24th September 1980
a.m.Kumartuli.This area used to be called Sutanuti. P gave me a Bangali ryhme which translates: Jagatseth's money/Umichand's beard/Banmali Sarkar's house/Govinda Mitra's walking stick.
Banmali Sarkar street is the street which runs outside P's studio. These 4 people-Jagatseth, Unichand, Banmali Sarkar and Govinda Mitra-were the original inhabitants of Calcutta at the time of Job Charnock (1600s).
Yesterday P suggested I could learn something from the clothing of the Skanda figures in Dp image. At one time pants and pugri (like the wide brimmed sort used by Ram Mohan Roy) were in fashion. Then dhoti and chhada. During British influence the long moustache and short hair. In Indian influence long hair short moustache (butterfly). Modern moustache downards.
P also told me his father used to make images for the O.C.Ganguly (of Birbhum terracottas book fame) family.Today I saw one small version of this. Also yesterday I saw a different type chal. P's views on this-that the rajas of the time (esp types like Raja Nabakrishna) tried to please the English in various ways. The churches of the time had the arch design and maybe this had an effect on the chalchitras.
A good question to ask would be which came first ghat or pat? P thinks both came simultaneously.
Today I discussed with a Bengali the Silhet stone image of Mahisamardini. Descptn-3 eyes are of cut out conch shell (which you can buy easily in the shops). 8 arms. Asura-one leg coming out of the buffalo. chal figures at the top and at the bottom. 900 years old from Sena era? this is the kind worshipped for Basanti puja which comes first-the Okal Bodhan worship instated by Ramachandra after his victory over Ravana came later and is now the more popular of the two. I was also told that Manasa p is favoured more in East Bengal than West. All the images in the shrine are made of cement and are painted. Basanti puja is common to both E + W Bengal.
I went into the old temple on Kumartuli road and found it rather boring-it's a Shiva temple I think.
Today I asked P about the reddish coloured wood from the sundarbans-called goran and why he used it. In fact P said that he doesn't use it now because it's too expensive. The shop next door uses a bit of it in their back kathamo. It's used because it's hard. Before it was cheaper than bamboo, now it's more expensive. P also told me the difference between E + W Beng chal is W is more upright and E is wider.
Yesterday there was one ahlada (separate fig) Dp just being completed because it was going to Gujerat (so there are no kumars there). Going by train. I aslo saw a completed fig made out of shola and fully painted which is going to America. NB apparently there is another one in the shop next to Prodip's.
If I was to find out where this type of Bangla mukh comes from (prevalent only in Durga and Kali figs it seems) then perhaps I could locate the place of the origin of the clay image-was it Nadia district or is this the type of face the trad 'old' kind in sculpture?
P also told me of an aksimocana ceremony which he had to take part in 6 yrs ago. He was asked to wear a new dhoti and bring paintbrush and a pot of paint (which he diluted). The image had been painted already and so he was surprised. The brahmin took his arm by the wrist and he traced the outlines of the eyes and the centres. He was then given a new dhoti and some sweets. In Bengali it is called chokh dan.
Ghate pate puja-P knew of it. He told me that there is one old family which keep an old pat in a safe. Every year they bring it out and an artist copies it and they worship this Dp picture. In it there are two people either side (supplicants a la Renaissance style) who P believes were the patrons of the pat.
For 3 generations P's family has done the image of the Nabakrishna Deb family. According to Ajoy Kumar Ghosh (one of the descendants repsonsible for this year's puja) the puja practice has been in the family for 280 years. So P is interested to know who made the pats before. P and most kumars are Sudras.
26th September 1980 - Victoria Memorial
27th September 1980 - Kalighat
29th September 1980 - Kalighat
30th September 1980 - Kumartuli and Kalighat