Kumar tuli - The craddle of Indian Idols

Kumartuli a traditional potter's colony in northern kolkata produces clay idols of hindu gods & goddesses during traditional pujas , durga puja being the most prominent this potter's town is both home & workshop to more than one hundred and fifty families.


Kumartuli the clay model-makers haven, is older than Calcutta, which grew out of three little villages, viz., Gobindapore, Kalikutta and Sutanooti way back in 1690.
In those days families used to invite  'kumhors' in their house  as a guest about a week before  Durga puja  & the artisian would create the idol . The popular saying is that the tradition of strting durgapuja was started by raja naba krishna deb of Sobhabazar in honour of the British victory in the Battle of Palassey  in 1757 , so he summoned a kumar from Krishnanagar to make the clay image for his puja. Eventually several other well-to-do families wanted to follow the Raja's example. As a result the kumar was inundated with work and complaining because he had to travel from Krishnanagar asked for a permanent residence for himself and his apprentices, so the Raja lobbied to british  for such settlement  The British Est India company decided to built new settlement at a site in gobindapur which is known as Fort william , as a result of these new settlement policies old settlers were forcefully uprooted . John Zephaniah Holwell( a surgeon & an  employee of east india company,  later governor of bengal (1760))  under orders from the  directors of the company  alloted separate  districts to the company  workmen .These neighbourhoods in the heart of the Indian quarters acquired the work-related names – Suriparah (the place of wine sellers), Collotollah (the place of oil men), Chuttarparah (the place of carpenters), Aheeritollah (cowherd’s quarters), Coomartolly (potters’ quarters) and so on .
Many of the kumars who first settled in Kumartuli were probably from Krishnanagar although today they come from various districts, since in those days  due to Hindu caste system  children used to continue their parent;s profession the tradition of  the artisians continued  for generations after generation .
Today Kumartuli   is popular in entire world , i have personally met photographers & art researchers from across the world , who are amazed at the art which these artisians produce years after years  as the Bengali diaspora  has spread across the nation the demand for idols  has spread   beyond the borders of india , their work is being acknowledged & appreciated  in various parts of India & world , in recent years Kumartuli has supplied images to 90 countries across the world and new nations are being added to the list.
A spokesman of Kumartuli Shilpi Sangha (KSS), an association of the craftsmen, said the NRIs of countries like Hungary, Bulgaria, Russia, Austria and Poland, come to Kumortuli to buy images. U.S. based NRIs, including the Bengali Association of Southern California, Bengali Association of Greater Chicago, Dakshini, Sanskriti, Garden State Puja Committee of New Jersey, East Coast Durga Puja Committee of New York, come to Kumartuli to select deities to ship to their cities. Additionally, hundreds of agents in Kolkata service NRIs seeking idols from Kumortuli.