Mahabalipuram: The land of the 7th century stone sculptures

It was a bright Thursday evening of May 31st, 2012. I along with some of my friends had gone to Mahabs in search of some good food. But what instead attracted me there was this one shop selling sculptures made of stone and wood. SORNA ARTICLES

The shop was at the dark end of the South Mada Street in Mahabalipuram. And it was empty. I just wanted to know more about it. I went in, introduced myself to the owner Mr Wasiullah Khan and expressed my intention. He is a very kind person and readily agreed to give me his time.

He shared with me a lot of information about his shop, his other businesses and the state of the sculptures' selling market in Mahabalipuram. He has been running this shop since last 12 years. Earlier the shop used to do a great business but now the market's not that good. 5 years back, he used to earn 50% profits from all his sale. But now, there are almost 150 big boutique kind of shops selling these stone and metal sculptures. Also, there are a large number of small shops in the area. All these have eaten his market share. Since last 15 days, he had not seen any sale in his shop. Fortunately, he also owns few lodges in Mahabalipuram which are doing pleasant business. 

The peak season for the sculpture shops here is in the months of Dec, Jan and Feb and during these months, he earns a profit of `15,000. Rest of the months do not see much of sales. He generally sells three kind of sculptures: stone, wooden and metal (peetal). He has karigars here to make the stone sculptures. The wooden ones are procured from some place in Andhra Pradesh. The metal sculptures come from Kathmandu, Nepal. The designs are provided by him to the artisans if they are new else whatever sells the most are procured. There is Govt. Arts College nearby and he employs the pass outs from this college as his karigars. There daily wage is `350 - `450. 

According to him, the locals generally prefer buying stone sculptures made of either marble or graphite or soft stone. Foreign tourists generally buy sculptures made of soft stones as they are lighter in weight and the tourists have a luggage weight constraint. For the individual temple purposes, granite idols of 1 feet height are generally in demand.

When some one so passionately talks to you about his ;life/business, you just get lost. It got too late that evening and it was my time to bid adieu to him. I just hope to visit his shop again and collect some more information about this business here at Mahabalipuram.

                                                                                                    (To be contd......)