Odisha’s Jharsukdar is all set to receive the eight feet tall and eight feet wide sacred idol of Goddess Durga on Mahalaya which is tomorrow (October 6). This huge idol has been made in West Bengal’s Bolpur city located in Birbhum district by artisan Ashish Ghosh and it includes the demon Mahishasur and also the deity’s favourite ride, the lion.
The idol maker, Ghosh, is a former student and professor artist at Visva-Bharati University. He along with a team of 10 members worked day and night for the last two months at his Kopalya clay workshop in Birhum to get the idol ready by Mahalaya.
What makes this idol special is that it has been made of three elements–brass, bronze and copper.
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According to news18.com, Ghosh told Priyak Dutt, that no industrial material has been used to make the sacred idol while everything has been done by hand. “We did not use any industrial material to make this idol. It was made entirely by hand. The goal is to get more work for the Bengali artists who are there. The cost of making this idol works out to more than Rs 3 lakh.
The Durga idol has provided a new lease of life to the endangered art of metal work and Ghosh’s team of ten artists include the financially disadvantaged local artists and alumni of Visva-Bharati, who are facing hardships due to the Corona pandemic.
As a Professor of Furniture-Design, Ghosh and his studio Mrittika are well known for innovative ideas. His aim is to save and bring back the rural art of Bengal which is endangered. He studied at Visva-Bharati's Shilpa Sadan and Kalabhavan and completed his master’s degree in 2001.
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Ghosh participated in Athens Artiade 2004, the Olympics of Visual Arts that is held simultaneously with the Olympics Games every four years where he submitted two of his works “Crisis” and “Defoliation”, both related to environment as entries.
In 2008 the Beijing Olympic Committee awarded him for his outstanding sculpture called “Nest”.
Last year another artist from Kumartuli, Koushik Ghosh sent Durga idols made of fibreglass to several countries abroad including Australia, Germany, Canada, the US, and the UK.
