Bahanaga: Bharat Moharana, a sculptor, infuses life into stones. A resident of Ganjina under Bahanga block in Balasore, he has earned a name for his creativity.
A 10-ft full statute of former Chief Minister Biju Patnaik installed at police line in Balasore is one of his creations. This statute made him known in the area.
Many other stone statues chiseled by him have been installed outside the state and even in Mumbai. These statues have drawn wide applause from various quarters. He has many awards and certificates of merit to his credit for beautiful stone carvings.
Significantly, he has been struggling to save the art by imparting training to new generation in the area.
His childhood was fraught with struggle as he hailed from a landless and poor family. However, he had always wanted to do something different and to pursue education. But poverty stood like a hurdle. Still he was adamant to tide over the critical time.
To keep the pot boiling, his father Duma Moharana had taken to begging while his mother Gori Devi had been doing odd jobs.
Bharat had dropped out at Class-III. When he was all of 7, his father passed away, leaving him and his mother to defend for themselves.
Three years later, he left for Kolkata in search of jobs. He worked there for 11 years and returned home.
He started his family occupation – carpentry. He was a self-made man and had not received training in carpentry. He heard about design temple doors and statutes about different temples in the district.
He was very creative and his work was praiseworthy. Many known carpenters of that time were amazed by his carpentry skills. Later, he wanted to switch over to stone carving.
He mustered courage and bought blocks of stones from Nilagiri-Baulagadia area and tried his hand with chisel.
Initially, he started carving small statutes which was affordable for common people. Beautifully carved statues by him drew attention of customers. Many of his stone sculptures were sold through Utkalika.
Besides, he used to do stone carving in different areas on orders. After saving some money, he bought a piece of land alongside NH in 2002. He built his house there and set up his workshop too.
Then Collector was impressed by his stone carving skills. He helped him to hold a stone-carving camp near his house. He used to train young people in stone sculpture.
Later, he started receiving orders for big statues from various places. He earned Rs 20,000 to Rs 15,000 every month. He works on stones like muguni, bahulmal, khadi and kendumunda.
With this earnings, he managed to educate his two sons.
Bharat was honoured by the state handicraft department in 1991 while the industry department feted him at a district level exhibition in 1992.
Bharat said the state government should rightly promote stone sculpture so as to create job opportunities for young generation.
“Stone is not available sufficiently for the young artistes. They have to buy stones from other states at high prices. The government leases out stone quarries to traders while stone sculptors have to lose their livelihood. The younger generations are not keen on retaining the age-old art form.” he observed.
The stone sculptors are often forced to sell their artworks to middlemen at lower prices due to lack of marketing initiatives by the state government or NGOs. Bharat wants the state government to provide the young artisan with marketing support.
