Clay Images of West Bengal

Raja Krishnachandra (c.1710-1782) acceded to the title of Maharaja of the Nadia district in 1728. He established his capital at Krishnanager, which according to J.H.E.Garret was originally known as the village of Reui (Bengal District Gazetteers (Nadia) 1910). A palace was erected at Reui by Maharaja Raghava Ray, whose son, Rudra Ray, changed the name to Krishnanagar. Since then it has remained the seat of the Nadia raj.

The Durga image worshipped annually in the Krishnanagar rajbari (palace compound) is a large, fifteen foot tall clay image known as 'Rajrajesvari' (the 'empress') made in traditional style and immersed in a pond nearby after Durgotsava.

Raja Krishnachandra is credited with popularising the saradiya (autumnal) Durgotsava (Durga puja festival) in the form in which it exists today in West Bengal. Bharatachandra, one of the last great authors of mangal kavya (popular religious poems) and court poet of Raja Krishnachandra, mentions the autumnal Durga puja celebrations at the Krishnanagar rajbari in one of his poems:

"In the autumn I saw Ambika puja

In the palace of the king

The ten-armed sister of Mainaka

The delight of the world".

In his trilogy of poems entitled 'Annada Mangal' dedicated to Annapurna Devi, Bharatachandra refers to the profusion of Durga images in the area during the month of Ashvina and of Kali in the month of Karttika. In his description of the twelve months (baro masa) of the year, he writes:

"Durga images abound here during Ashvina

Who knows anything like it in your land

I shall fetch singers by river from Shantipur

And arrange for you to listen to new songs

Kali images are made here in Karttika

You will see the images of Adya, the eternally glorious".

Krishnanagar became an important centre of clay image making during Raja Krishnachandra's time and remains so today. There are three potters' quarters in Krishnanagar: Sasthitola, Ghurni and Anandamayitola. The latter is in the immediate vicinity of the rajbari in the area south of the Anandamayi Kali temple belonging to the Nadia raj. Ghurni is in the northeastern suburbs of Krishnanagar and is close to the river Jalangi which runs past the town. Ghurni produces realistic clay models of local characters. Such models were exhibited at Glasgow at the International Exhibition of 1851 along with similar models from Lucknow and Patna. Although the most renowned clay modellers still live at Ghurni, the other two quarters produce most of the clay images used for religious purposes. The area occupied by the rajbari, the Anandamayi temple and the potters' quarter, referred to as the Palpara (the quarter, para, of the Pals, the surname of the potters from Krishnanagar) in the south of the present town, constitutes the old Krishnanagar.

The kumars (clay image makers) of Raja Krishnachandra's time probably travelled to other areas to make clay images to commission, much as they do today. It is evident that the kumars travelled and were patronised in different localities, because when the landed gentry moved into the new urban centre of Calcutta in the first half of the 18th c, they hired kumars from Krishnanagar to make clay images for them.

The construction of Rajrajesvari

Raja Krishnachandra's worship of Jagaddhatri