GANESH CHHRAPATHI, A CORROSION OF WATER AND FAITH

From September 2nd to the 12th, Indians of the Hindu faith celebrate the Ganesh Visaragen. During the British Raj, large group gatherings weren’t allowed due to the fear that uprisings could be planned and coordinated. So, Lokmanya Tilak instigated the first public Ganesh Visaragen, which beforehand had been a celebration held in the home, so that independence leaders could meet with ease under a guise of religious devotion. The continuation of this ceremony is now both a religious and patriotic act.

The Ganesh Visaragen represents Ganesh’s descent to earth where after ten days he returns to Mount Kailash; the mythical home of the Hindu gods. Hindu devotees place Ganesh idols in their homes or places of work, with sizes varying from a small dog to twenty-foot-high colossuses. At the end of the celebration they are brought to a lake or body of water where they are then submerged. The belief then is as he is immersed, he returns to Mount Kailash.

The problem though, from an ecological standpoint, is that many statues have been and still are made of Plaster-of-Paris. POP contains Calcium Sulphate Hemihydrate, a substance that often takes years to break down. When it finally does, it reduces oxygen levels in the water making it uninhabitable for water-life.

Ganesh Chhrapathi, A Corrosion of Water and Faith: Welcome

Ganesh Chhrapathi, A Corrosion of Water and Faith: Pro Gallery

Alongside a ban on plaster-of-paris in Karnataka, Goa and Madras have also put bans into effect in an attempt to curb the devastation POP has on water bodies. Dr K Sudhakar – Chairman of the KSPCB (Karnataka State Pollution Control Board) has been quoted saying;

“As they have been proven to be toxic to both nature and human beings, we in the board have decided to curb the sale and use of POP idols in the State.”

As the KSPCB and their counterparts across India are finding, banning POP idols have not been so easy. The ban has been revoked in Madras and in Karnataka where fervent uproar has seen the usage of POP idols on the rise despite the KSPCB’s ruling.

Clay idols dissolve within the first few hours of being submerged, however PoP idols take years to fully dissolve. When they do it means ecological disaster.

Tactics such as the building of separate Kalyani (pond) immersion pools next to the lake have allowed for the immersions to continue without any pollutants from the idols have been used to avoid the effect on waterways. Portable tanks have also become available, although there is increasing call for more to cater for the city’s majority Hindu populace.

Harish Karupakla, a local politician with a strong jaw and receding hairline has made a start-up to sell clay Ganesh idols which are environmentally friendly. He has spearheaded a movement back to the traditional clay idols, which dissolve quickly and without ecological repercussions. Clay holds significance to Ganesh as he was made from clay by his mother Parvati to keep watch while she bathed.

If Ganesh was formed from clay and it’s better for the environment, why were the bans challenged and ultimately ignored? For one the Ganesh idols made from clay cost more and are far too draining on resources to build large Ganesh statues. Most of the environmentally friendly, clay idols can be only around five feet high.

Ganesh Chhrapathi, A Corrosion of Water and Faith: Text

Ganesh Chhrapathi, A Corrosion of Water and Faith: Pro Gallery

Shiva Kumar stands at the doorway of his dimly lit warehouse. Row upon row of Ganesh idols line the walls as the light pierces the thick plastic veils covering the Hindu god. Idol sellers like Mr. Kumar are finding it hard to market the smaller, less decorative and more expensive clay idols. Shiva has communities all putting in money to buy twenty feet and higher statues to immerse in their local pool.

The market is rife with demand for colossal Ganesha, the intricacy of the statue only matched by the pomp of the paint in terms of what customers want. These giants cost millions of rupees and spew toxics and chemicals into the water they’re immersed in. Yet the demand for them, even after a state-wide ban on POP in 2016 is as strong as ever. In 2017, the year after the ban one in four of the four million statues immersed in Bengaluru were plaster-of-paris.

The demand for sumptuous idols conveys the status and religious devotion of those who display them, the reasoning behind it almost mirrors that of a schoolyard argument around who has the flashier shoes.

Pundit Rama Shastri, a religious scholar who serves at the Ganesh Temple in Malleswaram is against the use of PoP idols.

“According to a pujari conducting ritual worship at a Hindu temple, they suggest people to use clay idols to worship during Ganesha festival. By using clay idols, immersion in the water is easy and its eco-friendly.”

The need for large, extravagant Ganesh statues is nothing more than an egotistical and short-sighted greed. Even the argument that clay idols are too expensive is contradicted by the tens of thousands of rupees forked out every year by families and communities to buy excessively grand PoP idols.

With verses in the Vedic texts having the environment revered to the same extent as Hindu gods and goddesses. The continued demand for PoP idols reveals an underbelly of the Hindu psyche that reeks of a superficial devotion that ultimately strays away from Moksha (the goal of the Hindu’s life.)

Ganesh Chhrapathi, A Corrosion of Water and Faith: Text

Ganesh Chhrapathi, A Corrosion of Water and Faith: Pro Gallery

GANESH CHHRAPATHI, A CORROSION OF WATER AND FAITH

Alongside a ban on plaster-of-paris in Karnataka, Goa and Madras have also put bans into effect in an attempt to curb the devastation POP has on water bodies. Dr K Sudhakar – Chairman of the KSPCB (Karnataka State Pollution Control Board) has been quoted saying;

​

“As they have been proven to be toxic to both nature and human beings, we in the board have decided to curb the sale and use of POP idols in the State.”

​

As the KSPCB and their counterparts across India are finding, banning POP idols have not been so easy. The ban has been revoked in Madras and in Karnataka where fervent uproar has seen the usage of POP idols on the rise despite the KSPCB’s ruling.

​

Clay idols dissolve within the first few hours of being submerged, however PoP idols take years to fully dissolve. When they do it means ecological disaster.

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The demand for sumptuous idols conveys the status and religious devotion of those who display them, the reasoning behind it almost mirrors that of a schoolyard argument around who has the flashier shoes.

​

Pundit Rama Shastri, a religious scholar who serves at the Ganesh Temple in Malleswaram is against the use of PoP idols.

​

“According to a pujari conducting ritual worship at a Hindu temple, they suggest people to use clay idols to worship during Ganesha festival. By using clay idols, immersion in the water is easy and its eco-friendly.”

​

The need for large, extravagant Ganesh statues is nothing more than an egotistical and short-sighted greed. Even the argument that clay idols are too expensive is contradicted by the tens of thousands of rupees forked out every year by families and communities to buy excessively grand PoP idols.

​

With verses in the Vedic texts having the environment revered to the same extent as Hindu gods and goddesses. The continued demand for PoP idols reveals an underbelly of the Hindu psyche that reeks of a superficial devotion that ultimately strays away from Moksha (the goal of the Hindu’s life.)