Claying Tradition

Festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi and Durga Puja are just around the corner. The preparations are on in full swing. Markets are filled with idols of deities, and all sorts of decorative items. What binds them together? Quite literally, clay.

Clay is a special kind of soil containing fine-grained minerals, mainly weathered from rocks. It is plastic when moist and becomes hard when dried and/or fired. This makes it a perfect choice for making pottery and images/idols.

Clay image making has a vast tradition in India. It is mentioned in the various Shilpa shastras and several Puranas. Clay images that are to be used for worship are generally called mrinmaya or mrittika pratima. It is a very arduous process that requires great expertise.

Here is what goes into the making of clay images...

Looks simple? Think again!

Clay is gathered mainly from the banks of rivers or lakes.
A figure of the deity is made from straw.
A frame of bamboo is built over this figure.

The first layer of clay is applied over the wooden frame, and sun dried.
A second layer of finer clay is applied, and dried in the sun.
The face of the idol is separately cast, attached to the frame, and left to dry.
For the base coat of colour, a sticky layer of tamarind seed paste and water-soluble white paint is usually applied.
The body is coloured, and varnished.
The hair (usually of nylon), clothes, ornaments and embellishments are added.
The final form is again sun dried.

Science in tradition

Do you know only unbaked clay is used to make clay images? It is not Terracotta or fired clay, but sun dried clay called ‘apakva’ or Terracruda. This has links with fertility, and religious connotation of the human body being a part of the earth.

And during immersion, the worshipper actually returns the earth from where it was taken originally.

Pop culture

Unfortunately, this age-old tradition of making images with clay is being replaced by the use of Plaster of Paris (PoP). PoP makes the idols lighter in weight and lighter on the pocket. But, this comes at a great environmental cost.

PoP does not get dissolved or disintegrate easily. Moreover, it contains dangerous chemicals like gypsum, sulphur, phosphorus and magnesium.

When immersed in water bodies, it causes severe pollution and damages the ecosystem by:

Killing fish population
Damaging the plants
Blocking the natural flow of the water and causing stagnation
Polluting drinking water sources causing breathing problems, blood diseases and skin diseases