Kumari Puja marks Maha Asthami in Tripura

At a time when aborting of female foetus often hits the headlines, a five-year-old girl has been worshiped as “living embodiment” of goddess Durga at Ramakrishna Mission in Agartala on Wednesday.

Kumari puja is the tradition of worshiping young pre-pubescent Brahmin girls as a “manifestation of divine female energy.”

Kumari literally means virgin in Sanskrit.

The ritual of Kumari puja, a significant part of Maha Ashtami, was started in 1901 by the founder of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission (RMRM), Swami Vivekananda.

The ritual, which started over two months ago, culminated in the girl being worshipped exactly as the sculpture of goddess Durga on the eighth day or Maha Asthami - the most auspicious of the five-day Durga puja festival.

At the break of dawn, the Kumari was bathed, draped in a red sari, adorned with flowers and jewellery, with a "sindur (vermillion) tilak" applied on her forehead.

As per the tradition, the young Kumari fasts the whole day until the rituals are over. She is made to sit before the goddess's idol on a decorated chair with priests chanting hymns and dhak (traditional drum) being played in the background.

This year, Kumari Basanti Chakraborty, a six-year old child of Ramakrishna Shishu Tirtha School was selected for Kumari Puja.

According to religious belief, after the puja, the divinity of the goddess descends into the Kumari.

President of Sri Ramkrishna Math, Tripura, Swami Hitakamananda said, "Mainly the sorcerer (black magicians) use to perform Kumari puja, but we also find its mention in the scripture of Vedic period.”

He added that according to our ancient scriptures girl child between the age group of five to eight were selected for the Kumari puja.

“Though Brahmin are given priorities, but a virgin girl from any other communities be it Kshetria, Baishya can also be worshiped,” he added.

Aniket Chakraborty a young visitor at Ramakrishna Mission said, "Every year I come here to participate in the ritual of Kumari Puja. I really enjoyed the Kumari Puja.”

While another devotee Reba Das said, “For the last few years I have been coming here to see the Kumari Puja. We wait for the auspicious day of Asthami for this puja and so we came to see it along with few other friends from Gandhigram area. We really enjoyed it here.”