Durga Devi is 90 years old. Perhaps older. She cannot accurately remember her age.
As per Hindu custom in those days, she married at the tender age of 10-12, to a man much older to her. Well into his sixth decade, her husband had multiple wives and suffered from ill health.
Soon after their marriage, Durga Devi’s husband passed away and Durga Devi became a teen-widow.
Destitute widows like Durga Devi are largely ostracised by society and were forced to spend the rest of their lives in institutions for widows called ashrams.
The women were sent to these ashrams to expiate bad karma and make amends for the sins from their previous life which supposedly caused their husbands’ deaths.
Durga Devi has lived all her life in an ashram, living off alms and the kindness of others, bound by strict social customs. She never remarried.
Every morning, at dawn, come rain or shine, Durga Devi walks the short distance from her ashram to the bathing ghats on the banks of the river Ganges (Hoogly, in Calcutta).
Hindus consider the waters of the Ganges as holy.
It is Durga Devi’s deep belief that bathing in the holy waters of the Ganges will absolve her off all her sins and she will attain the happiness and peace of mind that she so craves, in her next life.
For more on this photo essay, please visit me at www.rohanghosh.net
Part 1 from an ongoing project on widows in India. Shot on location in Calcutta, India, 2006. Camera: Canon 5D. Available light. Email me for specifics.
The Ritual 1 - A widow walks to the River Ganges for her daily ritual, Calcutta, 2006
The Ritual 3 - A widow walks to the River Ganges for her daily ritual, Calcutta, 2006
The Ritual 5 - A widow walks to the River Ganges for her daily ritual, Calcutta, 2006
The Ritual 6 - A widow walks to the River Ganges for her daily ritual, Calcutta, 2006
The Ritual 8b - A widow walks to the River Ganges for her daily ritual, Calcutta, 2006
The Ritual 10a - A widow walks to the River Ganges for her daily ritual, Calcutta, 2006