Fluid control: Orchestrating blood flow in the Durgā Pūjā

Abstract

Tantric rituals are often concerned with the manipulation of life fluids. The Bengali Durgā Pūjā, an annual worship celebration for the Hindu Great Goddess, is an example of an essentially Tantric ritual with orthodox Vedic and Puranic features. Although the overt rationales for the ritual have undergone changes over the centuries, from its martial origins to socio-economic display, the liturgy offers an underlying rationale that reveals its Tantric interests. Ritual features, symbolic elements, and the states and statuses of the actors during the enactment of the Durgā Pūjā demonstrate its concern with orchestrating the flow of female reproductive fluids through a ritual manipulation of the divine feminine. This paper will articulate the most salient of those aspects. Although often overlooked, because of its non-Tantric façade, the Bengali Durga Pūjā points us to a valuable resource for the study of Hindu Śākta Tantrism.