Durga

In the account accompanying the Met’s ninth-century Javanese Mahishasuramardini, the gods ask Durga to defend the world against Mahisha. They give her weapons, and she defeats the adversary who has taken a buffalo form. This is a religious narrative carried by the image, not a description of a historically dated battle.

The work also shows how a subject associated with India travelled into Southeast Asian art. Its Javanese origin belongs in the caption. Calling it simply ‘an ancient Indian statue’ would erase a meaningful part of the object’s identity.

তথ্যসূত্ৰ: The Met: Durga Victorious over Mahisha, Java, accession 1988.160

A twelfth-century sculpture in the Met, catalogued as from Bangladesh or India in the Bengal region, shows a sixteen-armed Durga confronting Mahisha. The museum identifies a weapon in each hand. The small sculpture makes the expanding arrangement of arms central to its visual effect.

That example is a useful reminder to look before assuming. An arm count familiar from one image should not be imposed on all others. A careful description names what its own reference shows and leaves room for a different regional or artistic arrangement.

তথ্যসূত্ৰ: The Met: Durga Slaying Mahisha, Bengal, accession 1993.7

UNESCO inscribed Durga Puja in Kolkata on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2021. Its account follows the making of unfired-clay images, their worship and immersion, and describes the festival through homecoming as well as religious observance.

The same account draws attention to temporary pavilions, large installations, drumming and collaboration among artists and designers. It directs the reader beyond a finished image towards the work and gatherings around it. The recognition concerns Durga Puja in Kolkata; it is not a blanket certification of every event called Durga Puja.

তথ্যসূত্ৰ: UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage: Durga Puja in Kolkata

A personal account might begin with an image, a sound or the person who accompanied you. Give the reader a place and a moment before explaining what it meant. A recollection of one neighbourhood can be valuable precisely because it does not claim to represent the whole city.

If you are preserving that memory, distinguish what you saw from what someone explained to you. The maker’s choices, a family’s interpretation and a museum label each have a speaker. Keeping those voices identifiable allows the story to grow without turning every detail into a universal custom.

A dated sculpture can tell us about a particular surviving object. A festival account can describe the skills and practices through which a celebration continues. Neither, by itself, answers every question about theology, regional variation or a family’s observance.

Use the references as doorways into those different subjects. When looking at a proposed image, ask which narrative is present, which figures belong to it and which details have been chosen by the artist. Those questions make a stronger starting point than treating the goddess as a generic decorative motif.