Balu Bazaar Puja Pandal

Durga Puja by Binod Bihari-Balu Bazar Puja Committee in Balu Bazaar is a 503-year-old affair. The Mrunmayee Murti of Devi is decked up in fine silver jewellery. The tableau of the Goddess, the accompanying idols of Lord Ganesh, Kartik, Goddess Lakshmi and Saraswati, besides the demon Mahisasura, is set against a majestic 30-ft-high silver filigree backdrop, which is designed with motifs of sankha (conch shell) and flowers. While Durga Puja here was started in the year 1514 by Saint Chaitanya Mahaprabhu at Binod Bihari Devi Mandap, it was converted into a community puja by local residents in 1890. It is the only puja pandal in Cuttack where community puja is being organised every year and it witnesses footfall of at least a lakh during all the festive four days. Yet another attraction of the puja here is that the deity's face has seen no change for the past 126 years and all the idols are coloured with organic colours and not synthetic paints. Colours are prepared from red mud, vegetables and flowers besides a local fruit, kendu for decorating the deity.