Agartala: With pujas woven around themes finding precedence in Tripura, at least three Durga puja pandals here have chosen to depict the Kedarnath temple which was devastated by floods recently.
“We have chosen the Kedarnath temple, a holy shrine of the Hindus, recently devastated by floods because it is still vividly imprinted in the minds of the people,” secretary of the Polestar club Puja Committee, Deepak Acharya said.
Joynagar Juba Sangstha, one of the biggest crowd-pullers here, also has Kedarnath as the theme.
“We have taken advantage of a big pond before our puja pandal to show the floods in Uttarakhand which washed away the temple,” secretary of the puja committee, Jayanta Bhattacharya.
“We will show this through light and sound effects,” he said. The theme would also portray the glorious role of the army, air force and navy, he said.
The Shantikami Sangha will also show the devastation in Uttarakhand. The idols made of fibreglass brought from Kolkata have been sculpted to look ancient.
Jarring with the theme, however, is a 64-feet high entry gate built in the shape of the Eiffel tower in Paris.
Another show stealer is the replication of 5th century Nalanda university in Bihar by the Bharat Ratna Club, which is known for innovative themes.
“The new university at Nalanda will have a new session in 2014. Visitors will get a feel of entering the university campus,” puja committee secretary Mohit Das said.
A pandal decorated with gold ornaments would be the replica of Tirupati in south India with the Durga idol made in the style of Balajidev of the temple.
The pandal made of wood, bamboo and thermocol was constructed by craftsmen from Nabadwip in West Bengal.
The Shivnagar Model club Puja committee has reproduced the Vivekananda Rock at Kanyakumari.
The pandal in the shape of the Aman temple at Kanyakumari has been set up in the midst of a lake.
Besides the traditional Durga idol, a separate one of the goddess in the form of daughter, ‘Kanya rup’, would also be set up in the pandal.
Chhatrabandhu club has a big budget puja of Rs 20 lakh themed on ‘voice and music’.
The entire pandal has been decorated with thousands of flutes and hand held cymbals with the idol sculpted by Panchanan Rudrapal, a famous clay modeller of Kumartuli in Kolkata.
Rudrapal said that the idol draped in a Kotki saree of Odisha has the stamp of the heritage of that state.
The ‘kadam’ flower (neolamarckia cadambais) is the theme of the Central Road Juba Sangstha puja pandal.
The Durga image, her children, the saris and the ornaments in clay fashioned by Nabadwip’s Tarak Pal is set in a garden of flowers.
The Netaji Play Centre has created a huge pandal resembling a monastery.
“Recently there was a terrorist attack at Bodh Gaya. It is a holy place, so we thought of making a monastery and make a light and sound programme to show on the life of Buddha, the great preacher of non-violence,” puja committee secretary Debasish Saha said.
The Aikatan Juba Sangstha has modelled its pandal on Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh with clay sculptures with the artisan and the decorators from Chandanagar in West Bengal.
Altogether 2,200 pujas are being held in Tripura of which about 1,000 are in the state capital here. (PTI)
