Krishna Nagar Original Durga Idol in Salt Lake, Cluster-13

Hand-made pottery is predominantly a woman's art in West Bengal. Women of Kumbhakar (potter) caste and of Patua caste generally make variety of dolls and toys. These hand made figures, small dolls and toys are done by pressing and moulding methods. In Bishnupur (Bankura), Chaurigacha - Katalia (Kandi - Murshidabad) and some other places in Midnapore and Bankura the most primitive method of hand-modeled pottery is still pursued almost exclusively by women.

In West Bengal big jars are usually prepared by men and comparatively small pots are made by women. Clay modeling by hand is widely practiced by the women of Patidar Chitrakar (Painters) castes. In Bankura Midnapore, Birbhum and some areas of Howrah, Hooghly and Murshidabad districts, women of Kumbhakar and Patidar- Chitrakar are engaged in making hand - modeled pottery as part time occupation. The women of Sankhari (conchshell carvers) families in Bishnupur (Bankura) make clay figurines of mother-dolls at a particular time of the year, especially for ritual purposes. Two principle variants of West Bengal Pottery are Bankura-style and Krishnanagar-style.

Krishnanagar Pottery

Krishnanagar clay-modeling is about 250 years old and the potters of Krishnanagar did not originally belong to their present locality. Krishna Chandra, the Maharaja of Krishnanagar in 1728 brought them from Dacca in East Bengal or from Natore in North Bengal.

In Krishnanagar pottery the social scenes of our country and the people, the different castes and racial types are reproduced realistically in clay-models. For example social scenes like collectors court, tea garden, Pandit-Sabha, Charak festival etc are used in clay modeling. This pottery is very popular and in most of the international exhibitions held since 1851, Krishnanagar clay-models have won medals and certificates and also great admiration from the people of Europe. The prices were very high even one hundred years ago and one can easily imagine its possible clientele today. The customers of these models used to be mainly Europeans.

The worship of Goddess Durga is very much part of Bengal’s Culture and spiritual heritage. Keeping this in mind, the Purba Durgostsav Committee of cluster 13 sparing no efforts to make this festive occasion joyous and meaningful with the total participation of local people, especially all the women who took special initiative to raise funding and making this puja successful in all the respects. The enthusiasm and spontaneous participation is the spirit of this festival, stated by Mr. Mihir Sarkar the renowned Archeologists and secretery of this Puja society.

The pandal is made by Plywoods instead of making it with conventional idea of cloth rugged pandals. The designers and craftsmen from Burdwan district, erected and beautified the panda lwith wooden colorful puppets, while this is the first time Saltlake City would witness the idol from Krishna Nagar. The gorgeous deity and the artistic finish of the matri murti is astonishingly bright and made us to bow our head and surrender all our devotion to its own feet.--

Posted By Dibyendu Choudhury