Seventy-five-year-old artisan Ramachandra Rao is hurt when a customer asks the cost of a small clay idol of Ganesha that he is giving finishing touches to by delicately painting the eye. “How can you put a price tag on the idol of Lord Ganesha? This is not a commercial activity,” he says, recalling how his late father Mohan Rao also felt similarly.
Mohan Rao was among the few artisans of Mangaluru who started clay Ganesha idol making more than a century ago. “We still continue to follow his principle. Our family members and I have been doing clay Ganesha idols with devotion of over a century,” Ramachandra said.
Flowers are in great demand in Mangaluru following the start of Ganesha Chaturthi festival in the city on September 6. | Photo Credit: H S MANJUNATH
Pious transaction
As per tradition, a consumer offers an amount of money by placing cash on a betel leaf and betel nut giving the transaction a ritualistic aura. As this correspondent watched, one customer did a pooja to the idol right there, covered the idol in a piece of cloth and carried it to his car, after giving money to Ramachandra Rao with tamboola.
This idol is among the 200 that Ramachandra Rao has made for this Ganesha Chathurti festival, which begins on September 6. Along with Ramachandra, his brothers and 15 other members of the extended family have worked for over three months in preparing these idols. Among the family members involved include Ramachandra Rao’s 90-year-old brother Prabhakar Rao, and Prabhakar’s son Mahesh Rao and his wife Suma Rao. Great grand children Madhukar Rao, Sanjay Rao and Shivaprasad have also been involved in making clay Ganesha idols. The youngest of Mohan Rao’s family member involved in making idols is II PU student Ankush Rao, the grandson of Prabhakar.
“I slowly picked up various stages of work involved in idol making and I now totally involved in it,” Ankush says proudly. “It has been good to see him leave his mobile phone aside for the last few days and completely devote himself in idol making,” says Ankush’s uncle Venkatesh with a smile.
67-year-old Ganapathy Bhandary is among the few old traditional clay Idol makers in the city. | Photo Credit: H S MANJUNATH
Family reunion
For Mohan Rao’s family members, the annual Ganesha idol making season is a time when every member of the family whole heartedly gets involved in idol making. “It is like a family reunion period. We all get together in this ancestral house in Mannagudde and do specific tasks that are assigned,” said Suma Rao, who specialises in putting ‘Mudras’ to clay idols and also in the placing of eyeballs.
The process of making small Ganesha idols (for homes) big idols, ranging between 3 and 5 feet for public events, starts about nearly five months before Ganesha Chathurti.
Sixty-seven-year-old Ganapathy Bhandary, another old clay idol artisan of Mangaluru city from the famed Ravi Arts firm in Car Street, said that the process has grown tougher over the years, including procuring clay which they did from open lands earlier. “With buildings all over the city, we are forced to rely on clay provided by firms involved in making ‘Mangalore Tiles’,” he says.
Ramachandra Rao says before the start of idol making, he goes with his relative Mohan Rao to get clay from places in Ganjimutt. “We cannot go for any other clay apart from the one given by the tiles factories as there is risk of impurity,” Mohan said. For making about 200 idols, the the quantity of clay required is equal to that of what is needed for making about 2,000 tiles. “We work out the quantity of clay that is required beforehand and give advance orders for clay. On a specific date, we go to the unit and get the clay,” said Bhandary.
A muhurta is fixed to start the idol-making, which starts about three months before Chathurthi. A majority of artisans from the city who do clay idols make use of natural colours. Some families and organisations such as Sanghaniketana provide artisans their wooden base upon which clay is placed and idol is made.
A huge pandal has come up in Nehru Maidan in Mangaluru, which is among the places where the public celebration of Ganesha Chaturthi will be in a grand manner. | Photo Credit: H S MANJUNATH
After work hours
There are also many examples of bankers and other professionals being involved in clay idol making. Mohan Rao’s family member 41-year-old Madhukar Rao, a software professional, has been involved in idol making for over 18 years. “This season as I am on ‘work from home’ assignment, I do office work from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. and then involve in idol making in the night, during week days. During week ends, I am totally involved in idol making from morning to night,” he says.
Similarly, Madhukar’s cousin Shivaprasad, who works in a IT services firm in Mangaluru, and Bhandary’s son Vignesh, who works in a finance firm in Mangaluru, have been making idols part time on weekdays and full time on weekends.
Elderly artisan Bhandary says they do not keep a count of idols they make. “It is is against our custom to do a count. But one thing is clear that Lord gives us the strength and resilience to meet the demand of idols of devotees,” he says. “We have prepared idols even during emergency and also during COVID,” Venkatesh said. “When the demand is more, we have made sure to get clay idols from Pune,” Vignesh said.
The idols from the families of Mohan Rao and Bhandary have gone to different parts of the country and abroad. One family from California has been flying down to Mangaluru every season for the last 24 years to carry a one-foot-high idol in specially designed baggage for the festival. Similarly, idols made by Bhandarys are being taken for installation in houses in Dubai and Kenya.
Pedestal for Ganesha Idol is being set up on the banks of Kudtheri Mahamaya Temple lake, which is among the freshwater bodies where idols will be immersed. | Photo Credit: H S MANJUNATH
Environment-friendly
Ramachandra says Ganesha idols made of clay have greater significance in religious texts and veteran artisans of the city have stuck with preparation of clay idols. “Hence our idols can be safely immersed in lakes, rivers and other water bodies and will cause no water pollution. Our big idols safety dissolve in water in about a week’s time,” Venkatesh says.
Kudtheri Mahamaya Temple lake which is among the fresh water bodies where idols will be immersed. | Photo Credit: H S MANJUNATH
Because of this Mangaluru City Corporation or other civic bodies in Dakshina Kannada have not felt the need of having vehicles carrying water tanks to help people immerse idols in it. Some families in Mangaluru have been using clay idols filled with seeds and immersing the same in a bucket filled with water. After the idol gets dissolved, the mud is put back in the field, which helps in growth of new fruit bearing and other trees.
Published - September 06, 2024 09:00 am IST
