Keeping the family tradition alive

H.K. Vishwanath continues to make earthen Ganesha idols despite working as a technician in an engineering college, for the sake of keeping his family tradition alive and also passes it to his next generation

August 18, 2009 07:06 pm | Updated 07:06 pm IST - HASSAN

H.K. Viswanath, who works as a technician in the civil engineering department in Malnad Engineering College here, has another occupation. He, along with his wife, Sashikala, who works as a librarian in Sriranga ITI here, and children Manu and Vinay, continue the family tradition of making earthen Ganesh idols.

Mr. Viswanath says that his grandfather used to make Ganesh idols and his father continued the tradition. When he was six years old, he too started making Ganesh idols and has been doing so for 40 years. Preparations for making the idols get under way six months before Ganesh Chaturthi. Earlier, there were many tanks in Hassan, and getting clay was not a problem. Now they have to go to nearby villages to get clay. Mr. Viswanath says that they bring truckloads of clay to their house.

He says that they make idols ranging in size from 3 inches to five and a half feet. This year they have made 25,000 Ganesh idols. Besides the family members, they also engage about 10 to 15 workers to make the idols.

Mr. Viswanath says they need advance notice to make a Ganesh idol more than 2 ft in height. Only after receiving an order do they make idols of the required size. They are concerned about the environment and so do not use toxic paints on the idols. Ms. Sashikala says that since it is a family tradition, she too learnt to make Ganesha idols after she got married and also taught her children. Since last month, the entire family has been working on the idols in their spare time. The price of the Ganesh idols starts at Rs. 10 and goes up to Rs. 5,000.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.