Brisk preparations are afoot here to celebrate the 5-day long Durga Puja, the greatest religious festival of Bengali Hindu community will begin in Bagerhat district town and it’s all the nine Upazilas on October 04 (Friday) with religious fervour, gaiety, solemnity, peaceful and happy atmosphere.
According to Abanish Chakrabarty Sona, General Secretary of Bagerhat District Unit of Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad (BPUP), as many as 630 Puja Mandops (pandels) are being erected in Bagerhat district town and its all nine upazilas. The number of Puja Mandops in the district town is 12 while the highest number of Puja Mandop (143) is being erected in Chitalmari Upazila. The numbers of Upazila wise Puja Mandops are 115 in Bagerhat Sadar, 143 in Chitalmari, 73 in Morregganj, 73 in Mollahat, 69 in Fakirhat, 44 in Kachua, 40 in Rampal, 36 in Mongla and 27 in Sharankhola. Puja Mandops may be increased and decreased, according to Puja Udjapan Committee, Bagerhat.
On the occasion Hindu devotees irrespective of sexes and ages will be clad their best, visit the Puja Mandops and offer prayer to the Goddess Durga for removing all distresses and evils from the earth.
801 Idols of Deities Being Installed on a Puja Mandop
The biggest Puja Mandop of the district as well as, perhaps, in the country is being erected at Shikdarbari in the village Hakimpur within Khanpur Union Parishad under Sadar in the district with the initiative of a business magnate named Lyton Shikdar. As many as 801 idols of deities are being installed on the Puja Mandops based on the stories depicted in the holy books Mahabharat and Ramayan.
BSS from Khulna adds: Idol makers commonly known as Pauls are passing their busy days in making idols of Hindu deities ahead of Durga Puja festival in Khulna city and nine upazilas of the district.
The Pauls are working round the clock to make sure that the idols are ready in time with only 17 days left beginning of the Durga Puja.
The Pauls are hoping for better earnings this year as the number of Puja Mandaps has increased in the region.
Nirmal Chandra Paul, an idol maker of Dharmashova temple of the city
said cost has gone up of the raw materials – clay, rope, straw, bamboo and jute needed to make the idols.
“Five to eight workers is needed for 10-15 days to make a large idol while smaller ones are for around two weeks each to complete,” he added.
Nirmal Paul, who is involved in idol-making profession for over 24 years,
has made 22 idols in the last two months for the current season and has been working for seven more others at present. Taka 40,000 to 60,000 are spent for each of the idols, he said.
He said that about one hundred Paul groups of Khulna are now busy making
idols for Mandaps and they have already completed 80 per cent works for making the idols.
Shymol Singha Roy, a devotee who supervises a Puja Mandap in Sheetalabari temple in Dolkhola area of the city, informed that preparations for the upcoming Durga Puja have become costlier due to high price of the raw materials as well as increased charges of idol makers, purohits and dhakis.
Prashanta Kundu, Khulna city unit general secretary of Puja Udjapon Parishad, told BSS that the Durga Puja will be celebrated in more than 974 Puja mandaps including 129 in Khulna city from October 3 to 8.
Around 400 idol makers are engaged in making idols for Durga Puja in the city and district.
Decorations of temples, lighting, and setting up of Mandaps are expected to be turned the city into a festive look within the next couple of days, Prashanta Kundu added.
