How Kolkata's Durga Puja pandals are built: bamboo and cloth frames, decorators, theme pandals, rural artisans, Chandannagar lights, awards, and the timeline.
A theme pandal built around Bengal's folk culture. Photo: Himadri8991, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
The word pandal simply means a temporary structure or marquee. For Durga Puja it houses the protima (idol) of the goddess with her children and Mahishasura, a space for priests to perform the rituals, and room for visitors to see her.
Mahishasuramardini, Durga slaying the buffalo demon: a 12th-century chlorite sculpture of the Pala school. Photo: SpeakingArch, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Most pandals start the same way, with bamboo. Crews of specialist workers tie poles together with rope into a frame that can be remarkably tall and wide, sometimes reinforced with wood, steel or scaffolding for large structures.
A woman in a red-bordered white sari walks past a giant Durga face in Kolkata. Photo: Surajits photography, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Traditionally, a puja committee hired a decorator, a contractor who supplied bamboo, cloth and labour and built a standard or customised pandal.
A theme pandal built around Bengal's folk culture. Photo: Himadri8991, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Much of the handwork in Kolkata's pandals comes from outside the city.
Idols take shape in a workshop lane at Kumartuli, north Kolkata. Photo: Pinakpani, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Look up and around at night: much of the illumination you see in and around pandals, from glowing archways to animated figures made of thousands of small bulbs and LEDs, is associated with lighting artists from Chandannagar, a riverside town in Hooghly district.
Sovabazar Rajbari's Durga is readied on boats at Baghbazar Ghat for immersion in the Hooghly. Photo: Biswarup Ganguly, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Kolkata's pujas compete, gently and sometimes fiercely, for awards. Companies, media houses and the state government give prizes for the best idol, pandal, lighting, theme and overall puja.
Lanterns and lights over a Behala street during the pujas. Photo: Goutam1962, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Timelines vary, but a large Kolkata puja often follows something like this:
Howrah Bridge (Rabindra Setu) over the Hooghly. Photo: Ovjtphoto, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Pandals are temporary by design, and their materials raise real questions about waste and the river.
Sovabazar Rajbari's Durga is readied on boats at Baghbazar Ghat for immersion in the Hooghly. Photo: Biswarup Ganguly, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
How Kolkata's Durga Puja pandals are built: bamboo and cloth frames, decorators, theme pandals, rural artisans, Chandannagar lights, awards, and the timeline.
Pandal art and themes → Next story: Photographing Durga Puja: phone and camera tips All photo storiesMusic: Sitar sample yaman, Tito Dutta, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.