For Bengalis, the festive Pujo season is incomplete without good food – decadent sweets, fried delicacies, and savoury goodies that promise gastronomical satisfaction. Whether you are busy pandal-hopping, visiting friends and family, or fasting all day in anticipation of pushpanjali (offering of flowers), food brings us all together. And how can we forget the bhog? Puja afternoons spent distributing spoonfuls of khichudi and labra to the neighbourhood kids and elders while waiting eagerly for our turn form some of our very core memories.
Bhog is a sacred offering to gods and goddesses that not only signifies a spiritual connection where the deity accepts the offering and blesses the devotee but is also a symbol of purity and sanctity. The entire community comes together to sit and eat bhog as well as partake in rituals and festivities that nourish their bodies, and their minds and souls.
Food historian and writer Madhulika Dash shares that before being opened to the public (what we now know to be baroari or sarbojanin), pujas in West Bengal used to take place within the confines of one’s home, usually hosted by zamindars who had the resources, the means, and space to do so.
“A year when the rains failed and harvest was poor, the villagers did not get many opportunities to celebrate – thus the odd wedding here and there, and the Pujas happened to be their only source of revelry throughout the year,” says Dash.
Durga Puja, followed by Jagadhatri, Kali and Chandi Puja, not only marked the beginning of the winter season for them but was also an occasion where they celebrated coming together and letting loose for a couple of days, enjoying the revelry through food and prayer, she adds.
Sumanta Chakrabarti, consultant and culinary advisor, lists out some of the common elements found on a regular bhog platter and their significance:
Khichudi: A mixture of lentils, rice and vegetables which denotes unity, harmony and power among diverse elements.
Labra: Mixed vegetables cooked with Bengal spices; signifies the mixture of emotions and experiences in life.
Vegetable fritters: Fritters define the transformation of raw, unrefined energies into refined, spiritual growth. They are primarily:
-Begun Bhaja: Eggplant represents ego and vanity; the dish symbolises surrendering ego.
-Bhindi Bhaja: Okra represents the tender and the delicate which defines strength and vulnerability.
Chholar Dal or lentils, served with luchi , symbolise spiritual growth and humility. Tomato chutney, aloo potoler dalna and narkel naruu are common staples. Dessert generally includes a host of sweets, including sandesh, rosogolla and kheer kodom. Payesh or kheer represents simplicity, purity, and devotion, while mishti doi signifies the sweetness of life.
Dash explains that the elements of a bhog are kept simple, using seasonal vegetables and last harvests of the season, which are easy to digest and suited to the palate of an entire village. To mark the onset of the colder months, Basanti Pulao is made using long-grained fragrant rice, and served with mixed vegetables cooked in one pot, without sticking in a ladle and stirring the pot.
No bhog is served without a side of salt, pepper and lemon so that people can customise their food to their liking. Salt is also known to awaken the palate and make food taste better.
Chholar Dal or lentils, served with luchi (flatbreads made of flour) symbolize spiritual growth and humility (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
How does bhog differ for Goddess Kali and Durga?
According to Dash, what is known as Kali Puja in West Bengal is celebrated widely in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Kerala as Shakti Puja. In many temples, the puja is marked by offerings of meat.
“Goat sacrifice has been a warrior ritual for the longest period of time. It is believed that the goddess of war can only be pleased with raktdaan (blood sacrifice). In Baripada, the Kali Mandir follows the same ritual as it came to the city after the king won his war,” she explains, referring to the temple in Odisha. .
The goat sacrificed and offered to the goddess during Kali Puja in West Bengal is flavoured using ginger and pepper, without using onion and garlic. This is what retains the niramish (vegetarian) status of the bhog despite the use of animal meat. Amish (non-vegetarian) food involves the use of onion and garlic in its preparation.
Durga Puja, on the other hand, sees the use of fish in its bhog. “A hilsa caught from Bangladesh’s freshwater river Padma is offered to the goddess on Mahashtami, which is considered the purest day, when Maa Durga was said to be getting ready to battle Mahishasur,” says Dash.
What is kept in mind before preparing bhog?
Manisha Sur, a member of Kolkata’s State Bank Park Sarbojanin Durgotsav Committee, says that preparing bhog comes with its own set of rituals. “First and foremost, unless you are a Brahmin who has attained diksha, you cannot qualify to prepare bhog. You need to keep an ideally water-less fast and refrain from talking while cooking the food to prevent the off chance of accidentally spitting into it. It is recommended to wake up early, take a shower and wear a new or fresh set of clothes before starting to cook,” she explains. The bhog should also be cooked near a window through which sun rays can hit the pot directly, to purify the meal to be offered to the gods, she adds.
“The variety of vegetable fritters depends on which day of puja the bhog is being made – so on the seventh day, there will be seven kinds of fritters, on the eighth day, eight kinds and so on,” another committee member Shyamali Chakraborti chips in.
Usually, the bhog is prepared and transferred onto a huge wooden circular plate known as baarkosh, which is carried from the kitchen to the puja mandap by 1-2 people. A third person has to walk ahead of them and sprinkle Gangajal (holy water) to purify the path on which the bhog is being carried, she adds.