At Kumartuli, handful of women idol-makers break tradition, taboo as they leave an imprint

Fifty-year-old China, who has been a part of the family business for 24 years, was inspecting clay models of Goddess Durga at her dimly-lit quarter in Kumartuli when The Indian Express visited. “Though my father Hemant Kumar Pal (a renowned idol maker) was not in favour of my entry into the profession, I quit school and started managing his studio. After his death in 1994, I started making idols too,” she said.

Nearly three decades after she started making idols, China says she uses cement, plaster, bronze and copper for her idols because “public tastes are always evolving”. She adds that has a team of 12 workers who work with her round the year.

China says, “I like to stick to the traditional style of idol-making, just like my father, so all five idols for Durga Puja are built against ek chala (one backdrop). My journey so far has not been smooth. I faced a lot of difficulties when I first started as an artist. Male idol makers didn’t appreciate a woman entering a field they had dominated so far. Today, I receive orders for idols from Delhi, Mumbai and Bhopal.”

Kumartuli’s artists and idol makers make clay idols of various Hindu gods and goddesses for various festivals. Their creations are also exported across the country and world. According to artist Babu Pal, the former secretary of Kumartuli Mritshilpi Sanskritik Samiti, of the nearly 400 idol makers at Kumartuli, only 20-25 are women.

The industry landscape continues to be dominated almost entirely by men. Women who are born or married into families of potters or artists are usually not encouraged to join the trade or “invade” their space. Before Durga Puja season, male idol makers usually hire extra hands from across West Bengal because making the idols of Goddess Durga is a grand affair. Still, they continue to discourage women from taking this craft forward.

Sociologist Saswati Ghosh told The Indian Express, “In most cases, women were forced to enter this profession after the death of a male family member who made idols. Like most professions, women were not encouraged to work outside the home. The society wanted them to simply raise a family and do household work. So women have always had to fight their way in.”

Most women idol-makers say they have faced their share of struggles before finding their feet in this field.
Artist Mala, 45, specialises in miniature, “foldable” Durga idols that are exported to Europe, Australia and Canada, where pujas are organised by the Bengali diaspora. She has won several state government awards for her craftsmanship.

“I went through financial hardships but now, thanks to some recognition, business has been good,” says Mala. She adds that her brothers did not help her out financially and were uninterested in taking their heritage forward. So Mala decided to follow in the footsteps of her ancestors.

Artist Kakoli, 47, was busy cooking lunch at her one-storey home in the narrow lanes of Kumartuli. Unlike others, she does not have exclusive studio space and shapes idols inside a makeshift space in a narrow Kumartuli lane lined with shanties, public toilets and studios belonging to male artisans. Her petitions to the authorities for allocation of space are yet to receive a response. “I did not get any financial help from the authorities. I had to borrow money from a moneylender and banks to complete my orders. Most of the time, the advance amount taken from community puja organisers are not enough,” says Kakoli.

She says she was forced to join this business due to personal circumstances. “I was familiar with the art form, but only as an outsider. Then my husband died of a brain stroke 14 years ago. On an average, I get orders for 25 idols annually, mainly for household pujas, which results in some form of regular income. But the going is getting tougher with each passing day as the price of raw materials and labour is going up sharply,” she says.

According to China, there is no taboo in menstruating women working on idols until prana pratistha, a ritual that is performed to give a “soul” to the idol. Prana pratistha is done during bodhon, which signifies the goddess’s arrival to the mortal world from her heavenly abode on shasthi or the sixth day of Durga puja.

Stating that over 3 lakh people are directly and indirectly involved in the business of idol-making, Babu of Kumartuli Mritshilpi Sanskritik Samiti says, “If one takes into account the body of work, then there are only five to six major women artists in Kumartuli today. But 20 years ago, there was just one woman artisan. Today, there are around 20-25 women artisans who are totally involved in this profession.”

Depending on its size and the art work required, a Durga idol with the goddess’s four children and Mahishasura (the bovine demon) can take around two months to complete and is priced between Rs 10,000-2 lakh. Orders from abroad are usually completed and shipped in April-May, mainly through reputed couriers, he says.

Babu adds, “But a lot still needs to be done. More women need to step into this predominantly male space not just because they are women but, more importantly, because they are creative, artistic, focussed and determined to carry the family flag ahead.”