BERHAMPUR: At 97, when most people would have long retired from active work, Magata Mahapatra still sits before lumps of clay, his hands patiently giving shape to figures of gods and goddesses.
For him, it is not merely work. It is a tradition he inherited from his father and one he has spent a lifetime passing on to the next generations. For nearly 150 years, the Mahapatra family of Surangi in Ganjam’s Patrapur block has been making idols. Today, the craft has travelled through three generations, with Magata, his sons and six grandchildren working together to keep the family tradition alive. What makes their story unusual is that the younger generation has not abandoned the ancestral craft for modern careers. Two of Magata’s grandchildren, Abinash and Pritam, are MBA graduates. Yet, instead of chasing corporate roles, they chose to return to the workshop and work with clay, bamboo, straw, rope, cement and colours.
Their education has brought a new dimension to the age-old craft. They experiment with designs, colours, shapes and decoration, blending traditional craftsmanship with changing market tastes. The journey began with Magata’s father, Gorachand Mahapatra. As a young man, Magata learnt from him the intricate skills of making traditional figures, including cow-dung dolls and the heads of Kali and Narasimha. He also learnt the art of painting on cloth. Years later, Magata passed the skills to his three sons—Jayamuni, Surendra and Shashikant.
The third generation has now joined them, turning the family workshop into a space where three generations work side by side. Surangi itself has a long association with idol-making, dating back to the days of royal rule. Over the years, the area has emerged as a centre for clay and cement idols.
During festivals, the workshops remain busy with orders for Ganesha, Saraswati, Durga, Lakshmi, Kali and Kartikeya idols. The demand, however, is no longer restricted to the festival season. The family makes idols throughout the year, particularly cement figures and customised pieces ordered for temples, religious ceremonies, yajnas and local festivities. Their creations range from tiny six-inch idols to imposing figures up to 12-feet tall. Orders arrive not only from different parts of Ganjam but also from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. Palasa, Ichchapuram, Sompeta and Kaviti are among the places where idols made by the Mahapatra family find buyers.
Every idol begins as a collection of ordinary materials and in the hands of the artisans, these materials gradually acquire form, expression and identity. The enterprise now earns the family around Rs 6-8 lakh a year. More importantly, the work provides regular employment to several other families in the village.
For Magata, the greatest satisfaction is perhaps not the income but the fact that the craft he inherited has not disappeared with his generation. “My family has been making idols for more than a century. My wife Bishnupriya Mahapatra and my daughters-in-law have also joined this traditional craft. Several families are able to earn their livelihood through this work,” he says. At a time when education is often seen as a pathway away from traditional occupations, the Mahapatra family has taken the opposite route. Its MBA graduates have returned to the workshop, not to turn their backs on education, but to use it to give an old craft a new future.
While Magata’s hands continue to shape the clay, the younger generation is shaping something larger—the future of a 150-year-old family legacy.