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4 Some Bengali Bratas to Goddesses Following are some folk bratas to goddesses, taken from the collection of brata stories and rituals by Gopalcandra Bhattacarya and Rana Debi. This collection was written in Bengali and called Meyeder Bratakatha –1 (or Brata Stories for Girls). There are many collections of brata stories available in West Bengal, both in bookstores and at temples and shrines. In more rural areas, older women tell the stories and give the ritual instructions, and the books are not necessary. But, with Westernization , people are forgetting the details and turning to books to maintain a link with tradition. This version of the stories was suggested by a Bengali professor, a woman who had used it when she was a child. I have translated here a variety of types of bratas that involve goddesses: some are closer to folk religion, some to brahmanical Hinduism, some focus on distant goddesses and some on human women, and some focus more on magical chants (long repetitions of rhymed poetry or mantras) than on the deities. Major brata goddesses include Durga (forest goddess and victorious warrior), Chandi (earth and fertility goddess), Lakshmi (goddess of happiness, luck, fertility, and wealth), and Sasthi (goddess of children). While brata rituals are traditionally followed by women of all ages, single, married , or widowed, the bratas here are performed especially by young women. These bratas focus primarily on two areas: nature and morality. Bratas about Nature Many bratas emphasize the importance of nature and how people who are compassionate toward plants and animals are rewarded. The brata stories show how young women who are kind to other living things are blessed by deities, especially by goddesses. In some bratas girls create ideal worlds, with tiny lakes, rivers, and plant arrangements, as a way to honor nature. The Pun·yipukur Brata In this brata, Tulsi is a plant goddess and acts as a folk deity. She is normally associated with the Vaishnava gods Krishna or Vishnu in brahmanical Hinduism. In the Punyipukur (or Purnipukur) brata, however, she acts on her own, with no association to traditional Vaishnava religion, except for the mantra in the µrst few 41 lines of the brata. This mantra may well have been a later addition, as it is not related to the story. The writer P. K. Maity speciµcally notes that the names of Narayana and Brindaban in this brata appear to be a later addition, probably to make the ritual more acceptable to traditional brahmin priests.2 We also see the use of the term sati – , here referring to the brahmanical concept of a perfect wife, rather than a wife who enters her husband’s funeral pyre. The female practitioners or bratini – s performing this ritual together create a miniature pond, into which they put offerings or pour water. It has been suggested by some observers that this ritual is intended to bring rain, magically causing the ponds and lakes in the area to be µlled with rain as the miniature pond is µlled. However, today this brata is generically performed for good luck. Earlier versions of this brata have the performer pray to Mother Earth or to the goddess who inhabits a grove of trees. The brata should begin on the last day of the month of Chaitra and continue through the last day of Baisakh (roughly, the month of May). It should be performed every year for four consecutive years. Every day, early in the morning, the performer should sit facing east. She should draw a square pond (often called a tank in Indian English) with chalk or with her µngers, and place saplings of arum, banana, and wood apple trees over it. She should chant a mantric stanza to the goddess Tulsi, equating her with Brindaban (probably meaning Brindadevi, the goddess of the forests of Brindaban). As the bratini pours water, she should chant this mantra (which focuses upon heaven and salvation) three times: Tulsi, Tulsi, Narayana, Tulsi, you are Brindaban. I pour water onto your head. When my life ends, give me a place within you. Each day the performer should chant these words three times after bathing and offer water to the tulsi plant. There should also be worship at noon, which adds: Sacred pond, I worship you with a ×ower garland (of wood apple blossoms). I am sati Kalavati, I am the sister of Bhagyavati, of the seven brothers.3 She should put sandalwood paste on the ×owers and green grass, and then she may...

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