time he has been Chair of its Board of Trustees.

His research in Kelomal. Purba Medinipur District, West Bengal, focused on the religious life of all of the people who live in this large rural community Previous books that resulted from this research are Fruits of Worship Practical Religion in Bengal (2003), for which he was awarded the Rabindra Puraskar in 2006, Rites of Spring Gajan in Village Bengal (2008), and Night of the Gods: Durga Puja and the Legitimation of Power in Rural Bengal (2013).

Anthropologists are often irritating. They show up from some alien world and move in on someone else's society for an uncertain length of time. They ask questions, write notes, and take photographs for reasons that do not make much sense. The people thus imposed upon are due an explanation for a lot of unintelligible behavior. For the anthropologist's part, explaining ethnographic research to people of limited education and little worldly experience is not a straightforward project. The term "social science" often does not communicate much to well-educated people, not to say village farmers, weavers, and housewives. "Participant observation" is not a part of their conceptual universe. Even success in making a case for the observation of everyday life and the annual cycle does not answer the question, "Why us? Why did you pick this village?" And, implicitly, "Why don't you go bother someone else?" I would like to offer this book to the many people in Kelomal who helped us when we lived there, and to the many others who tolerated us. I once overheard someone explaining to a visitor from another village that we went around asking questions, but seemed harmless and good-natured. In earlier books about Kelomal I have thanked the people who paved the way for our work; they are all now no longer here to receive my expressions of gratitude.

The present volume deals with the annual cycle of worship of Hindus in Kelomal, except for the two most consequential observances of the year. In Rites of Spring (2008) I analyzed the complex vernacular ritual of Gajan, which marks the end of one year and the beginning of the next around the time of the vernal equinox. In Night of the Gods (2013) I analyzed the complex Brahmanical ritual of Durga Puja, and the subsequent worship of Laksmi, Kali, and Jagaddhatri that take place around the autumnal equinox. These are the nodal points of the ritual calendar throughout Hindu Bengal. In Fruits of Worship (2003) I went into more detail about the worship of the goddess Sitala than I am able to do in this book; she is the mother of the village and has a place of great importance among the ordinary people of Kelomal.

My wife Marta and I lived in Kelomal, together with my late colleague and friend Tarasish Mukhopadhyay in 1968-69, then again during the autumn of 1970, during the season of Durga Puja and the succeeding observances. In addition to a village census, collection of genealogies, and basic research on social structure, we attempted to witness every ritual we possibly could. Observing village-wide rituals, such as Sitala Puja and Gájan was demanding but provided a single focus. However, we had to choose samples and collect oral information on the many occasions when there were multiple observances taking place at the same time. When rituals were taking place all three of us attended and kept notes, which we later compared and compiled. Those notes, and the photographs I took at the time, are the groundwork of this book, and of the earlier ones in this series. I bring up this rather obvious fact to point out that this is, at the bottom, an empirical, scientific study. The fact that it deals with religious practices might lead some readers to think it is speculative, metaphysical, or somehow not materialistic. I have taken an interest in the history of these observances and consulted scriptural authorities, but my aim is to explain what people understand by their rites. As I hope I have been able to show, there is an intellectual universe here, expressed in practical form.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages