Devotees worship idols of Lord Ganesha in different hues, either brought from Dhoolpet in Hyderabad or made locally, for nine days on a grand note during Vinayaka Chaviti. But, a businessman from the city is maintaining a collection of as many as 3,800 rare Ganesh idols at his residence for the last two decades.
Idols of Ganesha operating a computer, reading book with spectacles, treating a patient with a stethoscope or paying chess, caroms or flute and myriad such manifestations can be found at the house of Chandana Grand managing director B. Srinivas on Bandar Road here. Three exclusive wooden racks on the top floor of his house are stocked up with these idols made up of diamonds, gold, silver, emerald, pearls, wood, original clay, gypsum and copper.
Such is the craze for rare idols that he collected the idols sold in Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Tibet, China and Nepal. Call it a passion or devotion that gradually developed, Mr. Srinivas has been collecting idols measuring one inch to four-feet high since 1994. Most of the idols were carved from wood or sculpted from marble stone, brass and copper material.
The minute works involved in making these unique metal made idols is awesome and one of the attractions is diamonds-studded gold idol of one inch high. Another one is carved using gypsum with a golden crown and chain. “Whenever my and me family visit any temple town or foreign country, we first search for rare idols and buy them after examining thoroughly,” explained Mr. Srinivas, an ardent devotee of Lord Ganesha.
He claimed that he was planning to get more rare idols to maintain a collection of over 5,000 idols. He said plans have been chalked out to celebrate Ganesh festivities in a fitting manner at his residence and at his mall on Bandar Road. “We are organising special pujas everyday during the nine-day festival that will commence from Friday,” he said adding that poor feeding would also be done on the occasion.
