Maa asche! The unbroken legacy of Bengal’s Mahalaya ritual across generations

Maa asche! (Mother is coming!). That's the essence of the emotion that wakes up literally every household in Bengal way before the first rays of the sun has streaked into their homes every year on Mahalaya. Rising up at 4am on the dot, family members have huddled together in living rooms, their morning cuppas warming their palms. This has been a yearly ritual for nearly 90 years. They wait for the deep baritone of the legendary Birendra Krishna Bhadra, who 'invokes' the Goddess, thereby marking the beginning of the 'Devi paksha', which is followed by the autumn festival of Durga Puja.

This is Mahishasur Mardini, the 90-minute-long audio rendition broadcast by All India Radio. The programme weaves together Sanskrit verses from the Devi Mahatmya. It also includes Bengali devotional songs dedicated to the Goddess. Alongside runs a mythical narration, from Durga’s creation to her battle. The story culminates in her slaying of the buffalo demon Mahishasura. It is the timeless tale of good triumphing over evil.

While the verses give it a mythical touch, the magic it encapsulates has turned the one and half hour long audio narration into something sacred, in all sense and effect, as Bengali families have listened to it for decades as if under a spell.

The radio programme of Mahishasurmardini was started in 1930s at the All India Radio's Kolkata station where the legendary Bani Kumar wrote the script and Bhadra, with his deep voice took over the mantle of the narration. And this has continued as a tradition all this time-traversing history, political and social ripples, as Maa continues to give hope every year as she begins her journey from Kailash with her children for a trip to her maternal home, as Bengal sees it!

But some things do change. For those living in Bengal, tuning in to the radio is easy. But for those outside the state yearning to carry on the tradition of listening to Devi's 'agomon', Youtube has been their go to medium. AIR on its social media platform X shared links to listen to the programme and people diligently, gratefully woke up to be part of the yearly ritual. And then there are many others, who have found their magic elsewhere on the internet- Googling Mahalaya on Youtube or audio links that are accessible round the year!

Work commitments might delay their waking up at 4am on the dot, but they have woken up all the same, an hour later or so to tune in, wherever they found it, as the author herself has done it- an early morning walk at 6am as Bhadra's powerful voice invoked the Goddess through an earbud from an audio link downloaded the day before.

And she is not the only one. Pratiti Roy, a Bengaluru-based IT professional says, "I stay away from my home in Kolkata but listening to Mahalaya has been part of our heritage and culture. While at home, Mahalaya was always about waking up with mom and dad and listening to the rendition, work committment in a different city has changed some things but could not take away my desire to listen to the Mahishasurmardini programme. So, while we can't get the original broadcast on the radio per se, Youtube has been our go-to option. It is an emotion which we love to treasure and I am glad we are able to keep it up like this. Maybe not at 4am, but even at 5 am, Maa toh tao asche (Mother is still on her way at 5am, if not at 4am!)

There's a debate on whether the accessibility on the internet has waned the emotion associated with the programme but the counter to it seems pretty reasonable as well. While one can tune into the programme any time of the year, the fact exists that people do not do that. The idea is to the listen to it on the day of Mahalaya, which binds the emotion, whatever medium that may be. An 80-year-old tunes into his old, time-tested transistor radio at 4 am and the 20-something year-old in the same house does it too, albeit on his/her mobile phone- a scene that has ritualistically played out across households in recent years. It tells us something-- while technology may make us do things differently, it does bind us all the same when it comes to certain things and that's the hope the Goddess embodies!