The Beginning..............: Entry for September 02, 2006

ART SUNDAY

(Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganesha)

While talking about art of making Ganesh, I want to share the details of Ganesh, its festival & who was behind this all...

Making of Ganesh : The raw materials that are use for these idols are Plaster of Paris, coconut fiber, casuarinas sticks, synthetic enamel and ordinary paints. The form of the idol is first made using clay. Then the Plaster of Paris dye is made. This is the most difficult part and is made using plaster of paris, coconut oil and a few other materials. It takes anywhere between one day for a 5 feet Ganesha to 10 days or even more for a 15 feet Ganesha. But it is not that the craftsmen work on just one statue till it is finished. Over a period of two months, hundreds of statues are made in batches. Once the statues are in their final shape, they are given a coat of whitewash and left till the second or third week of August. This is when the actual painting of the statues start and it is only a few days before the festival that a majority of the statues are fully painted. It is quite difficult to place a finger on the number of statues that are made, as the whole thing is pretty unorganized. But the number would easily cross a few thousands. (More information of making of Ganesh you can find at http://www.sanatan.org/en/campaigns/Ganesh/page7.htm & http://www.chennaibest.com/discoverchennai/citylifestyle/ganeshamaking.asp )

GANESH UTSAV :

GANESH UTSAV or Ganesh Festival, which is one of the biggest public festival of (Hindu religion) India. It is mostly celebrated in Maharashtra. As you know, Mumbai (old name Bombay) is capital city of Maharashtra state & Pune is neighboring city (Pune-Mumbai are called sort of twin cities !) So Mumbai & Pune both the places are famous for Ganpati Festival or Ganesh Utsav! (Utsav = Celebration)

( Above picture : Pune's most famous Ganesh : Dagdushet Halwai Ganesh, covered with GOLD ornaments...!!!)

Who is Ganpati? - Ganpati is an elephant headed mythological Hindu god, considered the master of intellect and wisdom. Here Ganesha represents a solution to logical problems, or Destroyer of Obstacles. Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak (Freedom Fighter and statesman), who started Ganpati Festival, and revived it in the form of a public festival. It was started in 1893, basically to unite people, from all walks of society, for freedom against British Empire, which was ruling India. It is celebrated more prominently in Maharashtra ( Pune & Mumbai) & afterwards all over India & worldâ€¦. Now a days it is celebrated in Pune as â€œ â€œPune Festivalâ€ which has its own site as http://www.punefestival.com/ where you can see the details of programs to be held for these 10 daysâ€¦ ! So Ganesh Utsav is celebrated in public places, apartments, homes, schools and everywhere else.... It comes in September or October most of the time & celebration goes till 10 daysâ€¦ but there are options for having 5, 7 or 10 days celebration. Now you will say what significance does it have now in Free India? So it is for Social and Public awareness. Nature of the festival â€“ these are basically clay idols worshipped with a social theme and colorful decorations and worshipped everyday and the idols are immersed into sea/rivers on the last day.

THE MAN WHO STARTED GANESH UTSAV

Bal Gangadhar Tilak, described by British as "The Father of Indian Unrest " Tilak was born on 23.07.1856. His slogan, "Swaraj (Self Rule) is my birthright", inspired millions of Indians. He wrote his book â€œGeetarahasyaâ€ a classic treatise on Geeta in Marathi, in prison at Mandalay. Great journalist- editor, an authority on Vedas, Sanskrit Scholar, mathematician and a natural leader of India. Died 01.08.1920 "Swaraj is our birthright," thundered Tilak, the Lion of India. He founded schools and published newspapers, all for his motherland. He rotted in a distant jail at Manda lay, in Burma. He wore himself out till his last breath, to awaken his countrymen. (Source: http://www.freeindia.org/biographies/tilak/ you can read more about him at this site or can search at google)

PRAYER OF GANESH

(In this video you can see the idols are immersed into sea near Mumbai..)

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ABOUT BELOW VIDEO : Some "ndakuzaku " named person, Age: 40 ,City: S\u00e3o Paulo ,Country: BR, has put this video on You Tube I don't understand its brazilian language...LOL But it is live recording of Ganesh festival, may be from small group !! Because that person could not have got chance to main & biggest Ganesh Pandals ( pandals = group) like "Siddhivinayak" etc which are more organized than this.. and always have high security around them..!! LOL The visarjan ceremony takes 10-12 hours too and can you believe people beat the drums & dance for 10 long hours? ( They mostly drink a lot to get that capacity...LOL) This is so FUNNY that this video has a Punjabi song in the background, which is NOT AT ALL related to Ganesh ... See, I don't understand what this man is saying, I can't correct him, even if he is saying anything wrong... LOL. So you can check the links to know about correct information about this & enjoy this video too if you know this language...hahahaha..Hey in this video, they wanted to put color on his forehead & on face ( as they are happy & welcoming him to join them..) but he got scared and ran away But I am very THANKFUL to this person who has so much interest in our culture & took so much pain & efforts to shoot this video ... So here we go.... video by "ndakuzaku " !!!