Kumartuli

Kumartuli is the nerve center of the clay idol-makers of West Bengal. It is the home and workshop to more than one hundred and fifty families of clay model artists.

Kumartuli is a maze of narrow gullies criss-crossing each other. One has to find his way out through these dingy lanes crowded with unfinished images of gods and goddesses.

Kumartuli is older than Kolkata, which grew out of three small villages namely, Gobindapore, Sutanuti and Kalikutta in 1690. The history of the Kumartuli artists can be traced back to Krishnanagar in South Bengal. In the middle of the seventeenth century, potters came from Krishnanagar to Gobindapore in search of a better livelihood.

Gobindapore then was a prosperous village on the banks of the river Bhagirathi (now known as Hoghly). The immigrants hoped to make a living by making clay toys, earthenware pots and cooking utensils for household use. When the land at Gobindapore was required by the British East India Company to construct Fort William, the then inhabitants of the area migrated further up the river to Sutanuti. The potters colonized a vast area in this new destination and named it “Kumartuli”. “Kumar” refers to a potter and “tuli” means a locality.

The Bengal Consultations, a journal dated 1707 AD gives an account of the presence of Kumars or potters who occupied 75 acres of land in Sutanuti, which is an integral part of the present day North Kolkata.

Dear Piya
I must add a very interesting facet about Kumartuli.
We all know that in today’s India many a hitherto male bastion has fallen and women are in fact doing better than men in the field. Idol making has for long been a male dominated industry. However, recently female idol makers are doing a good job too. My uncle who is a member of a Kolkata based Puja committee revealed that their Puja committee has commissioned China Pal, a lady idol maker to make their idols.
It seems the lady had to take up the job after the death of her father and there was no one else to take over the family profession of idol making. Last heard, she is doing a good job. Kudos to her!

That is interesting!

Earlier, the Durga Puja festival in autumn was a yearly event in the homes of wealthy aristocrats. Potters traveled from Krishnanagar, braving the risks of a river voyage, to make the images of the Gods and Goddesses for the Durga Puja festival. Around the end of the eighteenth century, the worship of Goddess Durga gained popularity.

In 1790, a dozen Brahmins formed the first ever committee to celebrate Durga Puja in Calcutta. They collected money in the form of subscription, had the idol made at Kumartuli and organized the first ever community Durga Puja festival. As the trend became popular, making idols of gods and goddesses became a profitable livelihood for the potter-turned-artisans.

Kumartuli’s model-makers claim that they have descended from people who made images of Devi Durga for Maharaja Krishna Chandra of Krishnanagar. Many historians, however, opine that the ancestors of these artisans were potters who had migrated during the days of the Raj.


Kumartuli is densely populated. It is a bustle of activities from June to the end of January as artisans are busy making scores of images for the annual festivals. Of these, the autumnal festival of Durgapuja takes up the most of their time.

Kumartuli can be called a potter’s colony or a model-maker’s den. But undoubtedly, it is the home of the finest clay-artisans of India.

Idols of Ma Durga made by Shri Ramesh Chandra Pal, have always been a treat to the eyes. He used to be one of the most renowned clay artisans of Kumartuli. Ramesh Pal has moulded hundreds of flawless idols with beautiful eyes at his Raja Nabakrishna Street studio. He used to stick to the traditional look of the Goddess.

Almost eighty percent of the Durga idols, of Kolkata and the adjoining areas, are made by sculptors and artisans of Kumartuli.

Artisans like Anshu Malakar, Amarnath Ghosh and Kamaksha Bala Pal specialize in creating pith (Shola) images of the Goddess. These images travel to different parts of the world for the NRIs who are keen on celebrating Durga Puja.

The light pith images are packed carefully in wooden boxes and flown to far off places like New York, Toronto, London, Singapore, Tokyo, and Austalia. Many of Sri Ghosh’s creations are on display in museums abroad.

Making an idol is as easy as breathing for an artisan of Kumartuli. They seldom use tools. A skeleton or “kathamo” of the figure is first made with strips of bamboo and small wooden planks. It stands on a wooden pedestal. The deity is roughly constructed with straws and tied with jute strands. This is one of the most important steps in the art of clay model-making as the ultimate shape of the idol depends on how well the straw dummy is made.

Hey Everyone,

thanks for sharing information about Kumortuli. to be true i dint know so much about Kumortuli. i owe you girls. wish i could make idols out of clay, but guess not in this birth. lol!!!!
to Bandana, i am really very impressed with the information you have shared. i have never heard of any lady-idol maker. that is something definitely to be proud of.

thanks again all of you...
keep posting more interesting posts...

love n care,

Bhaswati