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Durga Puja - Festival of peace and harmony
Srijata Saha Sahoo

     While the Taj Mahal is now experiencing the exuberance of 350 years of its existence, Kolkata is gearing itself for celebrating Durga Puja, the annual homecoming of Divine Mother – Durga. Kolkata, the city of joy attracts lots of visitors from outside during the four days of the puja. Devi Durga here is worshipped as the goddess of righteousness. The epitome of supreme creative energy, she is understood to rid the world of all the evil forces. Her benign presence reaffirms peace and harmony on the earth. According to the traditional Hindu beliefs, the puja in autumn can be traced to Shree Ramchandra’s akal bodhan or untimely invocation of Devi Durga, during the epic war between Rama and Ravana. Devi is popularly known as Mahishasuramardini or the destroyer of demon Mahishasura. She has other names too, like Bhadrakali, Amba, Jagadamba, Annapurna, Sarbamangala, Bhairavi, Chandi, Lalita, Kumari, Uma and Bhabani. The legends say, the mighty demon Mahishasur, vanquished the gods and their leader, Indra. The Gods then approached the Holy Trinity- Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva, who decided to destroy the atrocious demon and utilized their spiritual power to create the female deity, prayed to her to do the needful. The gods provided her with the required arms and weapons. Equipped with the lethal weapons and riding a lion, the Goddess in her awesome majesty, destroyed the evil Mahishasur.

    Devi Durga is the Divine Mother and at the same time, she has been equated with a Bengali daughter who comes to her parent’s place once in a year with her children. As the Goddess visits the earth with her children – Ganesh, Saraswati, Kartik and Lakshmi and her two ‘shakhis’ – Jaya and Vijaya during the autumn, the festival assumes the name – ‘Sharodatshav’. In West Bengal, Maharaja Krishnachandra of Nadia first started worshipping clay icons of Devi Durga for which, the idol-makers of Ghurni were invited to his court. Several advisors of the king provided them details of the Divine Mother and her companions and the icon-makers finally completed the structures, which were worshipped with devotion.

     In Kolkata, the icon-artisans mostly dwell in semi-pucca shanties of Kumartuli, in North Kolkata, though many of them are in Kalighat area or in other parts of the metropolis. The more popular among them are Mohan Banshi Rudra Pal and his sons Sanatan Rudra Pal and Pradip Rudra Pal, Rakhal Pal, Ganesh Pal, Aloke Sen, Kartik Pal, Kena Pal, who are still reigning figures of Kumartuli and despite the threats from the ‘theme artists’, they are booked by major ‘puja-samities’ who admire the old school. The images take months of tough labour to take the final shape from hay and clay and the preparation starts right from April-end. The artists usually have to hire assistants who mostly come from Krishnanagar and Shantipur of Nadia. Kumartuli-artisans have also earned fame for exporting idols made of shoal (pith), marshy vegetation. Amarnath Ghosh, a leading shoal-artist of Kumartuli, earned accolades worldwide for his wonderful creations. Now-a-days small fiberglass icons too have won the hearts of Non Resident Indians (NRIs) and many such icons were shipped abroad this year too. Women are not lagging behind. Kumartuli boasts of the presence of some 30-odd women-artisans, like Minati Pal, Soma Pal, Kanchi Pal and Chapa Rani Pal. They have been in the business of idol making for a long time, but people would not come across their names inscribed on the idols when they go pandal-hopping. Even the creators of the shoal, bulen, or zari ornaments worn by Devi Durga are women. The shoal-workers hail from villages like Maheshpur and Dighir Par of Falta. Their ages vary between 15 years and 55 years. The golden bulen jewelleries mostly come from Krishnanagar (Nadia). The age-old Dak-works or atbangla too are creations of women-folk though some males too are engaged in this work. The ladies even do the hairs of the deities.

    Now-a-days, the icon-artisans are facing the threat of competition from the ‘theme’-creators. Hence, the clay-and-hay has gone haywire with the crowd-pulling game taking center-stage. There are novelties in styles, media and the overall arrangements. Thus Bhabotosh Sutar, Amal Sarkar, Bandan Raha are now popular names in West Bengal and they are getting recognition elsewhere too. From mouri lozenges to pencils or hand fans – all are now being utilized either in pandals or in icons. The money obviously matters to them as they devote their concentration entirely on creating something unique. Rajendra Baghel and Tijuram have come to Kolkata from Bastar district of Chattisgarh with their ironwork art to be displayed at Bosepukur Sitalatala Mandir in South Kolkata. Likewise, women from Jojonga village of Kendrapara, Orissa are now in the city to decorate the ceiling and walls of a popular pandal of South Kolkata with golden grass, typical of Orissa fields. Yashoda Devi of Jitwarpur village in Madhuban district of Bihar too has come to the city with her associates to decorate an East Kolkata pandal. The pandal depicts scenes of ‘Ramayana’ with mehndi lining the Madhubani sketches. Yashoda Devi is one of the best-known living names in Madhubani art, who learnt the craft from her chachi, Jagadamba Devi, a legend who was a recipient of the President’s award in 1975 and Padmashree.

    The heritage of Rajasthan has come alive in Suruchi Sangha’s pandal. The theme is Abanindranath Tagore’s ‘Rajkahini’. The pandal depicts the story through paintings with subtitles in English and Bengali. The artisans created the 600-year-old jafri work on thermocol. The entire set-up resembles the Chittor Fort with a statue of Maharana Pratap on his horse greeting the pandal-hoppers. The interiors offer a glimpse of the royal grandeur amidst desert. Another pandal in North Kolkata’s Darpanarayan Tagore Street has come up with the idea of the desert’s Gangaur festival. The pomp of Durgapuja remains unrealized without the presence of ‘dhakis’ (drummers).

    This year, an event management company has come up with the idea of drummers’ competition with grand prize money to boost the art. The drummers are sure to earn some extra bucks by this. Last but not the least, buying idols from thousand miles away has now become easy with the launching of a website created by the fellow artisans of Kumartuli. Just click calstreet.com and avail the facility of buying deities online from your home. With the puja knocking at the door, the buying spree has caught momentum. The city is geared up to get the final touch of decoration by the lighting artists of Chandannagore, Hooghly. The culinary experts of important city-hotels too are poised with mouthwatering dishes to satiate the tastes of food loving people who throng there during these days. (A PIB Feature).
-Oct 25, 2004