Idols getting finishing touches
With Durga Puja just a week away, artisans are passing busy time to prepare idols for the biggest religious festival of the Bangalee Hindu community.
At the same time, Hindus in different parts of the country are buzzing with excitement in preparation for the five-day Sharadiya (autumnal) Durga Utsav, starting from September 26 this year.
In autumn, Durga, the Goddess of Power, visits her father's residence on earth with her family members from heaven. The festival will end on September 30, with the celebration of Bijoya Dashami when the Goddess Durga leaves earth for heaven.
In Chittagong city, artisans of 17 Protimaloys (where clay idols are made) are busy giving final touch to the Protimas (idols of the deities).
Ahead of the festival, the anticipation is also limitless among the followers. The idol makers also have some kind of innate competence to feed up this anticipation, as the young devotees visit all the mandaps (worship pavilions) to see which idol is the most beautiful.
The puja will be celebrated in 266 mandaps in the port city and 1,767 mandaps in the upazilas across the district, said Sujit Das, the general secretary of "Chattagram Mahanagar Puja Udjapon Porishad".
The idols will be brought to the mandaps on September 26, Sujit added.
Shushanta Pal -- an idol maker who is the son of famous idol maker of Chittagong, Dulal Paal -- said it is an ancestral heritage of their family. His elder brother is also an artisan, he added.
Shushanta, who works in "Sri Sri Shiddheshwari Kaali Mandir", has received 35 idols orders for different venues this year.
The largest of the idols he has already finished working on for the venue at North Khulshi in the port city is 10-foot high.
“We never bother about the size of the idols; it depends on the demand of the devotees and the organisers. The actual value is determined by its aesthetic value,” Shushanta said about the craftsmanship of the work while applying spray paint over an idol.
Shankar Pal, another idol maker of "Rajesh-Shyam Paal Protimalay", has been in the business for almost 25 years,, said he had received the order for making 27 idols this year.
The largest idol he was working on this year was eight-foot high. It is for the celebration at JM Sen Hall in the city, he said.
Shankar, however, said the idol-making business is not as profitable as it was several years back. The raw materials are too costly and rare these days, he said.
“We are still in this job only out of love and devotion to our religion…,” he concluded.
Echoing the same, craftsmen of Lamabazar area in Sylhet city said they are still in this profession holding on to the tradition.
In Sylhet division, around 2,500 mandaps have been set up including 576 in Sylhet district and around 60 in the city.
An artisan said idol-making is a long process. It takes time from processing the clay to giving final touches of paint onto the statues and decorating the idols with clothes and ornaments.
However, sculptors of Pal para in Dariapara area of the city are a bit tensed as they are not getting adequate time to colour the clay idols due to excessive rain this year.
Traditional music is also an important part of the religious festival.
To celebrate the festival, makers of different musical instruments are busy making traditional percussion instruments including Dhak, Bangla Dhol, Khol, Dholok, Dugi, Tabla, Khomok, Nal, and Khonjoni.
Rajat Kanti Gupta, general secretary of Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad in Sylhet city, said security is a serious issue during the festival.
They, however, got assurance from police and other law enforcement agencies in this regard, he said, adding that they would also keep their eyes open.
(Amir Hasan Shahriar from Chittagong and Dwoha Chowdhury from Sylhet contributed to this report.)
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