Dharma Katha · Season 2: Navratri · Episode 93

On the morning of Saptami, before dawn, all across Bengal, people walk down to the river carrying a banana plant. Not a cut leaf. A whole young plant, with eight other plants bound to it. A priest chants. Drums play. And at the water's edge, in the half-dark, the plant is bathed, as carefully as a person would be bathed. Then it is dressed in a new white sari with a red border. Vermilion is touched to its leaves. And it is carried back, veiled, like a bride, and set down beside the image of Ganesha in the pandal.

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 90 first.

Source note. Label: tradition. The Navapatrika, or Nabapatrika, and the Kola Bou bath on Saptami are living Bengali tradition, and they vary by household and region. The common list of nine plants and their goddesses, the binding with the aparajita creeper and yellow thread, the pre-dawn bath, the red-bordered white sari and vermilion, and the placing beside Ganesha, follow published accounts, including India Currents and hindu-blog.com; drikpanchang.com gives a somewhat different list of plants. The popular belief that the Kola Bou is Ganesha's wife, and the view of scholars that she is Durga herself in plant form, are both reported in those accounts. The agricultural origin of the rite is a scholarly suggestion, not settled fact. The reflections are my own.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.