Clay Images of West BengalCalcutta Notes 11th October 1980 am and pm-Krishnanagar. Went straight to the house of Mr Shingho Roy, spoke to him, had lunch, became friendly with son who took me on a whistlestop tour of Kirshnanagar. We went to the rajbari. The old building is a square with 4 gates. To the square fort's right is an entrance way construction followed at a little distance by the entrance proper in another larger square. At the top of the entrance gate are 2 lions both facing to the right (British style lions). Once in directly in front is the canon donated by Clive after the battle of Plassey. To the right is the imposing structure of the Bishnumohal a kind of mansion with pillars. To the right of that is another large encolsure in which is the Durgadalan. The Durgadalan is wedged between a newish structure of the same width but shorter in length and a longer (same width) structure in front. The frontal structure is walled completely and has a brief portico. This was used for audience chamber and recital of jatras. To the left of the long connected building is a low rectangular row of cages for what used to be a zoo at one time. The Durgadalan is open on its two uncovered sides amd is very elaborately pillared and deocrated. I was told that the building of the rajbari is on a southwest directional axis. Inside the Durgadalan the image was placed on the left. A bedi made of earth (small sprouts growing up its sides) was in the middle. To the right a wooden platform. The curator who came in with us to unlock everything was telling me some things about it. The wooden platform would be put on the bedi and then the image. The ghat (mangal ghat) would go underneath the image. Panker kaj is the name of the decorative fluting atop the pillars which are very decorative and a reddish colour. Manily 150/200 years ago. Particular to Bengal where it is famous. This rajbari one is extraordinary and this type of work is unique. The colour and the fineness. At the back the next portion looks rather like a church in its archways and does not have the open-sidedness of the Durgadalan. The colour is brick sandy orangy browny red. Rather like the colour of Anglican cathedral in Liverpool. The image is about 15' tall and very unusual. Behind I saw no traces of goran wood. It is made it seems entirely from bamboo and clay. At the bottom of the image there are 4 holes like recesses for the poles to go through when it has to be carried on shoulders to immersion. Large beams of wood are used for this. The chal is not yet painted in. The basic groundwork of the painting has been done but no decorations. All the faces (even the horse's) were covered by paper and tied up. The curator very kindly unveiled Durga's face. It is bamboo leaf eye style and very broad pan face. Laksmi holds two long stalks of lotus that rise from her dias. Both S and L have long skirts and all females have a short sleeved blouse, elaborate belts and clay malas, flower garlands, red and white I think. The asura is green, the lion white. The lion is ghora singho but not as elaborate as the Dutta family's. The hair/mane is black. There is no buffalo just a buffalo head ( a small one) below on the platform. The chal is hammer head style. Mat is not used I don't think but straw instead from the back it looked densely packed. Durga her two active arms are fat like lotus stalks but the inactive arms are like stalks rising from her shoulders and are improportionately small. I asked Mr Singh Roy what the word ghorabada meant (see Mohit Roy's article) and it refers to Durga's foot on the lion/horse's back. In Mr Kartik Paul's studio in Ghurni (a term which refers to a large bend in the Jalangir river at which point the potter community is based) there is a small model of the Rajbari image (he has another one inside reconstructed from a photograph which Surishchandra Roy gave him). He told me that to do a small image would cost @Rs 3000 in this style. The chalchitra is painted in sections. It seemed to me that on the left were incarnations of Vishnu and on the right some Sakta deities (Kali included and perhaps Chinamasta). I noticed that the Kartik was not wearing a dhoti but had short hair (a pugri?) and shorts. His moustache was flat. Subir told me that there is another family (he pointed to the West) called Roy who also do a puja similar to the rajbari one. S also told me a story about Kirshnachandra. Once K was arrested by the Nawab and imprisoned in Murshidabad. While in prison Dussera passed and he was unable to perform puja. On release he was boating down the Jalangir back to Krishnangar and he was worried by the fact that he had been unable to perform Durgapuja. In a dream Devi appeared as Jagaddhatri-no asura. So he initiated Jagaddhatri puja. S told me that nowadays Durgapuja is not the major festival in Krishnanagar but rather Jagaddhatri puja (Krishnanagar and Chandernagar being the 2 main centres). S also told me about Sibanibasi which is now in ruins. Apparently there is the largest linga in the world there. It is also surrounded by water. The rajbari at Krishnanagar was surrounded by a moat at one time but now it is dried up. According to S the Roy Raja family were mostly Saktas. Rudra Roy despite setting up Krishnanagar also built Anandamayi temple-is this correct? S's family is Singho Roy. Apprently the Rajasthanis came to Bengal in the 11/12th c at the time of Akbar. Because of their military prowess the Bengali rulers were eager to have them as zamindars. S's family is originally Rajasthani (Shingho Roy). In S's father's house I saw on old shield made from rhino hide and 2 spears. The shield was embossed with 4 metal studs. Another shield had a crescent moon on top like the painting of Durgamahishamardini in Veronica Ions' book. These shields are about 200 years old. We went (curator, S and myself) into the Bishnumohoal and entered the drawing room (courtroom) which is situated at the left of the entrance. A dusty old room full of nicknacks, paintings, clay models from Ghurni, old furniture, sawn off elephant's feet (2 belonging to one of Krishnachandra's favourite elephants-I think he had 2 elephants). There were 2 mahogany chairs belonging to K. The portriat of K and courtiers was also there. I took a detail of K. His court jester is to the right top of the painting. An old painting done at the time of Kitishchandra depicts a vision that Kitish had while in meditation. It is Kali kneeling on 2 male bodies the bottom one completely naked. A Ghurni clay model is in the room from this picture. There are various oddments. Saurish Chandra Ray stays in this building during Durgapuja. Ghurni is very much a studio area producing various small figures of local interest. it is not a kumar (image maker's) area. Sosthitola, a little way off, is the image maker's area. Not very big. Most of the images being made were for Sarvajanin pujas outside Kirshnanagar in neighbouring villages. However, there are quite a few pandals being erected in Krishnanagar itself. S tells me that there is a difference between the city and rural puja. Surish Chandra Ray is still regarded as the Maharajkumar but all the feudal connotations are gone. S told me that there are several melas in the winter period in Bengal (the Baul festival takes place then). 13th October 1980 - Maniktola and Kumartuli 14th October 1980 - Kalighat and Kumartuli 15th October 1980 - Kumartuli, Kalighat, Bhaskar Chunder's house and Hazra 16th October 1980 - Nimtala Ghat and Datta bari 17th October 1980 - Kumartuli, Dutta house and Banerji house of Nafar Kundu Road 18th October 1980 - Krishnanagar 19th October 1980 - Shibnibash and Krishnanagar rajbari 21st October 1980 - Calcutta, Nafar Kundu Road 22nd October 1980 - Kumartuli and Kalighat 27th October 1980 - Kalighat and Patuapara 29th October 1980 - Asu Datta's house 30th October 1980 - Tarakeswara, Radhanagar, Gopalnagar, Krishnanagar 31st October 1980 - Tarakeshwara and Kolimbar village |