Sanjay Kumar works on his idol for Saraswati Puja at his Rajapul shop and (below) an artisan gives finishing touches to an idol at a shop on Bailey Road. Pictures by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Jan. 22: This Saraswati Puja, devotees have options aplenty on choo- sing idols.

The puja is on January 28. Barely a week left to the puja, devotees of the goddess of learning are thronging Rajapul and Bailey Road to buy idols. But they don’t have to go home with traditional idols only. Idol-makers have lined up different kinds of deities, prepared through experiment and innovation in material, colour and ornamentation.

Sanjay Kumar, a 25-year-old idol-maker from Rajapul, has depicted the goddess seated in a boat or on a betel leaf with a mountain and or a tree in the background.

Asked why he had decided to go for innovation, Sanjay said: “The buyers have become choosy, and the competition has gone up considerably. If I make only traditional idols, I will not be able to sell my whole stock.”

The artisan claimed that in none of his idols innovation obliterated tradition. “Some basic things, like a lotus, a veena and a peacock or swan, need to be associated with the goddess,” he said.

Anand Solanki, an idol-maker in the Bailey Road area, has made idols of plaster of Paris and painted them either white or yellow. “Last year, I had made colourful idols but they did not sell well. So, I painted the deities this year in either white or yellow,” he said.

The devotees and revellers are not complaining. Suresh Thakur, an employee at the Secretariat who had come idol shopping, said. “My children are very excited about the puja preparations. They have been pestering me to buy an idol. I feel simple colours and tradition are more attractive.”

Thakur bought a 5-foot-tall idol from Solanki’s shop.

While some prefer simplicity, others like different shades. Gautam Kumar, a Class IX student of Ram Mohan Roy Seminary School, had come to buy an idol for his tuition centre. “Little less than a week is left for Saraswati Puja. So my friend and I came to buy an idol today. We like colourful and attractive deities.”

Suresh Kumar, the owner of an idol shop on Bailey Road, has made the perfect idols to match Gautam’s choice.