Imagine a beautiful sculpture of a spaceship in the memory of Kalpana Chawla made from cow dung! Wait, there's more. An image of Lord Hanuman with Lord Rama and Sita 'etched' in his 'heart', a meditating Lord Shiva, a woman offering 'aarti', celebrating joys of motherhood and birth of a child.
Hailing from Kurukshetra, a group of artisans have been working for the past decade to "revive" the tradition of cow dung sculptures.
"Sculpting with cow dung is not a new concept. It's just that now it's getting the attention that it so rightfully deserved," says Sharad Kumar, a freelance artist and designer with the Asian Heritage Foundation, who also runs a centre for Art & Culture in Patna.
In fact, it was Kumar who encouraged the villagers of Kurukshetra to experiment with locally-available materials like cow dung, jute, straw and embroidery threads to give form to their concepts and imagination, way back in 93-94 when he conducted a workshop with them.
Cow-dung scultping can be traced back to as many as 700-800 years, claims Man Singh, an artisan from Kurukshetra, asserting that now only forms and structures have changed.
"Since long, cow dung was traditionally used to make Sanjhis', a goddess worshipped primarily by womenfolk in Haryana. 'Sanjhi' is an artwork made from cowdung and clay. The women have been making them for centuries. It's a part of our culture and traditions," he says.
{{/usCountry}}"Since long, cow dung was traditionally used to make Sanjhis', a goddess worshipped primarily by womenfolk in Haryana. 'Sanjhi' is an artwork made from cowdung and clay. The women have been making them for centuries. It's a part of our culture and traditions," he says.
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