The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Sculpting his way to fame

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 06, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Sculpting his way to fame

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, JUNE 5. From Hyderabad to Mississippi, the city-based artiste, Selva Kumar, has indeed gone places taking the apostle of peace to a distant land. A 440 pound bronze statue of Mahatma Gandhi painstakingly made by him in the alleys of Amberpet now stands tall in the heart of Mississippi State in the United States of America.

The Tirupati born sculptor and son of a woodcarving artiste, Selva Kumar, is elated at his work travelling far and wide and winning plaudits. "A representative of the Indian Association of Mississippi saw my stall at Shilparamam and commissioned me for making the Gandhi statue," he says. Working on his favourite medium, bronze, he finished the work in two months flat and the statue was shipped to Jackson, Mississippi, in November last.

Representatives of the association called on him and presented him with a plaque and a token gift here on Friday.

The former employee of the State Handicrafts Development Corporation says he was always fascinated by the medium. "Watching God's idols gives me immense pleasure. They are so divine and give me a sense of great purity," says the man recounting how his interest in the medium of bronze grew in the temple town of Tirupati, visiting hundreds of temples. No wonder, he ended up making hundreds of panchaloha idols for temples all over the State and bronze works depicting mythological tales in temple complexes. Kumar says he had also worked on the statues of four prominent Telugus installed on the Tank Bund by the then Chief Minister, N.T. Rama Rao.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh