CUTTACK: The silver city of Cuttack will dazzle with two new ‘Chandi Medhas’ at Ramgarh-Kanika Chhak and Tulasipur-Mathasahi pandals this Durga Puja.
Ramgarh-Kanika Chhak committee, which has been organising Durga Puja since 1987, is setting up a 14-ft high and 9-ft wide Chandi Medha using two quintals of silver. President of the committee Jayadev Das said work on the ‘medha’ had actually started in 2014 but due to lack of dedicated efforts, it was delayed till the new members of the committee decided to finish it this year. Here, the Goddess wears silver jewellery weighing 30 kg.
Filigree artisans Nirakar Das, Rajesh Das and Sanatan Barik are leading a team of 10 craftspersons to set up the ‘medha’. The highlight of the tableaux, Nirakar said, is 25 beautifully-designed peacocks, each weighing 3.5 kg. The puja committee is spending Rs 2.5 crore on the ‘medha’. Prior to 1987, the puja committee was worshipping ‘Hara Parvati’ at the pandal.
Similarly at Tulasipur Durga Puja committee, a 15-ft high and 14-ft wide ‘Chandi Medha’ is being crafted by Nirakar. The highlight here is silver motifs of swans on the tableaux that will also have designs of ‘Phula Patti’, ‘Ambakasia’, ‘Kadamba’, among others.
Nirakar said around 200 kg of silver has been used to create the backdrop for the idols of goddesses Durga, Saraswati and Laxmi, Lord Ganesh, Kartikeswar and Mahisasura at the pandal, where the festival is being celebrated for the last over four decades. Completely hand-made, both the ‘Chandi Medhas’ will be inaugurated on October 9, on the occasion of ‘Sasthi’.
With this, the number of puja committees in the elite ‘Chandi Medha’ club goes up to 34. The tradition of silver tableaux began in Cuttack in 1951 when Choudhury Bazaar puja committee crafted a ‘Chandi Medha’ for the Goddess.
This year, 173 mandaps will come up under Cuttack Mahanagar puja committee of which more than 100 will be worshipping Goddess Durga, said secretary of Mahanagar puja committee Bhikari Das.