Mahalaxmi puja feast now extends beyond family, is a social occasion

Nagpur: Elaborate prasad prepared by women of the house, a lavish spread partaken by over 100 people and even uninvited guests coming in for darshan and prasad are what mark the three-day Mahalaxmi puja in most families that hold it.
“Once limited to only family members, this has now become a social occasion,” feels businesswoman Aruna Jagtap who receives more than 100 guests at her home.“We cannot deny anybody as people keep a lot of faith and come to offer thanks if their wishes have been fulfilled,” she says. Now she prepares the mandatory items of prasad like ambil and fulora only for brahmins and the married women who have to be fed. “We make them in limited quantities. For the rest, we hire services of a caterer,” she says.
There is no mention of Mahalaxmi puja in scriptures, yet these nakshatra based celebrations are held with utmost care and piety. Anuradha nakshatra in the month of Bhadrapad marks arrival of Goddess Laxmi, the puja and mahanaivaidya is held during the Jayeshtra Nakshatra and visarjan in Mul nakshatra on three consecutive days. “The entire duration is marked with tough rituals and very time consuming cooking,” says Dr Arundhati Bhave. “Family sizes have reduced and friend circle has increased,” she says explaining the influx of people on this occasion. “Besides, the prasad comprises typical Maharashtrian items that are otherwise not available. So there is a lot of curiosity among non-Maharashtrians about it,” she adds.
But there are families like Gaurs in Dhantoli, who hail from Rajasthan and yet hold this puja in their home. “It has a 135-year-old history in my parent’s family who adopted this practice as they were living in a Maharashtrian neighbourhood,” says Aarti Singh. “Even the mukhota in our family is very old one with the hair tied in a bun,” she says and adds all her eight siblings come together for this occasion and celebrate it in true Maharashtrian style.
The spirit of this puja is that households should make a personal effort towards decoration and prasad and not invite hundreds of guest and hire cooks to prepare the meal, feels businessman Mukund Joshi, who hosts around 50 people for this ritual. “Nowadays friends and extended family are invited for meals and it becomes a standing invitation and they keep coming every year,” he says.
In Vidarbha the celebrations boast of lineage, tradition and scale. But the royalty who had thousands coming for darshan and prasad have now made it a strictly family affair. “Till the 1970s, there used to be a 6 to 8 hour queue for darshan at our place,” says Raje Sangramsingh Bhonsle. “Now there are security concerns as the goddess is decked up with jewellery that is family heirloom. So we don’t open it to public anymore,” he says adding, “These days Mahalaxmi puja has become a huge PR exercise. I know of families who have started doing this as recently as a decade back as a social occasion.”