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HYDERABAD, INDIA, August 24, 2004: Do not be surprised if you see smaller icons in the Ganesha mandaps this year. Icon-makers in Dhoolpet and other areas of the city are making icons that are less than 10 feet tall. The sculptors say that they are being forced to do this because of the increase in the prices of basic raw materials such as iron, mud, paints and coir. “We don’t have any other option,” says Dhruv Singh Hajari, an icon-maker. “If we go for bigger icons, we will be forced to increase prices. Then nobody will buy them.”



The price of iron was US$0.50 per kilogram last year. This year, it stands at $0.65 per kg. The price of fine mud imported from Rajasthan has gone up by $0.34 per bag. To add to the woes of the sculptors, coir prices have really touched the roof. Due to shortage of coconuts in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, traders have increased the price of coir from $6.25 per bundle to $12.50 per bundle. Many icon-makers are wondering whether they will be able to repay the money borrowed from financiers after the festival. There are hundreds of icon-makers in the city, a majority of them located in Dhoolpet, Chaderghat and Dilsukhnagar.



“We will be more than happy if we are able to sell all the icons we make,” says Lakshmi Narayan Singh, an artisan. He has made 60 icons. Not one has been sold so far. “We are expecting things to improve after the Rakhi festival,” hopes Ratan Singh, a sculptor. However, the Khairatabad Ganesha icon, the biggest in the city, will continue to charm devotees. This year, the icon is going to grow even taller — from 42 feet to 43 feet. The cost has also gone up-from $13,636 last year to $20,454 this year.



For the first time, there would be Ashtavinayakas in place of a single Vinayaka at Khairatabad. “Apart from a huge monolithic Vinayaka, there would be seven other small Vinayakas surrounding the big icon,” says master sculptor C Rajendran, who has been carving the Khairatabad Ganesha icon since 1978.

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