DHAKA, BANGALADESH, January 28, 2012, (bdnews24.com): Heralding the season of Spring, Saraswati Puja is being celebrated across the country, with Dhaka University’s Fine Arts faculty students claiming their 35-foot idol is the biggest in the world. A Hindu festival meant to seek the blessings of Saraswati, students and educationists cutting across religious divide join in the festivities to honor the deity of wisdom, education, fine arts and performing arts. The puja is held on the day of Vasant Panchami every year. “According to Hindu myth, Saraswati, the goddess of wisdom and learning, rides a swan or a peacock, or is seated on a lotus,” Sadhan Chakrabarty, priest at the temple in Dhaka University’s Jagannath Hall, told bdnews24.com. Like other years, students of DU’s Fine Arts Faculty have created Jagannath Hall’s Saraswati idol this year, too. Made of jute, it has been placed in the hall’s pond. “Thirty-five people worked daily for a month to create the idol,” DU Fine Arts student Chanchal Karmakar said. He said it might be the biggest Saraswati idol in the world, and that they have appealed the Guinness Book of World Records to enlist their creation.
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