Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

Usher in Ganesha in myriad hues

It's time for the grand carnival to begin. Idols of Lord Vinayaka in different shapes and sizes are perched everywhere in the city, writes NIVEDITA GANGULY

REVELRY A Rajasthani women giving the final touches to the Ganesha idol PHOTO: K.R.DEEPAK

The mood is upbeat and it's time for the grand festive carnival to begin. Splashed in myriad hues, His mighty presence can be felt everywhere. Idols of Lord Vinayaka in various shapes and sizes are perched everywhere in the city as the day comes near to worship Him with pomp and gaiety. Numerous community mandaps have sprung up all over the city, enshrining the elephant-faced God in His many forms.

Perennially an infant yet perennially wise, the beloved elephant-headed God occupies a special place in the popular imagination of India. The son of Parvati and Siva is invoked at the beginning of every enterprise: writers, especially, venerate him as the greatest of scribes, who tirelessly wrote out the epic Mahabharata to the sage Vyasa's dictation.

He facilitates us in all beginnings - the beginning of a journey, a business, a job, a project, or think of what you may. A Ganesha idol - an indispensable element of most Hindu homes - depicts a self, having in one's persona the entire cosmos, with all its spiritual energies and authority.

The skill in creating such an art form brought Kesoram all the way from Rajasthan to this city three years ago. Staying in a makeshift tent at Urvasi Junction on the National Highway No.5, Kesoram and his family work day and night to create countless forms of Hindu gods and goddesses splashed with colours from plaster of paris and coconut fibre.

This year he has created more than 150 big idols and 2,500 small idols of Vinayaka. As one enters the semi-dark congested passage of this place, rows of Ganesha idols in its different avatars greet the visitors. Soft and nimble hands give the artistic forms to the idols. Pushpa, Kesoram's daughter-in-law, carrying her months old baby on one hand, is deeply absorbed in her work. It's the women of the family who do most of the artistic work while the men mould the shapes of the idols.

The work starts from 6 in the morning and goes up till 2 in the night. "The returns are quite meagre and not enough to feed my large family of 15 members.

The local people in the profession obviously have an upper hand," rues Kesaram. Heavy rains and bad weather takes its toll on all their hardwork. "We had to suffer heavy losses due to the erratic weather patterns," he says.

Sometimes the neighbourhood kids manhandle the freshly painted idols. "We threw dozens of idols that broke because of a fight between the kids," he says angrily. But there is no point to sit and cry over the losses, he admits as he resumes his work.

Local dealers

S. Murali, a native of Machilipatnam, has been in the business for the past 30 years in Dondaparthi. Ten workers assist him while he supervises the whole procedure that starts two months ahead of the festival. The sizes of the magnificent idols range from four feet to nine-and-half feet.

The biggest idol costs Rs.4,000 while the smallest Rs.700. He gets orders from Gajuwaka and Anandapuram for the big idols. "In the last few years, festivals have become more commercialised and our business has increased. But we are able to make just a marginal profit as the costs of plaster of paris and coconut fibre have gone up, too," says Murali. "We make about 30 big idols every year. But sometimes the materials go waste," he complains.

If you want to add a touch of the earth for your puja this year, there are the environment-friendly terracotta Ganesha idols mostly in monotones.

Ethnic and slightly ornate, they are neatly sculpted out of clay. Found in abundance in Akkayyapalem Road, they are environment-friendly too. A variety of forms of the Lord are found in the leading stores in the city.

Moulded into bronze, brass, countrywood, sandalwood, terracotta and marble with an unerring eye for perfection, Ganesha is depicted in varying sizes and in myriad moods: dancing, playing on musical instruments, walking, meditating or reclining.

As the festival begins, the chant and the slogan mingle in the frenzy of participation, worshippers mill around the icon, eager to assert their stake in the investment of bliss that is Ganesha.

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