Kumari Puja on Mahashtami of Durga Puja

This article is on Kumari Puja on the day of Mahashtami of Durga Puja and the reason behind Kumari Puja.

On the Mahashtami morning, an important ritual is performed which is known as Kumari Puja. During the Durga Puja days, Goddess Durga is worshiped in different forms. On the Dashami day, Maa Durga is treated as a daughter. Among the different forms of Maa Durga, one form is of a ‘Kumari’ means young virgin girl.

According to Hindu believes, Kumari Puja is performed to emphasize the purity and divinity of women in our society. In our society women are yet to get the same status as men and this is not the phenomenon of recent time, it is continuing from time immemorial. We Indians worship Goddess Durga, Kali, Laxmi more than any other God still the women in our society are ill treated. On many occasions our society blames women without any reason, raise question about their purity. Kumari Puja is a symbolic against all these blames on women.

Sri Ramkrishna Paramhans, the great saint worshipped Sarada Maa, his wife as Kumari on a Durga Puja. Swami Vivekananda described Sarada Maa as ‘living Durga’.

For the Kumari Puja in Mahastami of Durga Puja, a young girl who is yet to reach her puberty is selected. In the early morning of Mahashtami, the girl will take bath in holy Ganga water and is clad in a saree, preferably a red Benarasi. The little girl takes all kind of make up, flowers, jewellery, sindoor, alta are used. During the Kumari Puja, the girl will sit before Goddess Durga and the priest perform puja on the girl. Hindus believe that after the Kumari Puja is over, the divinity of Maa Durga is found on the girl.

Kumari Puja in Belur Math is worth seeing. Swami Vivekananda performed Kumari Puja  in Belur Math for the first time in 1902 where he worshiped nine Kumari girls, offered Pushpanjali at their feet, touched their feet at the end of Puja.