The pottery profession being carried on by the members of the ‘kulalar’ community is today at a crossroads owing to the declining interest among the younger generation in learning the art of making pots or carving Vinayaka idols for the Vinayaka Chathurthi festival. But the elders and tradition lovers in the families keep the art alive owing to the revenue they earn from making idols during the festival, and their involvement in the profession.
Eighty-two-year-old Ponnurangam of Soolaimedu in Vellore said that he had been in the business of making pots and Vinayaka idols from his childhood, having learnt it from his father, and continued the work even today, but his son who works as an engineer in Ireland has not learnt the job. “He came home to be with us for a few days before the Vinayaka Chathurthi festival slated for Friday, but left for Ireland on Tuesday”. This is the state of affairs in most homes of the `kulalars’, with the children in the families either working in other districts, states or countries. The elders themselves do not encourage their children to continue the profession, influenced as they were by modern education and the lucrative job opportunities thrown up in this globalised era.
A. Dinakaran (48), member of a traditional potter family on Vinayakar Koil Street (formerly Kosa Theru) who currently works in a spiritual organisation in Vellore said that previously, most family members who are working elsewhere used to visit Vellore to be with their kith and kin and relatives on the eve of Vinayaka Chathurthi and help the family elders or cousins in the job of making Vinayaka idols, but the trend was now declining on account of their preoccupation with their jobs. This is the case with doctors and engineers who are working in private organisations. Only the family members working in various offices in Vellore are able to spend time to help the elders make idols. “Though we start the work three months prior to the festival, we lose our sleep for one month before the festival to make the idols”, he said.
The job of carving Vinayaka idols is a joint effort put in by the entire family including women and children.
While the heads of families fix the body of the idol with the base, and the face with the body, which requires skill and experience, the women take up the job of carving/fixing the parts of the face such as ears, nose, eyes and mouth, and carving designs on the idol. The children do odd jobs.
While about 60 per cent of the `kulalar’ families make Vinayaka idols, a work with which they were familiar, only 10 per cent of the families carry on the original profession of making pots, which have faded away after the advent of vessels and the refrigerators for cooling the water.
Vinayaka idols cost more
Vinayaka idols cost more this year owing to a severe scarcity of water, forcing the members of potter families to buy water at exorbitant prices, and the increasing prices of clay and silt, the other raw materials required to make the idols.
Members of potter families in Vellore said that while they faced water scarcity last year too, the scarcity was very severe this year owing to the reduction in the frequency of water supplied by the Vellore Corporation on account of the drying up of wells and borewells in the headworks in the Palar .
A. Dinakaran, member of a potter family in Kosapet, said potters had to buy water at Rs.350 per 1000 litres this year for the business of making idols on the eve of the festival, as against Rs.100 to Rs.150 which was the cost last year.
