Roll up your sleeves for Sindoor Khela Bidding Goddess Durga Goodbye

Roll up your sleeves for Sindoor Khela

Bidding Goddess Durga Goodbye

Days before Vijayadashami each year, Sheela Roy can hardly contain her excitement over opening a special package from Kolkata — a packet of sindoor. She invests a lot of time deciding on the colour and texture of the sindoor since it applied on an idol of Goddess Durga just before it is taken for immersion. For Bengali women, this last ritual — Sindoor Khela or Sindoor Utsav — holds much significance. “The sindoor is a symbol of married life. We first apply it on the idol of Goddess Durga on Vijayadashami and then on other Bengali women while wishing them a happy married life and good luck,” explains Roy, a 30-year-old schoolteacher. The ritual owes its origins to the belief that the goddess is heading for her in-laws’ house. “We believe that Maa has come to her mother’s house for five days. On the last day, she goes back to her in-laws’ house. So, we try to give her a royal treatment with food and sweets and conduct an aarti, besides applying sindoor on her,” explains Sushmita Chowdhury, another devotee. “For this day, we make a special Dadhikarma — a sweet for the goddess.” Devotees believe that if it the ritual is followed to a tee, “no widowhood ever touches any woman,” claims Aunsua Roy, a 35-year-old college professor. Revelry plays a key role in the ritual. Once the sindoor is applied on the goddess’ idol, every married woman around is ‘fair game’. “We apply it on each other’s forehead and also on iron bangles that we wear,” says Roy. The ritual is not strictly restricted to married women. “Sometimes, even young girls apply [the sindoor], but that is only out of devotion for the goddess,” says Manobi Ghosh, a 52-year-old homemaker.