Puja, Pandal and Pratima: How Bengal workers shape Lucknow’s Durga Puja

For their efforts, the livelihood they earn in a couple of months, sets them up for almost the rest of the year, back home

Every year, as Durga Puja approaches, thousands of men and women from Bengal leave their homes and arrive in Lucknow, transforming the City of Nawabs into a hub of art, music, and seasonal livelihoods.

Migrant workers from West Bengal in their temporary dormitory at the Jankipuram Durga Puja Pandal. (Deepak Gupta/HT)

From idol sculptors and pandal decorators to dhakis - the traditional drummers - the festive season brings both cultural exchange and economic opportunity.

Durga Puja in Lucknow thrives on Bengali artists’ idols, Pandals, and drumming. Over a month before the festival, makeshift workshops crop up across the city, where clay is moulded into idols of Goddess Durga. Skilled idol-makers, mostly hailing from districts like Kumartuli in Kolkata and rural parts of Nadia and Hoogly, begin work in open spaces or temporary sheds. Bamboo frames are erected into beautiful pandals, crafted by migrant carpenters and decorators who often work through the night to meet deadlines.

For the artisans, this seasonal migration is not just tradition, it is survival. “Back home, there isn’t enough demand to sustain us throughout the year,” says Biswajit Das, a 42-year-old idol maker who has been visiting Lucknow every year for the past 15 years.

While the work is seasonal, the economic impact is substantial, says Saurav Bandhopahyay, Secretary of Jankipuram Puja. “As many as 41 people from different places of Bengal come every year and stay here to give shape to the panadal. A special dormitory is made from them on the premises. What they earn in these few months in the city, keeps their kitchen fire burning throughout the year.”

Popular Pandal maker Asim Matiya who takes work of most of the big pandals in the city and employs over hundreds of workers from Bengal said, “The festival creates a parallel economy that benefits multiple communities as they come every year where I keep them and give them food and lodging along with daily wages which is higher than what they get in Bengal.”

Popular idol-maker Niloy Kumar Mitra, who takes up the work of most of the famous pandals in the city said, “These people who come from Bengal are my lifeline. I treat them as family. Not just Durga Puja, they start coming to Lucknow from Gangesh Chaturthi which is followed by Durga Puja, Laxmi Puja and Diwali.”

Pic cap: (Deepak Gupta)