Rama and the Untimely Worship of Durga
Before his last battle with Ravana, Rama wakes the Goddess out of season and offers her a hundred and eight lotuses — and when one goes missing, he reaches for his own eye. Why Durga Puja falls in autumn.
Ask in Bengal why Durga Puja is held in autumn and you will be told this story. It is called Akal Bodhan — "the untimely awakening" — and it is the reason the Goddess's great festival falls when it does.
A word on where it comes from
This story is not in Valmiki's Ramayana. In Valmiki, before the final battle, the sage Agastya teaches Rama the Aditya Hridayam, a hymn to the sun. The story of Rama worshipping Durga comes from later tellings: the Devi Bhagavata Purana, in which the sage Narada advises Rama to keep the Navaratri vow before marching on Lanka; the Kalika Purana; and above all the fifteenth-century Bengali Krittivasi Ramayana of the poet Krittibas Ojha, which gave the story its most loved form. It is told here as Krittibas tells it.
Out of season
The war in Lanka had gone on and on, and Ravana could not be defeated: the Goddess herself was protecting him, because Ravana was her devotee. Rama was told that only her grace could turn the battle — he would have to worship her too.
But it was autumn. The traditional time to worship Durga was spring — that was when King Suratha had worshipped her, and the gods, it was said, were asleep in the southern half of the year. To worship her now, she would have to be woken out of season. So Rama performed the bodhan — the awakening — under a bel tree, and began a worship that would last until the eighth and ninth lunar days.
A hundred and eight lotuses
For the great worship he needed 108 blue lotuses, rare flowers found only in a distant lake. [Hanuman](/gods/hanuman) flew to fetch them.
The Goddess decided to test her new devotee. As Rama offered the flowers one by one, she quietly hid one. When he reached the end, there were only 107.
There was no time to send Hanuman again; the auspicious moment was passing. Rama remembered what people had called him all his life: Rajivalochana, Kamalanayana — "the lotus-eyed". My eyes are lotuses, he thought. I will give one of them. He picked up an arrow and raised it to his eye.
The Goddess caught his hand. She appeared before him, told him she had taken the flower only to see what he would do, and blessed him with victory. On the tenth day — Vijayadashami — Rama killed Ravana.
Why it matters
Because Rama woke the Goddess in autumn, Bengal's Durga Puja is the Akal Bodhan — the out-of-season worship — and the spring worship that Suratha kept, Basanti Puja, is the older and quieter one. The Sandhi Puja at the junction of Ashtami and Navami, with its 108 lamps and 108 lotuses, re-enacts the moment Rama reached for his eye.
It also explains why, in North India, the ten days of the Ramlila and the ten days of the Goddess end together. Both are counting down to the same tenth day.
To carry from this story: The Goddess did not need the lotus. She wanted to know whether Rama would give something that cost him. Devotion is measured by what it is willing to give up.
See also: [Arjuna and the Weapons in the Shami Tree](/learn/all/arjuna-and-the-weapons-in-the-shami-tree) — the other Vijayadashami story — and [Rama](/gods/rama) in the encyclopedia.
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