CHENNAI, INDIA, April 4, 2018 (Times of India): Tuesday turned out to be a big day for Chennai-based artisans R. Selvanathan Sthapati and T. K. Bharani as they received Craft Council of India’s (CCI) Kamala awards for Outstanding Contribution for Preservation of Indian Art, Craft and Tradition and Excellence in Craftsmanship, respectively. The awards, instituted in 2000 to recognize and reward excellence in Indian arts and crafts, also marked social reformer and founder of CCI Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay’s 115th birth anniversary.
Selvanathan comes from a family of some of the most renowned temple architects and sculptors of south India, whose legacy goes back to the ancient Tanjore Brihadeeshwara temple. Selvanathan and his team has renovated and restored the Gunja Narasimha Swami temple in Karnataka and Madhavaperumal temple in Mylapore among others, and replicated the Narai statue at Thalang National Museum, Phuket. [He is also the supervising sthapati for the Chola style, all granite Iraivan Temple under construction at Hinduism Today’s headquarters on Kauai, Hawaii.]
Bharani comes from a family of sandalwood miniature carvers and is the last to have mastered this art in his family. He grew up in Thirumazhisai, learning the art from his father, master craftsman T.K. Kalastri. Among the several monuments and famed scenes he has replicated in exquisite detail are the Meenakshi-Sundareswar kalyanam and the massive gopuram of the Tanjore big temple – all on pieces of sandalwood no higher than two feet.