BALLARI: If you want to know the meaning of the catch-phrase ‘the city never sleeps’, you must visit Khanapur in Belagavi district during the Ganapathi festival. Around this time, the entire town comes to a standstill and gets into celebration mode. It is as much about the community as it is about worship. Every nook and corner of the house is dusted, scrubbed and washed. Not even the furniture is spared. They are wiped and kept to dry in the sun, which makes its appearance once in a while in the day (as it is peak monsoon time). The walls and doors are painted and decorated. All the members of a family enthusiastically plunge into this ritualistic ‘swachha’ exercise. Because this is that time of the year when they invite Ganapathi Bappa home.
This is the scene in every house in Khanapur during the Ganesha festival season (this year the festival is on September 13) . The entire town wears a festive look as in the neighbouring Maharashtra where it is a state festival. And all communities take part in it. Everything comes to a halt for the festival. Barring the business class, everybody, including the labourers, take a holiday from the eve of Ganpathi festival till the immersion on the eleventh day. “No one moves out of the town,” says Appaiah Kodolli, a two-time municipality member.
The day of ‘Chaviti’ begins before dawn. People ‘storm’ the houses of Chitrakars (the community which makes idols) to take home the idols (they have to place the orders first). “But the wait is longer even at that hour at least for about half an hour, until the Chitrakar looks for the tags he has put on the idols, which contain the surname and number meant for the particular family,” explains Ashok Patil, a resident . Chitrakars choose a particular variety of clay to make idols. The family members get involved in this work. “People here do not want the same design . Therefore, we have at least 25 types of Ganapathi designs ready in a catalogue,” says Parashuram, a Chitrakar.
The three Chitrakar families make over 4,500 idols. “I alone sell close to 1,200 idols every year and see the demand going up, says Parashuram. However, this number includes only household idols.The festival according to many is due to the influence of neighbouring Maharashtra, but a few argue that the influence was there much before. “All we know is that we have been bringing Ganapathis home traditionally, since the days of my great grandfather,” says Appaiah . The festival for some lasts one and a half day, for others five or 11 days, he adds.
“There is one family in the town where Ganapathi is immersed after the 21st day,” says Prakash Deshpande, another resident.The immersion is a 24-hour ritual as the entire town gathers in a long procession before immersing the idols in river Malaprabha, while the Sarvajanik (community) idols are immersed after being taken in a procession through the streets of the town.The taluk boasts of 200 Sarvajanik idols. The community festival began in Belagavi in 1906 after the visit of Lokamanya Bal Ganagadhar Tilak in 1905. In Khanapur, it began at Karambal, a village about 4 km from Khanapur town. In Khanapur town, it began in 1952. There are 11 community idols in Khanapur. (Subhash
-chandrans@newindianexpress.com)
GREEN IDOLS
Whether it is coincidental or a practice that has been followed since time immemorial, the entire town uses only Ganapathi made of clay and paints, according to Parushuram , a Chitrakar.
The paints are not toxic. But the 11 Sarvajanik idos used to be made of Plaster of Paris until now. “Now we are using Multani Mitti and a little bit of PoP, so that the idol will remain strong. It will not
be 100 per cent PoP like before” says Mohan Kumbar, another idol maker.
CALENDAR GANAPATHI
For him, the new year starts with Ganapathi as people wait for him to distribute the calendar with the God’s picture. Meet Shivshankar Kattimani, an electrical material businessman and an ardent devotee of Lord Ganapathi. He began making Ganapathi idols at the age of six. Today he makes his own idols for his house. Later he photographs them and prints them in the form of a calendar, which starts from the Ganapathi festival . “I made my first idol at the age of six. My parents encouraged me and since then it has become a ritual for me (it is believed that once you start bringing Ganapathi to a house, it should not be stopped). I owe this to senior artist Baburao Chitrakar, a nanogenerian now,” he says. Kattimani decorates the idol with jewels. He makes the jewels with clay and uses water paints and eco-friendly materials to paint the idol. His idol is unique -- every year at least 5,000- 10,000 people visit his home to have a look at it. Being a trekker and a nature lover, he has a message to the people not to use PoP.