{"id":867,"date":"2015-01-23T06:43:43","date_gmt":"2015-01-23T01:13:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cynthiasiegel.net\/?p=867"},"modified":"2015-06-13T02:49:04","modified_gmt":"2015-06-12T21:19:04","slug":"the-goddess-of-knowledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cynthiasiegel.net\/?p=867","title":{"rendered":"The Goddess of Knowledge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saraswati is the goddess of knowledge, music and art, and is the daughter of Lord Shiva and Ma Durga. \u00a0 In West Bengal, Saraswati is revered\u00a0by\u00a0schools and universities, because of the belief\u00a0that she endows the worshipper\u00a0with\u00a0speech, wisdom and learning.<\/p>\n

Saraswati Puja takes place this year in later\u00a0January, so preparations of clay images at Kumartuli began in late December. \u00a0 The energy at Kumartuli is much quieter than\u00a0the frenzied activity of Durga Puja preparations, but there were a group of artisans in the neighborhood who were making some spectacular images!<\/p>\n

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This image is 10-12 feet tall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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This image is about 14 feet tall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Saraswati is either accompanied by or seated on\u00a0a\u00a0swan, and is dressed in white for purity. \u00a0In the images made at Kumartuli, she is mostly depicted with two hands\u00a0that play a stringed instrument called the veena. \u00a0In the images where she has four hands, the other two hands will hold a rosary and a book.<\/p>\n

\"G0032576\"
Tiny Saraswati images.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"G0032451\"<\/a>
Pair of life sized Saraswati figures placed as if conversing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Saraswati is also a prominent figure in Buddhist iconography – the consort of Manjushri. \u00a0 Her early history is as a river goddess, and I saw a number of figures adorned with flowing, watery imagery.<\/p>\n

\"G0032646\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Dilip Pal and his assistants were working on eleven commissioned Saraswati images during this time, ranging from two to four feet tall. The floor of Dilipda’s studio at the Shovabazar Rajbari was blanketed\u00a0with straw, as assistant Netal Pal bent and wrapped and compressed the straw into voluptuous female forms.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_2979\"
Small Saraswati pandal in the Kumartuli neighborhood.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"IMG_2980\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saraswati is the goddess of knowledge, music and art, and is the daughter of Lord Shiva and Ma Durga. \u00a0 In West Bengal, Saraswati is revered\u00a0by\u00a0schools and universities, because of the belief\u00a0that she endows the worshipper\u00a0with\u00a0speech, wisdom and learning. Saraswati Puja takes place this year in later\u00a0January, so preparations of clay images at Kumartuli began … Continue reading The Goddess of Knowledge<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[25,18,99,110,14,39,20,6,26,22,9,24,21,121,41,38,122,43,123,98,100,5,27,13],"class_list":["post-867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-calcutta","tag-clay","tag-clay-and-straw-sculpture","tag-clay-images","tag-httpwww-cynthiasiegel-com","tag-dilipda","tag-durga-puja","tag-fulbright-scholar-program","tag-fulbright-nehru","tag-idol-makers","tag-india","tag-kolkata","tag-kumartuli","tag-lord-shiva","tag-netal-pal","tag-saraswati","tag-saraswati-puja","tag-shovabazar-rajbari","tag-swan","tag-terracruda","tag-unfired-clay-sculpture","tag-united-states-india-educational-foundation","tag-usief","tag-west-bengal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cynthiasiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cynthiasiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cynthiasiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cynthiasiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cynthiasiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=867"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/cynthiasiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":981,"href":"http:\/\/cynthiasiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867\/revisions\/981"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cynthiasiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cynthiasiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cynthiasiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cynthiasiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}