Silver city goes for gold to decorate Durga Puja mandaps

Cuttack (Odisha) Oct 17 (PTI) Shooting prices of gold are no deterrent for Durga Puja organisers here to decorate images with ornaments made of the yellow metal and to give a golden backdrop to the tableau. The fetish for gold started when organisers of the Choudhury Bazaar Puja decorated the 'mandap' with gold and made a golden crown for Goddess Durga and other deities in 2002 to mark the puja's golden jubilee. Before that silver used to be the chosen material for decorating tableaus or pandals in the Silver City, Cuttack's another name, called "Chandi Medha". Later, the Choudhury Bazaar Puja added gold to its tableau replacing silver and this year the mandap of Choudhury Bazaar will sparkle with around eight kg of gold. In fact, this committee was the first to go for silver tableau way back in 1951. While three puja committees of the city had given that golden touch to their 'mandaps' earlier, this year, the Chauliaganj puja committee has joined the fray on the occasion of its golden jubilee celebrations. Goddess Durga here would be worshipped sporting a gold crown and gold ornaments. "We have made the crown and ornaments of Maa Durga with 3.5 kg of gold costing nearly Rs 1.15 crore," puja committee secretary Niranjan Sahoo said. MORE PTI CORR SKN MD CR DV