Salute To The Living Vishwakarmas of Odisha
On this auspicious occasion of Vishwakarmapuja, we take a look at some of the ‘Living Vishwakarmas’ of our state.
Sudarsan Pattnaik (born 15 April 1977) is an Indian sand artist from our state who was awarded the Padma Shri by Government of India in 2014.
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Sudarsan Pattnaik is a well recognised and renowned Indian Sand Artist throughout the world, who was born to a poor family in the holy land of Shri Jagannath, Puri in the year 1977. His childhood dream for a good education was beyond his reach but destiny had other plans for him by the serene sea under the soft sunshine. That eventually helped him leave imprints on the sand of time. That precisely sums up the story of the International Sand Artist.
Raghunath Mohapatra (born 23 March 1943), Rajya Sabha MP is an architect and sculptor. He was awarded Padma Shri in 1975 and Padma Bhushan in 2001. He was awarded Padma Vibhushan in 2013 on occasion of 64th Republic Day of India.
Born in Puri, he was nominated by the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India as a Member of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) in 2000.
Sudarshan Sahoo, sculptor was born in Puri in 1939. He developed the Sudarshan Crafts Museum, Puri in 1977.
He promoted the Gurukul system of learning when he established Sudarshan Art & Crafts Village, Bhubaneswar in 1991 with the help of the Government of Odisha. The institution is a Training and Creative Centre where artists are involved in the making of traditional sculptures made up of stone, wood and fibreglass sculptures. He was bestowed with Padma Shri in 1988. He also received the Shilp Guru Award, 2003.
Chaturbhuj Meher is an Indian weaver, considered by many as one of the master weavers of the Tie-dye handloom tradition of Odisha. Born on 13 October 1935 at Sonepur, he had formal education only up to school level but learned the traditional weaving craft to join Weavers' Service Centre as a weaver. Vayan Vihar, a handloom factory and Handloom Research and Training Center, a research institute in Sonepur has been founded by him and he is known to have trained over 10,000 craftsmen.
Aishwarya Rai, former Miss World and Bollywood actor is reported to have worn one of Meher's Sonepuri Sari creations on her wedding day, gifted by her mother-in-law, Jaya Bachchan. He is a recipient of the Odisha State Award, which he received twice in 1991 and 1995, as well as awards such as Chinta O Chetana National Award (1992), Viswakarma Rashtriya Puraskar (1997) and Priyadarshini Award (2005). The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of Padma Shri, in 2005, for his contributions to Indian handloom sector.