23rd October 1980
Full moon (purnima) Lakshmi puja started this evening and apparently ends with bisarjan tomorrow.
am went to Kumartuli. Prodip was still very busy painting his saras today (a photo of his type appeared in one of the papers-Jubanik?). The old man was still doing his saras so I ordered one L sara (he wasn't doing any Durga ones). A lot of Ls being collected still. P showed me an article in Paribartan (?) by the head of some art college on the changing styles of D pratima.
pm went to Mecheda to see Shyam Sundar Chitrakar. Went to Suhrid's first and we went to Shyam's village further on down the road. On the way Suhrid confirmed that Kangsanarayan started the trend of Dp. S told me that in Mednipur area Durgotsab was not v.popular. S thinks Durga is foreign to the area-came from West. An old pandit Sutinath Chakraborti told S that in Tamluk they only started Durgotsab around 40/50 years ago. Before then there was no Durgotsab. Before catching the bus S had shown me the Sarvajanin Dp in Mecheda. The images were still there. Moreover there were additional images. There was a standing male image in blue who was Yama and a man lying prostrate with woman leaning over him-the popular story. The latter 2 figures were heavily covered in sindhur. Any wife who fears for the death of her husband does this puja-Savitri (?). These 3 images were originally housed in a small open hut to the right of the pandal but due to the heavy rains they had been left in the main one. The Dp images were scattered over a rocky landscape. At the top were figures of Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma (from left to right). These were smallish images.
We went to Shyam's but he wasn't in. On the way we saw a small boy making 2 images of Durga and one of Kali out of clay (and paint). He had finished the Kali one. We then went to an artist's house and had tea. On the way we saw a cactus plant and I asked if this was the Manasa plant but he said it wasn't. I remarked how easily the plants could be related in shape to snakes. S told me that the Manasa cactus was planted to ward off snakes and the juice was used as a cure for snake bite. We also passed a small grave (3 stone/cement cubes were lined in a row and then a terracotta pot/shrine in front with relief of Vishnu). A plant (tulsi) was growing out of it. In the artist's house there was one of these but not in use-it had been made and Suhrid wanted to buy it as a garden decoration.
Then we went to see some clay artists (one of whom used the term as a prefix to his name-mritsilpi). They were not called Pal or Chitrakar. This is their original home. The images being made were fairly standard modern Lakshmis. 3 other images also being made-Narasimha with moveable lower jaw and arms and 2 old men-one with moveable arms for playing harmonium and the other for something else. They were for use in a show-not for worship.
They had made a Sarvajanin in that area with a large number of additional images-I think 5 Ds killing asura in the same pandal and a variety of additional figues. The hall was a permanent one and the kathamo and straw cores were lying around outside for reuse after immersion. I asked one of the artists about the bamboo leaf eyes and he said he used to make them (although I don't think he had any moulds of this variety) and he said that previously all the images even Biskarma used to have these eyes. He also mentioned a half moon style eye. For some reason the artist drew an image of one god called Panchananda (looking like Shiva). So perhaps images used to be made in this area at one time although now all the Dps are Sarvajanin there being no zemindars around. As we walked through the village a brahmin (to the accompaniment of drums) was throwing small white sweetmeats out to crowds of children. The way you eat them is to eat most of it and spread the rest across the forehead and top of the head. I noticed a bamboo thatch shrine with a large figure of Bama Kali on prostrate Shiva. 2 Dakinis with large pendulous breasts stood either side. The eyes of this image were lunettes style though the colouring was the standard type (black and red). Directly opposite is a brick built Kali madir (small and looks new-just a one room and a few steps affair). Inside were straw cores being made and some small kathamos. Outside a man tying straw round a bamboo stick. He and his previous relatives made the image across the road and he called it Rakha Kali. Apparently he's a Dom by caste. S told me there are 2 types of Dom. He also told me of a practice amongst the Vaishnavas (which might date back to the medieval period). They bury their dead (both male and female) and make a full-length clay image and lay it across the grave then put an awning over it. This led me to think of Krishananda Agambagis. Apparently the Vaishnava image of Vishnu was sometimes altered and made terrifying-made it into a Kali image by adding tongue etc. During the medieval period there was a close connection (sometimes due to family) between Vaishnavas and Tantrics. NB-see the image from Kumartuli which is Vishnu-Kali. Apparently in Patua songs Vishnu often changes into Kali. Also the Agambagis family now lives in the Hooghly district and there the image is worshipped daily on the cremation ground. Suhrid also told me of a weird Kali temple which is a three-sided pyramid beside a pukur (it is not big). The image was Maha-Kali (black-blue shiva, on top of this white Shiva and then Kali). In Nabadwip there is a seated Kali.
I bought 2 terracotta ghot objects in this area, L saras aren't made. Instead they have 2 bhars (the equivalent of piggy banks really) in which rice must be put. And then a Ganesha pot in which water pust be put. Both together cost Rs 1.00. They are made from entel. Apparently entel in the area is easily available. The entel for these ghots was fired and previously a reddish colour was added.
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