Ayudha Puja

This past week Bangalore was celebrating the Indian festival of Dasara. Of the many Indian holidays I am trying to learn-figure out, this one is slightly clearer than the rest, as at least I understand the general message to be “Triumph of good over evil.” Each day of the Dasara festival involves special prayers, food offerings and celebrations. The ninth day of the festival seemed to be the most visibly significant in the city of Bangalore; it is dedicated to something called the Ayudha Puja. This literally translates into the “worship of implements.” During this day workers are supposed to take time to clean, honor and bless the tools of their profession. The purpose is to see the divine in one’s tools and daily work as an offering to God. With the passing of time and the mixing of regional cultures, various customs seem to be celebrated simultaneously and the tradition has acquired a few superstitious rituals as well as acts of prayer. Nonetheless this puja is practiced by all types of workers during this day; from farmers, teachers, drivers, and soldiers to tech nerds… Yes, in the “Silicon Valley of India” even computer software gets blessed! On the streets you can see buses, rickshaws, motorcycles, cars, vegetable stands, ironing carts, not to mention restaurants and all kinds of businesses with flowers and puja markings on them.

So on this day my driver, I’ll call him Krishna, had some very important car puja to do as a part of his Ayudha Puja. He insisted that I could not go to work today, seeming to imply that even driving on this day, without doing the puja was not a good idea. Although the idea seemed a bit superstitious to me, I wasn’t about to object to a widely upheld local custom. Plus I work as a volunteer and when I told my supervisor that I couldn’t come to work because my driver had to do his puja it was immediately understood. This is actually the second blessing my young car has received and considering the absurdly insane traffic we are subjected to every day, I can see the value behind a blessing or two.

It took Krishna the better part of a day to buy goods, set up and perform this ceremony for the car. 

Here’s what it involved:

Meticulously washing and scrubbing every inch of the car, exterior and interior, floor mats, tires included.

Setting out plated offerings of fruit; bananas, apples, pan leaves, turmeric covered rice in a bowl, puffed rice and two coconuts.

Covering the car with garlands of marigolds, roses and tuberose. In addition every door had a rose taped to it.

Collecting grass and then sticking it into what looked like a clay mound to make a mini tree for Ganesha. 

White and Red powdered paints: streaked in various places across the tires, windows, doors, hood and bumper of the car.

Small lemons covered in red powder carefully placed in front of each wheel.

Somehow over the hours of this arduous preparation a few random gardeners and local drivers had gathered on my lawn to keep Krishna company and to participate in the ceremony. They each seemed to have their own idea and record of how everything must be performed, in a few cases they would argue over whose idea was more correct (I interpreted their comments in the local language to be); “you should peel one banana, then put the sticks in”, “you need red powder here”, “you have to split open the coconut with one hit!”, etc, etc. The actual blessing involved Krishna encircling our car inside and out with burning incense.

He then smashed a ‘sacrificial melon’ against the pavement which had been previously filled with red powder and a few coins through a small opening inside. The remaining red melon pieces were then strategically placed facing out, flanking both sides of our driveway. Krishna starts sprinkling the rice onto the car and then asks me to do the same, but then tells me not to hit the car so hard with the rice. After this everyone gets red powdered puja dots on their foreheads and a piece of the fruit offering, or puffed rice to eat.  

The end of this puja is finally completed with lemon squashing. No ritual seems to be complete here without a few lemons. Lemons covered in red powder were placed in front of every wheel of the vehicle and these had to be crushed as the car drives out in order to be protected from the evil eye.

Offerings made, windows marked, four lemons crushed, we resumed business as usual with the driving. In an ironic twist the next day, a hefty cow casually bumped the side of our car when we were stopped in traffic by a procession. We found it amusing as there was no real damage done and made a light joke that maybe it was some kind of Hindu blessing to have a cow graze your car. Krishna laughed and said “not a blessing” but, we could see by his face that he was clearly a bit peeved at this small act of fate. Considering all his efforts with the puja, this probably seemed completely unacceptable. After all, the car was as blessed as it could be…Well maybe some bigger lemons next time…