DURGA PUJA: THE SACRED AND SECULAR ASPECTS OF RITUAL & PERFORMATIVITY ‘Aar koto din pujor jonno? 1 I would excitedly ask my mother as a child, before Durga Puja anticipating the sights of wondrous puja pandal, new clothes, suspension of the mundane everyday activities as the days would pass by in a haze of activities which would include participation in rabindra sangeet competitions, dance recitals among concerts by Runa Laila are part of my nostalgia of childhood intertwined with the Durga Puja. Introduction The religious festival of Durga Puja celebrated by the Bengali’s provides a valuable perspective into the power of the ritual to create an enduring platform for the collective spirit. The metaphorical journey entails that the mother Goddess takes on the role of the daughter who comes to her maternal home for a period of four days. In Bengal, Durga 2 is symbolized as the daughter of the mountain king, returning to fathers house from her husband’ s house for a visit. The great goddess sheds her cares for four days, and comes to earth with her children from the house of her husband Shiva. (Sarma. 1969:581-582) The deity along with her four children, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kartikeya and the auspicious Ganesha is worshipped for in the autumn months during the last four days of navaratri, which is an auspicious time for most Hindu’s. The paper seeks to investigate the nature of the collective engendered through the mediated festival and how the nature of performativity affects the sacred and secular aspects of the ritual domain? The reification of the feminine principle is prevalent in the Indian consciousness and the celebration of Durga Puja by the Bengalis gives one an insight into the sacred and secular aspects of performativity within the multivariate ritual activity. Durkheim’s conception of the ritual as the central process that bonds individuals to society and as a means to reinforce core social values may be viewed in the context of the perpetuation of the Durga Puja as a ceremonial event which has successfully stayed in the collective imagination till the present day. He further elaborates that as a “particular mode of action, ritual serves to infuse culture with collective energy and affectivity which increases its power and ability to enact an identification of the individual with society.”(Jacobs.2010: 263- 272) The religious festival in the urban sphere brings with it a set of complexities 1 How many days left for Durga Puja to start? 2 Durga, is the female Goddess who is the consort of Shiva.