Hinduism believes in one Ultimate Spiritual Reality or universal spirit Who is self luminous and manifests Himself in many worlds and dwells in all living beings as their under-ruler. This Ultimate reality is the supreme God in Hinduism. It also believes that though God is one, He has various manifestations in many gods and goddesses, any one of which may be worshipped as a form of the supreme God (Brahma). In Hindu community, there was a general conflict between the believers in the formless, nameless, and qualityless Brahma and the worshippers of personal god (estodevata) with name, form and quality. This is the historic conflict between the religion of the absolute formless (nirakara) and the religion of personal God (eistodevata) with forms (sakara). This is known as the conflict between Saivaism (Siva), Saktism (Kali, Durga) and Vaisnavism (Hari, Visnu, Rama and Krishna).

The Mother cult was very much prominent in ancient India. The objects unearthed at the prehistoric sites of the Indus Valley prove the prevalence of the cults of the Father-god and Mother-goddess among the pre-Aryan peoples of this subcontinent. A prehistoric terracotta seal form Harappa contains the goddess..... There is also a pair of tigers towards her left, standing and facing each other and this reminds us of the association of the lion with the Mother-goddess and of the Father-god's association with animals, says DC Sircar, a renounced archeologist. The fundamental idea of the Mother-goddess cult was the belief in a female energy as the source of all creation. The fact is that the cult of the Mother-goddess was originally unknown to the Aryans who were patrilineal people unlike the matrilineal aboriginals. 'Certain Sections of the Mahabharata and the Puranas like the Markandiya' no doubt suggest that the Mother goddess conceived as the consort of Siva, was nearing the front rank about the age of the imperial Guptas. "In the 5th century AD the Maukhari chief Ananta Varman established the images of Mother-goddess overpowering the demon Mohisashura" says Dr Nihar Ranjan Roy in 'Bangaleer Etihas'.

In Bangladesh, Durga Puja is the celebration of this protracted battle with the forces of evil, simultaneously she is the benign mother and consort who comes visiting her parents' home. She is goddess and woman (source of creation) in one, containing within her all power and all sweetness. Some may condemn image-worship as idolatry. But they do not know that in the so-called image worship what is really worshipped is not the material image, but the living, conscious God invoked and infused into the image. Since Mahalaya celebration mounts to excitement till the tenth day, 'Bijoya Dasami', the day of victory. When the puja is over, the victory complete, the visit of a married daughter to her parents' home concludes, a fresh year of receiving and parting is born anew.

How old is Durga Puja in Bangladesh? This has never been conclusively answered. Dr Sashibhusan Das Gupta says, "During Akbar's time Raja Kansha Narayan of Taherpur, Rajshahi first initiated the festival. There had been also other socio-cultural changes. In the old days the images were all placed standing in the same panel 'Akchala'. Today action has crept into the poses. The noted Bangalee satirist Kaliproshanna Sinha says in his book 'Hutum Penchar Naksha' that " ... the Babus of bygone days merely to exhibit their wealth and entertain their white masters. Religious fervour had seldom been the forte of Puja organisers." In those days of 'Babu' culture, it was the Dhakis who stole the show.

Unfortunately for Hindus in Bangladesh they have been facing the music of great declination in respect of politico-economic and social status today. If religion is to be true to itself it must stress the worth and dignity of human personality. They should rise to the occasion and call a spade a spade. Fundamental rights of the Constitution must be extended to all communities. In sociological terms, Man is the total circle including both the centre and circumference. He is both self and not-self. Lord Krishna says, "Samoham sarva bhutesu, na me dvesygsti na priyah I am the same for all beings: There is none whom I hate none whom I favour"(The Holy Gita-ix/29). Brave one proudly proclaim, "I am a Hindu, a member of the great civilisation."

Marking the beginning of the Durga Puja 'Markandiya Purana' commonly known as Shri Shri Chandi is recited from Mahalaya day:

"Many dark, primordial moons ago when evil went stampeding through the heavens in the form of Mohisashura, the buffalo demon, the gods in their hour of need turned to Shiva and Vishnu. The pitch dark of wrong doing and heedless ignorance were threatening to swallow up the steady glow of light in thinking and knowledge. The might of the gods, the Devas, was in danger of being snuffed out by the misrule of the Ashuras, the demons. The light was going out their lives.

"It was an impassioned plea, Shiva and Vishnu listened with rising concern and mounting disapproval. It was not an unfamiliar situation. Evil existed alongside good, knowledge beside ignorance in an eternal tantalising tangle. And the universal scales were rarely still in the perfect balance of opposites.

"Mahisashura's way was to strike at the very roots of existence. The cosmic structure was very near collapse. The radiance the powers, the energies, the Sakti of Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva met in a flash of creation. The darkness that had settled on the world burst open in a dazzle -- and of the effulgence was born the sound and fury of blazing wrath that is Devi Durga, difficult to attain destroyer of all evil. Fiery red in hue, clad in the blue of the firmament her many arms fanned out to fill the sky as she received the martial equipment that each god separately created out of his own special weapons -- a trident from Shiva, a discus from Vishnu, staff of death from Yama, a club from Kubera, a battle axe from Vishwakarma, a thunderbolt from Indra and many more.

"The gods watched in wonder and belief as she went riding on a rampant lion to battle, her dreadful laughter mingling with its roar the three worlds echoing with the sound of fury as the made her way to the Vindalyas to seek out Mahisashura. In a final burst of triumph, she pinned Mahisashura down with her foot drove the trident into his heaving chest as he strove to hold back his escaping life-breath. Thus the demon met his doom, gazing into her frenzied eye, for the glance reread his doom -- and his deliverance". (Goddess of Goddesses: Shym Lal, TOI, October 1980).

The conception of which Devi Durga is made is the stuff of eternal challenge and fight and panting victory over the ugliness and terror that forms the morass of the world out of which like the lotus of slush the beauty of the good arises.

Rabindranath Trivedi is a former Press-Secretary to the President and Addl Press Secretary to the Prime Minister.