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Durga Ashtami Celebrated With Religious Fervour

          NEW DELHI: Temples in New Delhi early on Saturday morning witnessed a steady inflow of devotees arriving to worship Goddess Durga on the penultimate day of the 'Navratra' festival. The nine-night festival is observed twice a year, once in the beginning of summer and the other in the beginning of winter.

           On the eve of the festival, people keep a day-long fast and break it only after bathing and offering prayers to Goddess Durga. The festival lasts for nine days in honour of the nine manifestations of Goddess Durga.

           Durga is depicted as a powerful goddess, riding a raging lion, holding aloft ten war weapons in her ten hands. Her trident is plunged into the abdomen of a monstrous buffalo, out of whose body emerges the dreadful demon or evil.

           Hindu scriptures say the festival dates back to the origin of the earth when gods and demons, after stirring the oceans, squabbled over who should get the holy "amrit" or nectar, one drop of which guaranteed immortality. Lord Vishnu (the God of Preservation) transformed himself into a woman to distract the demons, who wanted the nectar for themselves. The holy liquid was offered to the gods. But the demons chased the gods, who spilled drops of the nectar at four places - Allahabad, Nasik, Haridwar and Ujjain. Since then, bathing at these four places has been considered a sacred rite.

           Another legend has it that 'Asuras' or demons from the nether world invaded heavens after a hundred years of war. The trinity of Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu created goddess Durga, the most powerful of all gods and goddesses to vanquish the demons.

           A colourful procession with children dressed up as various mythological characters was also taken out through the city's streets later in the day.