BOOST FOR ARTISANS: The Governor T.N. Chatruvedi (second from left) presenting Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Vishwakarma Awards at Raj Bhavan on Tuesday to Noor Salma Banu (left), N. Dakshinamurthy, and Rajesh M. Pattar. — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murt hy

Bangalore: "There are not many craftspersons doing this kind of work as it is a difficult job to do but I want to take this tradition forward," says N. Dakshinamurthy, a traditional silver and metal craftsman from Mysore.

He received the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Vishwakarma Award for 2006 instituted by the Crafts Council of Karnataka here on Tuesday.

Mr. Dakshinamurthy, who comes from an illustrious family of traditional metal-cast sculptors, was initiated into the profession by his father.

His ambition is to train youngsters in this art so that they carry forward this tradition.

The other two artisans who received the award are Noor Salma Banu (2004) from Channapatna for her work in Lacquerware and Rajesh M. Pattar (2005) from Gadag for traditional stone carving work.

Ms. Banu started at the age of 14 and has trained around 50 women artisans in this craft. "At the moment, we are working on making educational toys for children. The speciality is that we do not use synthetic colour but only vegetable dyes for our products, which are not toxic."

The awards were presented by Governor T.N. Chaturvedi, who said that Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, on whose name the awards had been instituted, was a great woman with "varied interests and far-ranging talent." It was her lifelong mission to revive the dying arts and crafts of the country, he said.

The tradition of recognising budding artisans should continue with a view to support the arts and crafts of India, Mr. Chaturvedi added.

Lalitha Ubhaykar, Founder-Chairman of the voluntary organisation, Ashvasan Foundation, presented a cheque of Rs. 1 lakh to the council so that the interest from it could be used to help aged and disabled artisans.

M.V. Narayan Rao, vice-chairman of the council, was present.

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