The grandest festival in eastern India, Durga Puja is integral to the rich culture of Bengal. Durga Puja brings to light extraordinary aspects of one of the country's most remarkable festivals: its mythical origins, its socio-cultural evolution, its economic ramifications and its elaborate rituals. Spiced with anecdotes and trivia collected from journals and newspapers from the 19th century to contemporary times, this book is a vast compendium of what lies behind the worship of the Mother Goddess, one of the oldest surviving Hindu traditions.