28th September 1980
a.m.went to Mecheda with Suhrid Bhowmik. He showed me photos of the Tushu festival that is now popularised in Bengal and Bihar. Now images are being made but the iconography is still in the chrysalis stage so it is very confusing; some claim Tushu is Ganga, Lakshmi, Durga etc. Suhrid remided me of the etymology of puja from puspa to decorate with flowers. He also said that Saraswati when described as riding on a Hansa-H means wisdom (as in Ramakrishna Paramahamsa) NOT swan as the local artists thought. His idea is that the artists, knowing nothing of Sanskrit philosophy created the images and the iconographical texts followed in their wake to explain also mythologically the stories behind the images. Manasa from manncha-amma a South Indian word meaning 'World-Mother' became abbreviated to Manncha-ma then Manasa. I was reading that the Cola dynasty had offshoot influence in Bengal area as early as the Pala period. Suhrid believes that Austro-Asiatic peoples were the original inhabitants of India, then Dravidians then Aryans.
I discovered that Midnapore District used to be part of Orissa at one time-interesting re the Orissan lion.
Suhrid took me to the Ananda Niketan Kirtishala Museum (Bagnan, Howrah District) and we walked around. I saw an interesting slate (?) thin plaque about 3" tall which S said would be a memento of pilgrimage kept neither for secular not religious purposes bu as something holy given to relatives. It is of a 4-handed Mahisasuramardini from Howrah district dating from 13th c. the hair is elaborately tied in a top knot and she wears large circular earrings but no mukuta (crown). She carries a sword in the top left I think with trisula in top right. The bottom part of the plaque is broken off.
Also in the museum were some pats (one of 4-armed Manasa with 4 smakes in each hand and bamboo leaf eyes). The clay images made in this area are very roughly made and brightly painted. They look as though they come from moulds and could be an intermediary stage between vrata and pratima. Ganesh, Shiva-Parvati were the ones I saw.
Also noted wooden female figs from Krishnanagar-is this the origin of the Bangla style face?
Talking to Tarapada Santra I discovered that Sirish Pal's father was a very famous patua artist in Kalighat who got awarded a prize for his art. The family comes from Midnapore not Dacca I was told and their original name was Chitrakar (the pat painter) not Pal but as Chitrakar was considered lower social status the name Pal was adopted. Most of the Pals in Kalighat do come from Bangladesh though. Khumabakar, Sutradhar, Chitrakar. Most of the image makers in Midnapore area are chitrakars/patuas. According to Suhrid originally the image makers did paintings in spare time but later abandoned painting.
I was told by Tarapada Santra that sudra just means everyone who isn't a brahmin-in other words it's a very vague distinction. Tarapada Santra's book 'Kather Murti-Bigroho' p43 describes a wooden image of Singhobahini (plate 17). There is another wooden image from the 15th-16th c; the Singhobahini of Nijbaliya in the Howrah District (see plate 17). Scholars guess that the founder of this image was a contemporary of the local landowner Ronshingho Sheroshaho (see the introduction to the poem Shibayon by the poet Ramkrishna Ray published by Bangiya Shatistya Parishad). Therefore it is suggested that this is perhaps the family deity of some vanished royal line set up sometime before the 16th c (Shri Shibendu Manna has discussed Shingobahini in detail-'Nijbaliya and the goddess Shingobahini', Bhumilakshmi 11.3.77). Suhrid also said that stone is not uncommon in Midnapore District
29th September 1980 - Kalighat
30th September 1980 - Kumartuli and Kalighat