Clay Images of West BengalCalcutta Notes 17th October 1980 am-Kumartuli. The Kali image was nearly finished. I noticed that Shiva is naked. 2 snakes crawl up his sides. Kali is supported by sticks inside the legs. Went with Prodip to Nabakrishna rajbari. A big puja was under way. One of the relatives was wearing a yellow sari with 'hare Krishna' written on it (in Bengali). We went into the nautch room upstairs. It is like the Durga dalan; 2 rows of pillars (the NK Durga dalan has 5 arches in each row). Apparently (I talked to one of the Debs) the library houses Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian books mostly. NK was ekchala. Then went to the ON Datta house-math chouni (chal done by a brahmin from Nabadwip P told me). Unlike the other Datta family this image had lots of daker saj (breastplates on the female figures). Ghora singha. I also noticed that small figures had been placed in the niches-one of Kama and one of Shiva. 2 pineapples adorned the protruding bits-this image is obviously a rip-off of the the other Datta family. Pineapple (instead of the S of the Dattas). then to the Rani Rshmoni-2 houses. The first went to belonged to the Biswas family and the image was fairly standard ekchala from Kumartuli. The second house belongs to the Hazra family branch. this image is really unique. It's huge and is ekchala (though I was told that the backdrop is in 4 pieces to enable the image to be taken out of the dalan. The faces are different-Durga's is huge with big eyes. The figures are inexpertly done and the lion supposedly realistic. The kumar comes from Bihar, saj from Puruliya and something else (chalchitra?) from Nadia. The bedi and wooden frame on which the image stands (cf the Krishnanagar bedi and board) is very old. Balidan is done in Rani Rashmoni's house (both sacrificial posts are in front of the dalan). On the way out I asked Prodip about the necklace of the Krishnanagar image (which he seems to have copied for the Asu Datta family) and he said its made out of fruit leaves and is called chirer mala. pm-went to Sandhi puja of the Bannerji family off Nafar Kundu Road. It was held at 3.13 pm and lasts the last 24 mins of Astami and the first 24 mins of Navami (i.e. 48 mins in total) in which the whole day's puja has to be performed very quickly. Most of the puja was done by the priest. The family only really participated at the end. The end involved sacrifice. A goat was beheaded with a ceremonial sword and the head taken to the platform in front of the image. As it was beheaded the family (men only I think) stood round in a circle and shouted 'Durga Mai ki jai'. The next item to be sacrificed with the same process was a green gourd and then a bunch of dry sticks (quite long). The sacrifical post and surrounds were cleaned up of all blood. Then lots of clanging of bells, I saw one woman on the right of the image with a chowrie (fly whisk) doing her job. The priest later joined her from his position in front of the image. the whole family had previously stood in front of the image in a semi-circle and thrown flowers while shouting soemthing three times. This part was ended and then a woman on the right sounded a conch. The ladies on the right then annointed each other with sindhu. The priest got on a stool at some stage and daubed the left side of D's crown with something red (the goat's blood?) and decorated the nose of Durga with nose ornaments. A new chander mala was also added. I asked Sanjib Bannerji if this was common and he said it was done every time-there were other chander malas already on the image. I noticed that the image-I went up with Sb after the ceremony for closer inspection-had a white lion. The kolabau was in a white sari and red border to Ganesh's left (i.e. on the right side of the whole image). Just below the singhashan on the right was a small stool with strange pot like objects of a reddish colour and I was told that this was Lakshmi. All the things from the shrine room had been brought down so Lakshmi was included. Around the dias on which the image was placed-wooden and decorated with tinsel were 4 plants set in clay with strong marking off the area. Only the priest and certain members of the family could touch the image after this area had been marked off during the pranpratishta ceremony. The sacrifical post-the rounded bit in front is of fresh clay. I saw this clayey bit or mound in front of the sarvajanin down the road but no sacrifical post. 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 |