Page:Durga Puja - With Notes and Illustrations.djvu/37

 of several battle-fields. From the two upper-most corners of the frame-work project two figures of Nilakantha bird, Coraccias indicas.

Peculiar customs are observed by some families in the construction of the idols. In families where the Durgotsava is an ancient institution, the idols are constructed wholly either by men of the carpenter caste or by men of the potter caste. These hold chakran lands granted to them, or rather to their ancestors, and the only return they make is the service rendered in the construction of the idols. The carpenter or the potter comes on the prescribed day of every year and prepares the pratima without any reference to the head of the house. In this manner others, who likewise hold rent-free lands, from the priest who performs the worship to the suppliers of different edibles including the musicians and other attendants on the occasion, render their annual tribute of service, and the festival is celebrated without subjecting the family to additional expenses. At places where the ulu straw is not available the substratum of the figures is made with the straw of paddy. In some families however the same frame-work is used every year, and when the plank gets rotten, a bit from the old plank is attached to the new. The tenth day of the waxing