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Worked to bring out his posture, personality: Jaipur artist behind Deen Dayal Upadhyaya’s 63-ft statue
The 60-year-old artist from Rajasthan’s Jaipur said he read up about Upadhyaya’s life before making the statue, which will be installed in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi.
Sculptor Rajesh Bhandari wanted to bring forth the personality of RSS thinker Deen Dayal Upadhyaya in the 63-feet statue he was commissioned to make.
The 60-year-old artist from Rajasthan’s Jaipur said he read up about Upadhyaya’s life before making the statue, which will be installed in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi.
The 45 metric tonne-statue would be installed at Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Memorial Centre (DDUMC) and will be visible directly from the ghats and other locations of Varanasi. The centre is being developed at around 12 acres of land in Padao on Varanasi-Chandauli border.
Padao is near Mughal Sarai railway station where Upadhyay was found dead near a traction pole in February 1968 under mysterious circumstances. He was the founder member of the Bharatiya Jansangh, the precursor to present-day Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“Deen Dayal Upadhyaya used to spend most of his time around books as he liked to read. He led a simple life throughout and which is what I wanted his sculpture to depict,” said Bhandari.
Bhandari said he not only studied Upadhyaya’s photographs but researched more to understand his personality.
“As soon as I was given the project, I started reading Upadhyaya’s biographies, books and everything I could get on the internet about him. Not only the physical feature such as the kind of clothes he wore, but his posture also had to be taken care of. In order to bring out the expressions and his feelings, I had to understand his personality as well,” said Bhandari.
Bhandari said he also researched the location of the statue, commissioned by the Varanasi Development Authority, to understand how the sculpture could depict “Upadhyaya’s timeless glory”.
The statue’s model was made as a 9-feet tall structure, which was then expanded through robotics enlargement technique. Several other techniques such as lost wax process were then applied to mould the sculpture. A team of 20 people initiated the sculpting in September 2018 and completed it in June 2019.
It has been made in 340 parts, each one weighing nearly 100kg, which are being transported to Varanasi and will be installed on the location soon. Rest of the procedure will involve pig welding and oxygen welding followed by a ceramic coating which will ensure that the paint and the sculpture are intact even if subjected to a temperature of more than 700 degree Celsius.
Bhandari claimed the statue he has made is very different from Upadhyay’s other sculptures made in the past.
“If you ask me, I saw no sculpture made in the past which resembled his personality. Almost all missed out on the posture that depicted the kind of person he was. I have tried my level best to bring the casted sculpture as close to his personality as possible,” said Bhandari.
Bhandari said the expressions, posture, clothing and even the placing of the objects such as letters in the hand of Upadhyaya’s sculpture have been done so that anyone who knows or has read about him will find a resemblance. And those who don’t know much about him, he said, will get to understand his personality.
Bhandari has been sculpting since 1980 and has a large portfolio of work to his credit. Several of his sculptures can be in Jaipur’s Rambagh Circle and several others opposite the Raj Mahal Palace.
Bhandari also worked on a Buddha sculpture and a bronze Ashoka Stambh for Delhi’s Dr BR Ambedkar National Memorial. Other works of the artist include the 11-feet bronze statue of Rani Lakshmi Bai at Ghaziabad’s Golden Jubilee Park, an 18-feet statue of Veer Durga Das Rathore erected on the Masuria Hills in Jodhpur and the bronze horseback statue of Hamir Ji Gohil at the entrance of Somnath Temple in Gujarat.