27th September 1980
a.m.Kalighat by the river. I saw and photographed some clay images-a large one (@ 6' tall) of Sitala; on the left of Sitala 3-headed Brahma, Vishnu, Ishavara; on the right Lakshmi carrying a conch and wearing a red sari. One of the boys thought she was called Raktapati. This image is one year old and was made by Sirish Pal (the shrine itself was dedicated to Kumar Pal who died). Each year the Sitala image is worshipped and thrown away. It is an annual puja for all 3 images (the other two being the same height and smaller than Sitala. Sitala has a chal & bamboo leaf eyes, the other 2 don't.
There is going to be big puja lasting a month involving (I was told originally) 108 images. The puja is a tantric one and will be conducted by a sadhu.
Sirish Pal is making the images for the ceremony but he told me that he won't make that many images. I saw these images and they were certainly out of the usual (one of Kali, one of Chinnamasta, Jagaddhatri, Gaja-Lakshmi (Komala), Ganesh etc). Some of them were half-painted, shaj will be added. They will be complete on mongolbar.
Sirish Pal is Profulla Pal's brother and his workshop is vast. His output far exceeds Profulla Pal's. Amongst some of the images was a Siddeshwari Kali. The bamboo leaf eyes are employed, but the mouth is different and the lion is not Orissan.
Some chals (small ones only) were made and then the straw images attached after. Unlike Profulla Pal, the images are more compact, less spaced out.
I also saw 2 of the shiva Parvati & 4 fig style pratimas that Pradip was telling me about (he has one in the studio).
One striking innovation is large images for sarvajanin puja with Bangla-style faces and compact format except that the chal is divided at the joints of the additional figures. I also saw a completed Sasthi puja (on a white tiger) on the corner of Kalighat Moor that was being taken away for puja.
At Kalighat 2 additional items of interest-a) a clay fig of Brahma on a white bull wearing a red dhoti and chada b) kathamos from Biskarma puja that were lying in a heap near Kalighat for re-sale to the kumars. Also-Chinnamasta puja will be performed at Chetla (the other side of the river from Kalighat).
Sirish Pal told me that all the kumars in Assam are from Bangladesh-ask prodip? NB he also said that Mangal chandi is not worshipped there, as I had thought.
29th September 1980 - Kalighat
30th September 1980 - Kumartuli and Kalighat