Prayag artists working overtime to lend lustre to Ayodhya’s ‘Deepotsav’
The ‘Deepotsav’ in Ayodhya is special each year. An added attraction this year will be the presentation of trained sculptors from various parts of the state, who are busy making idols of Lord Ram, while depicting different episodes from the Ramayan.
Among the select group of 30 artists, three are from Prayagraj, whose artwork will be on display at the festivities.
These artists have been selected by the Rajya Lalit Kala Academy and 15 each are making their artwork, at the camps of the academy being held on the campus (offline mode) and their respective work places (online mode). The three sculptors from Prayagraj are Shanee Keshari, Nagina Ram and Dheeraj
Kumar. While Shanee and Dheeraj are alumni of the department of Fine Arts of the Allahabad University (AU), Nagina is a former student of Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi.
Shanee is a native of village Kauwa of Karchana development block and has done his bachelor’s and then master’s in fine arts from AU (2015).
“I am showing the episode of Shabri offering ‘ber’ (Jujube) to Lord Ram, while Laxman is sitting nearby. I have prepared the mould using which I would come out with my idol of fibre and after painting and giving it final shape, I will courier the same to the academy,” Shanee said.
Nagina, who also has the experience of working as guest faculty at AU’s Fine Arts department, now works at Allahabad Museum. He is making his artwork on the episode of Ramayana wherein Lord Hanuman brings Sanjivini for an unconscious Lakshman.
Dheeraj, who too is a former student of AU, has last year passed his master’s from Jamia Milia Islamia, Delhi and now works as a freelance artist.
“I am showing the emotional episode of Ramayan when Jatayu was injured while trying to save Sita from Ravan. Made from fibre, the work is almost complete,” said Dheeraj.
“It is been an honour for me, and for that matter all the artists who are contributing with their respective artwork, to be associated with such a prestigious event,” he added.
Other artists working in online mode making their own creations using different mediums for the event include Anil Prajapati (fibre glass) of Nizamabad, Nupur Katiyar (Terracotta) and Shivangi Kanaujia (Terracotta) of Kanpur, Sant Kumar Chauhan (fibre glass) and Sushil Gupta (fibre glass) of Gorakhpur, Dhirendra Kumar (Terracotta), Rajesh Kumar (fibre glass) and Jitendra Prajapari (fibre glass) of Varanasi, Rajneesh Verma (fibre glass) of Lakhimpur Kheri, Jai Kishore (fibre glass) of Bulandshahr and Bhashkar Vishwakarma (wood) of Mau.
All the selected sculptors are working on different topics related to Lord Ram or different episodes of the Ramayan. The sculptors will have to hand over their creations to the academy by October 23.
The academy is providing an incentive of Rs 15,000 to the sculptors and Rs 5000 for the material that they would be using for their artwork. A chunk of the artwork of these artists is around three feet high.