BANGALORE: Navaratri is a festival that is celebrated in the lunar month of Ashwin from the Shukla Paksha Pratipada (the next of the New moon day of Bhadrapada) to the tenth day of Ashwin. In Sanskrit, Nava means ‘nine’ and Ratri means ‘nights.’ The nine nights and ten days of festivities hold a lot of significance.The festival is celebrated with variations in India and some countries in the South East as well.Nine forms of Shakti are worshipped during Navaratri.The Godesses who are worshipped depend on the practice and culture of the region.The tenth day of the festival is called Vijaya Dasami or Dasara.This day marks the victory of Goddess Durga over the demon, Mahishasura, and the victory of Rama over Ravana.So the festival denotes victory against evil.In Sanskit, Vijay Dasami means ‘victory on the tenth day’.Today, day nine of Navaratri is Ayudha Puja.It is a day that is dedicated to the worship of implements used in daily life — books, pens, vehicles, kitchen utensils and so on.(Clockwise from top) Regret Iyer’s (Proprietor of Regret Iyer Publications) family is the tenth generation which religiously follows the tradition of collecting Dasara dolls.Among the family’s prized possessions are wooden dolls that Iyer’s ancestors handed them over which are about 300 years old; Dasara dolls on display at advocate Gowri Shankar’s house in Malleswaram; Employees of the Information Department celebrate Ayudha Pooja on their office premises; K G Sudheendra shows dry land agriculture model through his collection of dolls; Sri Siddharth Sanskriti Parishad organises Durga Puja celebration in R T Nagar; Rama Jagadish’s family has been collecting Dasara dolls for quite some time.
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