The Durga Puja was held again in Prague this year (2022). The main puja was within Papia Ghoshal’s ‘Gallery’ (part of her atelier/Ankara) uphill from the main town, while other venues (such as TJ Sokol) accommodated an art exhibition, a smaller Durga altar, puja and Indian cultural performances. For those two weeks (in Prague) I was guided into the preparations for the Indian ritual of Durga Puja.
The Hindustan Times suggests that “ This festival is about women’s empowerment, whereby a form of the Mother Goddess, Shakti, incarnates as goddess Durga inculcating the purest power of all the gods to kill the asura (demon) named Mahishasur. While all of this is mythological lore, it also has deep symbolic significance in recent times and will always be relevant,” Essentially the Durga Puja is a celebration of the female through Hindu Goddess Durga and relates to female energy (Shakti).
Through Papia Ghoshal I was welcomed into the vanguard of those preparations. I met the film makers, composers, singers, musicians, and dancers who orbit her. I was also honoured to, very briefly, meet His Excellency Shri Hemant H. Kotalwar (India’s Ambassador to the Czech Republic) Zbraslav’s Mayor (Ing. Zuzana Vejvodová) and Deputy Mayor (Mgr. Michaela Bernardová)
I am apprised that there is a long tradition of erudite Czech Indology. In one article (‘Czechoslovakia and India through the archives’, 2016) Radio Prague International reminded me that…
“The father of Indian studies in Prague was Vincenc Lesný, who, in the first half of the twentieth century, built up the study of Indian languages at the Charles University, along with Moriz Winternitz from Prague’s German University. Lesný and Winternitz were invited to India to lecture at the Visva Bharati University that had been set up by the great Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore. Lesný was also responsible for two visits that Tagore paid to Prague in the 1920s.” Subsequently a bust of the Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore was created by the contemporary Indian sculptor Gautam Pal, and erected to adorn the Thakurova area of Prague (zone 6).
In the early twentieth century (1920 in fact), a Czechoslovak Consulate had been established in Bombay, then another in Calcutta. Over more recent years Czechoslovakia’s (now the Czech Republic’s) Indian diaspora has continued to grow. The 8th Indo-Czech festival 2022 (organised by artist and Prague resident Papia Ghoshal), had purposely coincided with celebrations of the Hindu goddess ‘Durga’ (fondly called Maa Durga) and the ‘Durga Puja’ (the act of prayer).
The Hindu ritual of ‘Durga Puja’ is a celebration of the Goddess Durga/Shakti (relating to female energy and celebrating the victory of the goddess Durga over the demon king Mahishasura who had threatened the realm of the gods). The internet informs that “…the event is held during the month of Ashwin in the Indian calendar, which correlates to September–October in the Gregorian calendar. Durga Puja is really a ten- day celebration, with the last five days being the most important. The puja is done in both private and public settings, the latter of which includes a temporary stage with llishments (known as pandals)”.
1. Zbraslav
Papia Ghoshal’s Indo-Czech Festival arrangements (in Prague's Zbraslav) had progressed. One Indian Classical dancer (Rajasudha Vinjamuri BCAa), arrived from the UK's Stansted Airport. We briefly spoke about her coming performance at The Ministry of Education's TJ Sokol (the PARKET dance and social Hall) which centred on Goddess Durga, the intricacies of the dance's symbolism and their meanings. We also spoke about some of the 'mudras' (hand gestures) involved in creating her dances and how they are linked to portray 'stories'.
Rajasudha Vinjamuri along with musicians/singers Papia Ghoshal; Shilpi Paul; Pranoy Chatterjee, and Arpan Bhattachary (who, defacto, comprised ‘the troupe’) greeted Shri Hemant H. Kotalwar (India’s Ambassador to the Czech Republic), Ing. Zuzana Vejvodová (Mayor), and Mgr. Michaela Bernardová (Deputy Mayor) to the celebrations.
Ms Ghoshal, who has won many awards for her paintings, film-making, poetry and performances had been responsible for that Indo-Czech Autumn Festival for the past eight years. In an interview, she explained that she had started the celebration (which became the Indo-Czech Autumn Festival, where the Durga Puja is the main highlight), in 2015. At that time there was no discernible Bengali Indian community for such a puja in the Czech Republic
Papia Ghoshal had previously been commissioned by two Puja committees in Kolkata, twice. Once in 2001 and again in 2003, to create Durga sculptures. This was at a time when Ms Ghoshal was still going back and forth to London and Kolkata, six months at a time. Then, as there was no way that she was able to take sculptures over from Kolkata (to Prague), she had made a small Durga statue (Durga Murti Sthapna, establishing a Sarbojanin idol for Durga Puja, made of Ganges clay) in Prague. Over the years, Ms Ghoshal built larger statue formations for the celebration of the Durga Puja.
For Ms Ghoshal, it was an emotional decision to start the Durga Puja Zbraslav, Prague 5. Her guruji (Pandit Baul Samrat Purna Das Baul) had suggested that she initiate a Durga Puja in Prague, as she was then living there. Ms Ghoshal invited Pandit Baul Samrat Purna Das Baul, his son (Bhagavan Das Baul) who is also a Baul singer and musician, his grandson and others to form a Baul group with her expressly for a two city concert called the Guru Shisha Paramparam (or teacher-student tradition). They subsequently performed across Europe, as well as Prague.
In the past few years, the Indo-Czech Autumn Festival had included film festivals as well as the concerts and worship, which have been a large part of that annual event over the eight years of its existence, and Ms Ghoshal’s involvement.
There have been long standing local and international supporters/practitioners of arts who aid that amazing series of events organised by India's Baul singer, performer, dancer, artist and poet Papia Ghoshal, and enabled by the various incarnations of her entourage.
2. Andel
That year’s troupe, who had taken part in the Zbradslav celebrations, were also featured in Andel’s ‘Experience India’ (effectively a street festival in ‘Pesi Zona’ or Pedestrian Zone of Andel, Prague.
In Andel’s pedestrianised area, myriad stalls selling Indian wares (including the obligatory saris) continued the celebration of India’s seventy-five years of independence, for and with its diaspora.
For me Andel, Prague, had been momentarily and instantaneously transformed into my recollection, not of India, but of the ‘British Melas’ which had their origins in good old Blighty, during the 1980s.
According to current wisdom Mela (n) in Sanskrit means ‘to meet’, to ‘gather’, to ‘blend’. For thirty years Indian fairs (or Melas), have inveigled themselves into mainstream British culture, enlightening those not too familiar with Indian culture outside of the Friday night, post- pub Indian (Bangladeshi) curry houses, and delighting those who are familiar and joyous in the sharing.
It was as if a Ryanair’s Boeing 737-800 had become Dr Who’s ‘Tardis’ and whisked me back from the Czech Republic to the British days of yore, with an assortment of Indian cultural celebrations. In the British Indian
melas, dances had been Indian, classical and contemporary while singing ranged from Bollywood to Asian fusion, flavouring which ever British country park they had been set in.
On that pedestrianised street in Prague’s Andel, one Indian stall chose to call itself ‘Indian Street Food’, which had seemed entirely apt at the time, but a closer examination revealed a very Western take on Indian street food with its Pakoras, Samosas and Chicken Tika. Elsewhere on that ‘Indianised’ street was a Masala Dosa Sambar stall, and another selling Idli Sambar, Chicken Biriyani and ‘N rice wrap’ (whatever that was). I confess to loving Dosa (dosai/ Thosa/thosai). It is simply my favourite breakfast. But it wasn’t breakfast time. Although, thankfully, the ‘Balti’ dishes were absent, the beat pulsing Bhangra
rhythms were in evidence. Both the stage and the crowd danced to energetic beats. Indians and non-Indians leapt, strode or gracefully glided on that platform forming the
full-stop to the exclamation mark which the street naturally formed at the side of the Andel shopping area.
The two festivals (the Indo-Czech Autumn Festival and ‘Experience India) were poignant reminders of the marking of ‘Independence’ of India from colonial British rule, but also of the very close ties that the Czech republic has with India and the Indian peoples.
It had been an honour, and an intriguing experience to be there in Bohemia, and
doing what little I could to assist in those two festivals. I learned something of a different way of living. I (quiet literally) ingested more of Indian culture and had met new and exciting friends on that journey. I thank all of those amazing, creative individuals of various nations who had revealed great patience with me as a non-Hindi and non-Czech
speaker.
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