Sculptures at the Mahishamardini cave temple in Tamil Nadu. Telegraph picture

Sept. 21: Students of the Government College of Arts and Crafts will create a replica of the famous rock-cut Mahishamardini cave temple out of plaster of Paris for a Puja pandal at Tokobari.

The 32-feet replica of the Mamallapuram temple has been commissioned by the Tokobari Barowari Durga Puja Committee with an estimated budget of Rs 3.5 lakh.

“We are more than glad to get the offer to create a sculpture of this dimension. About six-seven students are involved in this project. Apart from this, a few workers will also be helping us with the job. The Tokobari Barowari Durga Puja Committee has provided us with an amount of Rs 3.5 lakh with which we will procure the raw materials to create the sculptures,” said Papu Ghosh, a third-year art student of the Government College of Arts and Crafts.

The Mahishamardini cave temple is a World Heritage Site in Mamallapuram (formerly Mahabalipuram) in Tamil Nadu and is famous for its rock-cut sculptures of Hindu gods and goddesses.

“The various statues as well as the cave will be moulded out of plaster of Paris. While we will carve out certain sculptures on the wall of the cave, some other sculptures will be installed into it after completion,” added Ghosh.

Puja committees here prefer bringing artistes from outside the state to design and create innovative and attractive Puja pandals; but shifting from the usual trend, the Tokobari Barowari Durga Puja Committee has approached these art students to accomplish a task that might turn out to be nothing short than a spectacle for the eyes.

“We have so many talented artists here who are quite capable of creating wonderful pieces of art. Every year during Durga Puja, artistes are brought from Calcutta and other places to create beautiful pandals. But why not give the public a chance to discover the true worth of the local artists through their work of art? This will help them grab the attention of the people, which will help them fetch more art projects of this nature. Hence, with this notion we approached the students of the Government College of Arts and Crafts with the offer. They were more than glad and have already begun the work,” said Rinku Kalita, a member of the Puja committee.

“Last year, too, we had created a pandal in Shantipur. The work was initially given to artisans from Calcutta but they returned without completing the work and the Puja committee then approached us to complete the work, which we did within a short duration. Such projects give us the opportunity to display our art before the people,” said Ghosh.