Ideal treatment restores idols

THIS ANCIENT couple from Ayodhya has got a new lease of life. Scientists of the National Research Laboratory for Conservation of Cultural Property have restored two wooden idols to the ?pink of health?.

THIS ANCIENT couple from Ayodhya has got a new lease of life. Scientists of the National Research Laboratory for Conservation of Cultural Property have restored two wooden idols to the ‘pink of health’.

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They were treated five years ago and kept under observation ever since.
Now, scientists say the deity-couple is free to go back to the Ram Katha Sanghralaya, Ayodhya.

The idols are about three feet high and heavy. But neither the NRLC, nor the Ram Katha Sanghralaya knows as to what deities they represent.
Had the idols not been brought here for restoration, they would have been lost to the ravages of time.

When the idols were brought to the NRLC, wood boring beetle and common beetle had made huge colonies in them. Their insides were falling out in fine powdery form.

“After receiving the idols, we had to act fast. We put them through various conservation-fumigation, cleaning, chemical treatment, and restoration processes. Once we achieved our goal after several months of restoration and conservation, we took steps to prevent re-infestation of pests in the idols,” said Dr Shashi Dhawan, project officer at NRLC.