Jagaddhatri Puja

Jagaddhatri Puja Hindu religious festival, celebrating Jagaddhatri, a reincarnation of the goddess Durga. In this form, the goddess appears with two pairs of arms. She wears clothes of red ochre and is adorned with various ornaments as well as a sacred thread entwined round her throat. In her two left hands she holds a conch and a bow and in her two right hands a chakra (circular rotating weapon) and pavchavana(five-headed arrow). Her mount is a lion.

Jagddhatri is mentioned in Mayatantra, Vrihaspati Raymukut's Smrtiratnahar (15th to 16th century), Krishnananda's Tantrasar, (16th century) and Srinath Acharyachuramani's Krtyatattvarnav.

Puja is offered to Jagaddhatri on the ninth day of the moonlit fortnight in Kartik. Priests recite passages from Chandi, a text sacred to Durga. The image of the goddess is immersed as in durga puja. This puja is observed in Bangladesh and west bengal. [Suresh Chandra Banerjee]