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CHENNAI, INDIA, September 13, 2004: With five days to go for the Ganesh Utsav, the question on everyone’s lips here is should Pillaiyar, as the popular Hindu God is known in Tamil, be made only of clay or also plaster of Paris? The problem lies in an interim order of a Madras High Court division bench, which last week prohibited immersion of icons made of plaster of Paris and other chemicals in the sea. Justices Karpaga Vinayagam and Ashok Kumar said icons made only of clay would not only be solemn but also in “consonance” with nature. “Using plaster of Paris to make the icons first and then breaking them into many parts for the purpose of immersion into the sea, is not at all appreciable,” they added.



If the order underlined the solemn farewell to the God it has come as a shock to potters. “We have been working on the plaster of Paris icons for the last six months,” said Ravi, an artisan in the city’s Kosepet area. “The casts are first made of clay and then the hard plaster of Paris white powder (made from gypsum) mixed with water is poured on them to make the icons in the plaster of Paris mold,” said Murthy, another artisan. “We have already made these icons,” said Senthil Kumar. “Now what do we do?” This crisis of “livelihood” prompted a group of artisans from Kancheepuram to write to the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board. They said “there is nothing toxic” in plaster of Paris and that they have been working with the medium for over 15 years without any complaints.



E.V. Ishta Lingam, the secretary of the Kancheepuram Potters’ and Artisans’ Association, said gypsum is as much a “natural substance” as clay. Association officials told The Telegraph they had also attached the results of a sample test conducted by the government’s Chemical Testing and Analytical Laboratory in Chennai which certified that plaster of Paris contains nearly 87 per cent of just calcium sulphate. The sample, they added, had passed the “alkalinity test”. The common refrain was that while icons made of clay “crack up soon and is best suited for making small icons worshipped at homes,” plaster of Paris was a medium suited for making huge images. But the order of the high court, which has asked the state government and the pollution board to submit reports soon, has not dampened the festival mood.



“The stay order was only till last Friday and not further extended till now. So our festivities will not be affected,” said Karthikeyan, who heads the legal wing of the Hindu Munnani, a Sangh parivar outfit which has been organizing Ganesh Utsav throughout Tamil Nadu for over 20 years. “Pillaiyar will take care of everything.” This year, the Hindu Munnani is organizing Ganesh Utsav in 25,000 places across the state, including in 5,008 in Chennai city alone, said Ravikumar, another functionary.

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