Artisans busy making idols ahead of Durga Puja

Sculpting of idols of goddess Durga continues in full swing, making artisans busy, as preparations are afoot to celebrate the upcoming Durga Puja, the greatest Hindu religious festival in the country.

With only 16 days left, the Pauls are working round the clock to make sure that the idols are ready in time. The Pauls hope to earn better earnings this year as the number of Puja mandaps has increased in the region.

In Rajshahi division around 1,000 idol makers are engaged in making idols for Durga Puja.

Kartik Chandra Paul, an idol maker in the Alupotti Kumarpara area of the city said the cost of raw materials including clay, rope, straw, bamboo and jute for idols has increased.

“Five to eight workers need 20-25 days for making a large idol while smaller ones need around two weeks each,” he added.

Kartik Paul, who has been involved in the idol-making profession for over 25 years, has made 30 idols in the last two months of the current season and has been working for seven more others at present. Tk 35,000 to 60,000 are spent for each of the idols, he said.

He said that about one hundred Paul groups of Rajshahi are now busy making idols for mandaps and they have already completed 80 per cent of the work of making the idols.

Swapon Ghosh, a devotee who supervises a puja mandap in the Kumarpara area of the city, informed that preparations for the upcoming Durga Puja have become costlier due to the high price of the raw materials as well as increased charges of idol makers, purohits and dhakis.

Shyamal Kumar Ghosh, Rajshahi city unit president of Puja Udjapan Parishad, said the Durga Puja will be celebrated in 96 Puja mandaps in the Rajshahi metropolis and in 3,563 others in eight districts of the Rajshahi division from October 1 to 5.

Decorations of temples, lighting, and setting up of mandaps are expected to turn the city into a festive look within the next couple of days, Shyamal Ghosh added.

In Joypurhat Durga Puja will be celebrated at 310 mandaps in the district this year.

District Puja Udjapon Committee’s president Advocate Hrishikesh Sarkar said mandaps will be erected 98 in Sadar upazila, 34 in Kalai Upazila, 45 in Khetlal upazila, 48 in Akkelpur upazila and 85 in Panchbibi upazila of the district.

All kinds of steps will be taken to celebrate the Durga Puja in a festive atmosphere. The monitoring team will work at the district and upazila level, he added.

In Jashore Durga Puja, the biggest religious festival of the Bengali Hindu community will be celebrated at 713 mandaps in eight upazilas of the district this year.