Soil to Soul

Durgapuja is not only the biggest festival of Bengali but also it is the passion and emotion of the Bengali people.From the making of the idol of goddess Durga at Kumartuli to the immersion of the idol in the Ganges - this is the whole of Durgapuja. Situated on the banks of River Hooghly, Kumartuli or Coomartolly is where the present day artistry of Idol-making perseveres. Started off from Ahiritola Ghat, towards the lair of the proficient artistes, to witness the making of Bengal's largest festival of Durga Puja. However Kumartuli remains busy shaping the clay idols all through the year but the month of September is swirling with huge idols for the coming October's Puja. The onlookers are left awestruck at how adeptly the artists shape the figures in such a restricted space available to them. Each and every long stretch of shaded space is packed with the clay figurines of Devi Durga on her lion with Mahisasura at her feet and her children (Lakshmi, Saraswati, Karthik and Ganesh). The "Mrit Shilpi"s sculpting the figures out from a mere bunch of straws and painting it to give a lively look is a month long process and indeed a sight to see and is a delight to the photographers' lens. Then these idols are distributed in different pandals of Kolkata and outside of Kolkata & India as well and Goddess Durga is worshipped there for 5 days. The work of making a just clay idol to goddess idol is done by Clay artists of Kumortuli who is locally known as Poto with skilful hands. On the very last day of Durgapuja comes Bijaya Dashami when maximum idols are immersed at Ganga in various ghats. This is a process where an idol is made by soil , then it turns to great soul Goddess Durga and at the very end again it goes to soil after immersion.