Clay Potters
By Bipul K Debnath
The Pals of the Hindu community in Bangladesh have been crafting clay images and other items of daily necessity for centuries. The clay potters are called kumor in Bangla. Once, making and selling clay objects was their traditional family profession. But with the passage of time, some are moving away from pottery-making and engaging in other types of work. Keeping to their tradition, some clay potters still get busy making different types of images and other traditional items for Durga Puja every year. Ahead of the biggest festival of Bengali Hindus, which began on September 25 this year, The Weekend Independent talked to some members of the kumor community about their way of life and the challenges they are facing in their profession.
One evening about a month ago, this correspondent found a group of potters busy sculpting images of various deities for the Puja festival at Zamindar Bari of Shyambazar in Old Dhaka.
An elderly man was cutting up a bamboo stalk with a chopper, while a young man was helping him fashion a frame for a statue with the bamboo strips. Falan Chandra Pal, 65, comes from Sherpur district. He has been working for two months as an assistant, though he knows well how to make images.
I am here to earn extra money for this season. We are working in a group to assist our owner. I will make about Tk 30,000 from this work and that will help me to manage my familys expenditure for Durga Puja, Pal said. I used to come to the city in the Bengali months of Sraban and Bhadra, the puja time for Bengali Hindus. I prepared images of Laxmi, Saraswati, Ganesh and Kartik, besides Durga. Actually, I make clay utensils the rest of the year, he added.
Bolai Pal, 45, is the main potter of the group. He is a well-known clay artisan in the area. Making images is our family profession. I have inherited this job. I have been doing it for 30 years. Besides clay work, I also work with metal, bronze and stone. I do not do any other work. I remain busy with making images round the year.
About the availability of raw materials for his trade, the potter said: Nowadays, we face problem getting the right kind of soil and clay that are suitable for making images. We have some people who collect earth from the banka of the river at Savar and others places. We get the clay from them.
I prepare images according to the orders placed by different Puja arrangement committees. I have been filling 20 orders on a regular basis for the past 15 years. There are eight people who help me with this work. I hire more people when I face huge pressure. We get orders from various corners of the city, like Gulshan, Baridhara, Bashundhara, Paltan, even from Comilla. People from Bangla Bazar, Laxmi Bazar, Shyambazar, Tanti Bazar, Goualpara, Shakhari Bazar and Gandaria also come to us and place orders. In the past, people used to tell me to make a good image according to my taste. But now, they force me to prepare images according to their own wish. Now, they are getting different ideas from the internet and request me to make the images according to their sample. But the most important thing is to keep the face of the holy mother authentic, so that people can feel devotion from seeing her image. I have to do this work with deep respect and dedication. The structures of the images that I prepare may have some differences, but I try my best to make the face as it should be, Bolai Pal said.
Holy mother Durga will travel by boat this year. So, I will try to add some extra features to make people understand that mother Durga is coming by boat. Bamboo and wood are mandatory. With those, we have to make the frame. There are also variations of colour. These dyes are not harmful for the environment. If they were harmful, our hands and fingers would be affected, he added.
About the changes in trend, the artisan, said: In our days, we used to gather beside our father with great interest as he sculpted the images. Now, I see the children have no interest in this and our craft is declining day by day. See, I have one son and one daughter. They both go to school; they study in class 6 and class 8 respectively. They have no interest in my work. They even do not follow what I am doing. They are too busy with their own studies. Besides, there is no recognition of this work now. But it was a dignified work once, and people used to go to watch the images being made in different areas. Another reason is that the number of potters is not increasing. The young think of this work as troublesome, and so they do not feel interested to do this job.
Another potter, Nishi Chandra Pal, 50, from Kalihati upazila of Tangail, who has been doing clay work for 20 years, expressed the same opinion as Bolai Pal. I have two sons and one daughter who are all studying. I did not go to school, so I took up this work. But my children are not interested in this work. They do not feel good about working with soil. When I was a child, I learned that I would have to continue our family work to earn my living. But now my children have many options and they have their own choices. Another fact is that people do not get much scope to do this work.
Two young potters were seen assisting their seniors. One of them, Joydeb Pal, 24, also from Kalihati in Tangail, talked about his interest in doing this job: I have been coming here with Bolai Dada (brother) for four years. I am learning the work from him. I am very much interested in it. I want to preserve our Pal culture and heritage through my work. This is my own view. I hope I will succeed in my goal. For that, I will try my best to learn everything about this craft from my elders. I have no other option but to do that. I am doing this work now, and of course, I will continue with it in the future. It is also my hobby. It is my request to all my community members _ respect and value this work.
New generation, new system, new method must be introduced to inject new ideas. We have to modernise our profession to keep pace with time. At the same time, we have to keep our devotion and pay our respect to the images, Joydeb Pal added.
Another young potter, Krishna Pal, 25, also from Kalihati in Tangail, said: At first, I worked as a helper in our local shops, but I didnt make much there. Thus, I returned to our family profession and now, I am happy with my earnings. My father taught me how to make clay images. So, I had an advantage. I decided to excel in our traditional work. I have been doing this work for six years. I want to improve the quality of the work and I am still learning about it. There is no end to learning.
There are some problems with this profession, so people do not want to do it. For example, people have to work under huge pressure, pass sleepless nights, and mix mud with water. But they do not know that there are also many rewards. Those who are new may face some trouble. But when they become experts, they will find it is nothing difficult, added Krishna Pal.
Zamindar Bari of Shyambazar is a popular among the local Puja committees to place orders for images of deities. Uttam Barman, a resident of the Old Town, was there to get information about clay images: We have been worshipping in our new temple for three years. We are satisfied with the service we get from here. This place is suitable for those of us who arrange Durga Puja and other pujas in our areas. They provide us with a complete Durga image. Then we take it and install it in our temple for devotees to worship.
We had no temple before. Now we have our own temple, which is small in size. We enjoy Puja with festivities; we will try to do better this year than before. We are doing our best as organisers. We get donations from our community and some from the government. We do not go outside for collecting funds, said Barman about their Puja arrangement.
About trends these days, compared to his younger days, the 46-year-old, said: I see huge changes now. With each year, comes new trends, they are doing modern Puja now. Arranging pujas is now a competition.
But we have no problem with the worshippers; the priest does his duty and performs pujas according to the rituals. We invite you to come to our temple and celebrate Puja with us, Barman concluded.
Photos: Nabiulla Nabi, Nazmul Islam
