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A large idol of the elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesha sat in the back of an open truck traveling along a busy Mumbai street, dwarfing other objects on the road. Hundreds of devotees walked alongside singing hymns glorifying the god, believed to be the remover of obstacles and the granter of wishes.
The devotees took the idol to their small but densely populated neighborhood, where they and others will worship it for 10 days. Many will whisper their wishes in Lord Ganesha’s ear and present him offerings of his favorite sweets made with coconut and jaggery called modak.
At the end of the festival known as Ganesh Chaturthi, devotees will then transport the idol to a nearby beach where they will ceremonially immerse it into the sea. The elephant-headed god will thus return to his heavenly abode after being made aware of people’s wishes.
During the festival, which started Sept. 7 this year, millions of devotees all over India celebrate the birth of Ganesha, one of the most worshipped gods in Hinduism, by immersing idols of him, big and small, in ponds, rivers and the sea. But the festival finds its most fervent followers in Mumbai, a major coastal metropolis and business center in western India.
Hundreds of migrant artisans arrive in the city each year to help meet the seasonal demand for the idols. Traveling a significant distance by train from the north, usually without their families, these male artisans spend about four months sleeping, eating and building statues at various workshops in the city.
The preferred building material is quick-setting gypsum plaster, commonly known as plaster of paris. With it, the builders can construct large, relatively light idols in a short time.
While the environmental impact of immersing large numbers of plaster statues in bodies of water is a subject of debate, demand for idols made of mud has increased. Vishal Shinde, a manufacturer of idols in Mumbai, has made 470 mud idols this year.
“We are receiving more orders each year to build mud idols painted with watercolors as people are becoming more concerned about the environment,” Shinde said.
Kunal Patil, a Mumbai journalist, is one such customer. Each year he buys a small mud idol and after ritual prayers immerses it in a large container of water at home. This way, he says, he can bring the mud settled at the bottom of the container back to the manufacturer to be used to build more statues.
