How did Durga’s popularity survive Mughal & colonial rule? Bengali zamindars made it happen

This week, India is celebrating the auspicious Navaratri, the nine nights of the Hindu goddess Durga. While popular all over India, Durga is perhaps most fiercely beloved to Bengalis. Where did Durga originate? How did she grow so dear to Bengal? The answer takes us through nearly 2,000 years of South Asian history—from Zoroastrian and Roman iconography in 2nd century CE Mathura, through generations of warlike medieval kings and merchants, to Mughal-ruled zamindars in early modern Bengal.

Sources:
Sarkar, Bihani. Heroic Shāktism: The cult of Durgā in ancient Indian kingship. Oxford University Press, 2017.
Sarkar, Bihani. “The Rite of Durgā in Medieval Bengal: An Introductory Study of Raghunandana’s Durgāpūjātattva with Text and Translation of the Principal Rites.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 22, no. 2 (2012): 325–90. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41490102.
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