Four More ‘Chandi Medha’ For Durga Puja In Odisha’s Cuttack

Cuttack: Famous for its Durga Puja grandeur and extravaganza, Odisha’s millennium city of Cuttack is all set to add several new features to the festival this year.

To add to the brightness at pandals, ‘Chandi Medha’ (silver tableau) will form the backdrop of deities at four more Durga Puja venues in the silver city this time. The millennium city is famous for its exquisite silver filigree work.

The Durga Puja committees at Nima Sahi, Nimchouri, Mohamadia Bazaar and Kafla Bazaar are set to introduce silver tableaux at their pandals this time. With this, the number of committees in the elite Chandi Medha club mounts to 32, a report in TNIE said.

In Kafla Bazaar, a 22 ft tall and 13 ft wide tableau is being crafted by veteran filigree artist Biswanath Dey. Around 280 kg of silver has been used to create the backdrop and jewellery for the idols of goddesses Durga, Saraswati and Laxmi, Lord Ganesh, Kartikeswar and Mahisasura at the venue, where the festival is being celebrated for the last over six decades.

Having created the famous Choudhury Bazaar and College Square Chandi Medhas, Dey started the work earlier this year with a team of 10 filigree craftsmen. The tableau has been designed by a local artist Kedarnath Behera. “The puja here is done in Bengali tradition and was started by locals in 1960. We decided to make the Chandi Medha to decorate the goddess this year. New silver jewellery for the deity and the other subsidiary deities have also been made,” puja committee secretary said Tapas Praharaj was quoted by TNIE as saying.

Similarly, 1.5 quintal of silver has been used at Mohamadia Bazar to create a 15-ft-high and 13-ft-wide tableau for the goddess. The puja celebration began with clay idols of Hara-Parvati in 1996. Community puja began at the pandal with the installation of the idol of goddess Durga by locals in 2006. The committee started work on the silver tableau in 2016 and expected to have it ready by 2020. However, with the outbreak of Covid-19 work was stopped midway.

After the situation turned normal, the work was resumed last year and completed this year, said a filigree artisan who has crafted the tableau.

At Nima Sahi, the 15-ft-high tableau for the Mother Goddess has been decorated with exquisite filigree sculptures of peacocks, sun, lotus, kalasha, kadamba flowers and creepers, made from 65 kg silver.

Similarly, the puja committee at Nimchouri has used 1.5 quintal silver to make the backdrop for the idols of Hara-Parvati.

The puja organisers claimed that the tableaux have been completely handmade and no machine has been used in preparing them.