Bijoya Dashami: Durga Puja ends with immersion of goddess

Durga Puja, the biggest festival of Bangalee Hindu community, ended on Tuesday with the immersion of the idols of Goddess Durga and her children in water bodies across the country amid festivity.

According to Hindu belief, the goddess Durga has returned to her husband's house at Kailash in Devaloy (heaven) through immersion.

In the capital, thousands of people thronged the Buriganga River in the city's Bosila area yesterday to observe the final phase of the festival – immersion of the goddess.

Hindu devotees from different parts of the city came to the ghat in trucks carrying idols while singing hymns to Durga with the sounds of musical instruments such as 'Shankha', 'Khol', 'Dhak'.

Devotees were seen bidding farewell to the mother deity and her children – Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kartik and Ganesh – through the immersion of their idols, wishing Durga's return next year.

As part of the main rituals of Dashami Puja celebrations, female devotees offered vermilion at the feet of Durga at mandaps and temples across the city, which is part of the traditional "Shidur Khela". The ritual follows Hindu women putting vermilion on each other, wishing for prosperity in lives, as a tribute to the power of Goddess Durga.

In Bangladesh this year, the religious festival was celebrated at some 32,407 puja mandaps spread throughout the country, including 248 in capital Dhaka.

The five-day festival started on 20 October with incantation (Bodhon), marking Sashthi.

Durga Puja, the annual Hindu festival also known as Sharadiya (autumnal) Durgotshob, is the worship of "Shakti" [divine force] embodied in goddess Durga.

It symbolises the battle between good and evil where the dark forces eventually succumb to the divine.