More than Rs 55 crore of filigree works and gold ornaments have been used for tableaux and deities by different Puja Mandaps of Cuttack city this year for the Durga Puja and this display of precious white metal and yellow metal is said to be the hallmark of Cuttack Dussheras.
“This is the uniqueness of Cuttack Dusshera for over seven decades now; and the age-old practice will also continue more enthusiastically in future too,” said Mahanagar Puja Committee secretary Bhikari Das.
Filigree works worth over Rs 38 crore and gold ornaments worth nearly Rs 18 crore adore the deities and the tableaus of all the 166 Puja Mandaps in the Silver City as the five-day long Puja began on Monday evening with the invocation of Ma Durga in pandals. While 24 Puja Mandaps have given silvery backdrops to the deities, nine of them have used gold ornaments in the idols, including some gold used in the silver tableau of the Choudhury Bazaar Mandap.
Besides Choudhury Bazaar Mandap that has crowns and ornaments of gold for all the deities, including of the buffalo-faced demon Mahisashur; other Mandaps like Sheikh Bazaar, Chauliaganj, College Square, Ranihat, Mangalabag, Kathagada Sahi, Haripur-Dolamundai and Khan Nagar-Khapuria have also decorated the deities with some amounts of gold ornaments.
The Choudhury Bazaar Puja Committee is actually the trendsetter in using silver and gold in the tableau. In 1951, it became the first committee to have the tableau made up of silver and gave that sparkling backdrop to the deities.
Soon, others followed; and today, 24 Mandaps have joined the elite group.
Two more Mandaps, Chhatra Bazaar and Sector 10 (CDA), are likely to join this group next year.
Similarly in 1990, the Choudhury Bazaar Puja Committee for the first time used gold for making the ornaments of the deities; and every year, it is adding some amount of the yellow metal to its tableau. Like the race for silver tableaus, the competition for having gold jewelleries of the deities is also gaining momentum in the city.