When Artists From Bihar Learnt The Art Of Stone Carving From Odisha’s Artists!

When Artists From Bihar Learnt The Art Of Stone Carving From Odisha’s Artists!

Renowned for its intricate and artistic stone carvings for centuries, Odisha has been attracting people from all corners of the world. Such is the popularity of its stone carvings that artists from other regions keenly look forward to picking up the tricks and techniques from the stone carvers of Odisha.

In order to help the artists from Bihar learn the technique of Odisha’s stone carvings, Upendra Maharathi Shilp Anusandhan Sansthan organised a Stone Craft Exchange programme at Lalit Kala Akademi, Regional Centre in Bhubaneswar.Around nine artists from Bihar and nine from Odisha participated in this amazing exchange programme which started on 17th December and continued till 26th December.

Sharing about the idea behind organising such a unique event, Ashok Kumar Sinha, Deputy Director of Upendra Maharathi Shilp Anusandhan Sansthan said, “The state of Odisha is quite advanced in the art of stone carving; we wanted the artists from Bihar to learn from the local artists of Odisha. Stone carving in Bihar is a new art form and, though, some carvers have learnt how to do it, they lack the finesse of the Odia artists. The exchange programme has been a good platform to let the artists explore more. We would like to organise more such programmes in Bihar and would want to invite artists from Odisha to train others.”

Sinha further stated “The artists of Patharkati village in Gaya that has a population of around 500 artists are the only people in Bihar who do stone carving. But now we want to expand this art form and train more local artists.”Ravindra Nath Gaur from Patharkati village who also attended the exchange programme said, “Stone carving is like a tradition of my family and I have been doing the authentic form followed in Jaipur. Now, I also do commercial art which helps us generate good income. I believe that my art form is different and through this exchange programme, I came to know a lot about Odisha’s art forms as well.”

An artist named Firangi Lal Gupta from Kaimur district has been involved in undercut stone carving for the last 19 years. He learned the art of stone carving from Banaras. Talking about his journey, he said “I am the first person in my family who started doing stone carving. When I saw the beautiful stone works in Ramanagar Fort near Banaras, it fascinated me. When I wanted to learn the art form, the local artists of Banaras refused to teach me and even stated that I won’t be able to do it. However, after a lot of request they agreed to train me and I slowly learned the basics of the stone carving but I was yet to develop proper style of finishing. I started making idols at home and gradually developed the art of proper finishing. Later, I also learnt the technique of undercut carving.”He also mentioned that such exchange programmes will help the artists to further develop and improve their skills.

“There is no harm in sharing and learning. This exchange program helped me work with sandstone. Though the programme was for only ten days but, the overall experience has been quite knowledgeable and satisfying.”