Look closely at a traditional Durga idol and much of what catches the light is not clay at all. The goddess’s crown, her necklaces, the halo behind her head and the lacework along the arch are made separately and fixed on once the paint is dry. This is the saaj, the dressing of the image, and it comes in two great styles: shining, silvery daker saaj and soft white shola.
Daker saaj
Daker saaj is worked in thin, silvery foil, cut and pressed into crowns, earrings, armlets and borders, and layered so thickly on some idols that the goddess seems to be wearing armour. The usual story of the name is that in the colonial period the foil came from Germany by post, the dak, so ornaments made with it became dak ornaments. Whatever the truth of it, the name stuck, and daker saaj is now the mark of the traditional idol.
It belongs to what Bengalis call the sabeki style: the old-fashioned idol, with a calm, large-eyed goddess and her whole family framed together under a single arch, the ekchala. Many bonedi bari pujas in north Kolkata, and older community pujas such as Bagbazar’s, are known for it.
Shola
Shola is the soft white core of a wild plant that grows in ponds and marshes. Dried and peeled, it is light, pure white and easy to cut, and in skilled hands a single stem becomes a flower, a crown or a strip of lace. Bengalis know it best from weddings: the tall conical topor that a groom wears is made of shola.
The craft is traditionally carried on by families of malakars, garland makers. Villages such as Bonkapasi in Purba Bardhaman are known for it, and much of the white ornament on Bengal’s idols, from crowns to decorated arches, comes from artisans like them.
Finishing an idol
Most of this work happens in the last days before the Puja. Once the image maker has finished painting, the dressing begins: in many traditional idols a real sari, pleated and pinned onto the clay, then the ornaments, the weapons in the goddess’s ten hands, and the hair, made from jute dyed black. In Kumartuli, shops in the same lanes as the workshops sell crowns, ornaments and weapons ready-made for smaller pujas and household images.
What to look for
- The crown and the halo behind the goddess’s head, where the foil or shola work is usually at its most detailed.
- The arch behind the family, the chalchitra, edged with ornament and in many traditional idols painted with figures of gods.
- The difference in theme pujas, where designers often replace the traditional saaj with metal, cloth or whatever material suits the pandal.