Sawt Falasteen - India's divine designs meld with AI at Durga Puja festival

The ancient and divine now increasingly interact with the digital and futuristic as wildly popular artificial intelligence apps help generate new design ideas.

"Artisans are now using artificial intelligence to find new designs, helping them to stay updated," potter Monti Paul said as he admired his statue of the goddess Durga.

The statue, made of clay moulded onto a wire-and-straw frame and painted in neon pinks and blues, depicts the 10-armed, three-eyed goddess riding a lion while slaying a demon buffalo in a celebration of the triumph of good over evil.

Paul, 70, learnt his craft from his father, like hundreds of other potters in the narrow alleys of Kumartuli, the city's centuries-old idol-making hub.

Kolkata is home to more than 15 million people and each year it erupts in a 10-day celebration of art, music, and devotion, an event UNESCO has recognised as part of humanity's "intangible cultural heritage".

At its heart are the intricately crafted idols and the temporary temples, or "pandals", commissioned by thousands of community clubs.

Many reflect contemporary themes, from politics to pop culture.

- 'AI-driven images' -

Artisans race each year to create works more striking than before.

For decades, designs were either drawn on paper or described verbally by the thousands of committees commissioning them, Paul explained.

But the commissioning communities now also use AI apps, which generate fantastical pictures through text prompts, to translate ideas into images.

"This year, many festival organisers are opting for AI-driven images -- they give us pictures of idols from ChatGPT," he said, noting that they draw on the "thousands of images of Durga idols from ancient times".

"We then try to create the designs of the idols as the organisers wish."

India, with 900 million internet users, according to the Internet and Mobile Association of India, has become one of the world's largest markets for AI tools.

It is the biggest user base for Google's Nano Banana image-generation model and the second-largest for ChatGPT.

China has more internet users, but India is open to US tech companies.

- 'Blessing or a curse' -

The fusion of AI with Durga Puja has itself become a theme for some.

Subal Paul, secretary at a century-old community club in north Kolkata, said they chose artificial intelligence as their motif.

"We took the help of ChatGPT and other AI tools to get the idea of the pandal and idol of the goddess Durga," he said.

"We took the help of chatbots... highlighting how artificial intelligence is shaping our life."

Their pavilion is decorated with giant computer keyboards and flashing lights, set against a backdrop resembling IT office towers.

Two life-size robots guard the entrance, while another whirls atop the pandal roof before the idol.

"The old order has changed, yielding place to a new one," 45-year-old Subal Paul said. "We don't know if it is a blessing or a curse."

For many, the technology only enhances a festival famed for transcending barriers of class, religion and community.

"There is nothing as spectacular and soulful like this tradition," said Ajoy Bhattacharya, 80, a scholar of Sanskrit scriptures.

"It's an amalgamation of tradition, culture and modernity."

Q.Najjar--SF-PST