Page:Durga Puja - With Notes and Illustrations.djvu/38

 fortnight of Ashadha is in some families observed as the day sacred to the construction of the idol. In others, again, the Janmashtami or the birth day of Krshna is preferred. No respectable family, however, purchases a ready-made idol from the bazar. The chal or the canvas top of the framework varies in form in different families. Some have a round chal, which is in Bengali called Bangala, others have three separate semi-circular, triangular, spherically-triangular pieces, with truncated conical top.

The figures are, in the central group, a representation of Durga, the ten-armed goddess, standing with the right foot upon the back of a lion, which is again described in the attitude of a combatant attacking an Asura, (the buffalo-demon) on whom rests her left foot. The goddess has many-braided locks of hair, the crescent moon on her forehead; three eyes, and a face, resembling in brightness the full moon, her complexion as brilliant as liquid gold; her stature gracefully thrice-bent; and her eyes exquisitely beautiful. With the freshness of youth, and completely decorated with ornaments; with a lovely set of teeth, and with bosoms lofty and compact, the goddess is represented in the attitude of destroying the buffalo-demon, with ten arms delicate and rounded as the tender stalks