The painted backdrop
The chalcitra has been applied to this image of Jagaddhatri Durga and the edges are being painted in with blue paint. Blue symbolises the sky and the chalcitra depicts mythological scenes connected with the goddess. The chalchitra may have originally been painted directly onto the top of the chali but now it is painted on a bit of old newspaper and then stuck on with glue.
Right: This image belonging to the Nadia Raj of Krishnanagar has a chalchitra with individual frames showing different manifestations of the goddess or devi. Its style dates back to the 19th c. W.J.Wilkins, writing at the time, says that bamboo, grass and Ganges mud was used in the construction of clay images. He says that holes were drilled in a piece of wood on which the image was fixed, Rough skeletons were then made and covered with a preparation of mud, cow-dung and rice-husks. Painters painted the image and decorators adorned it and round the figures was a cricular 'roof' (the chali) which was divided into compartments showing mythological scenes and figures of other deities (W.J.Wilkins 'Modern Hinduism, being an account of the religion and life of the Hindus in northern India, 1887).
A contemporary author, Shib Chunder Bose, also mentions offerings made to various deities represented on the chali which is shaped like a crescent over the head of Durga during Durga puja. He commented that there was a growing desire to decorate clay images with 'splendid tinsel and gewgaws'. Interestingly, he says that some Bengalis send their orders to England for new patterns. This tinsel he calls 'dack'(daker saj). He said that in Calcutta nearly 500 images were made during Durga puja(Shib Chunder Bose 'The Hindoos As They Are', 1881).
Left: A chali that will be simply painted in blue with no chalchitra. Notice the way the top half of the chali is detachable to make it easier to transport. All the decorations on this image are in clay, including the lotus decorations on the edge of the chali. Chalchitras are more common on traditional images than modern ones.
Right: Traditional ekchala (one chali) design showing a large semi-circular chalchitra behind the main image of Durga. The top part of this chali would also be detachable. Before the immersion the two parts of the chali are reunited.
The art of painting the chalchitra is traditionally practised by the patua or chitrakar (painter). The patuas from the guild quarter of Patuapara in southern Calcutta originally came from Midnapore, 24 Parganas and Birbhum districts of West Bengal (see map of West Bengal on 'Links' page). They worked in the vicinity of the great Kalighat temple dedicated to the goddess Kali and were responsible for the Kalighat pats which were paintings bought by pilgrims to remind them of their visit to the temple. The patuas concentrated on rapid production of paintings on single folio-sized sheets of paper depicting religious as well as secular themes. The kalighat style eventually disappeared with the advent of the printing press. It is not difficult to see how this art form came to be applied to clay image making, principally in the production of the chalchitra. Today it is still common to find a group of artists being responsible for the making of a traditional image. The image is made by the kumar from Kumartuli, the chalchitra painted by an artist from outside Calcutta and the daker saj done by a mali from elsewhere.