The commercial city, which is also famous for grandeur of Ganesha festival, is all set to install ‘Hubli Ka Raja,’ a 23-foot Ganesha idol believed to be tallest in the state, for this years’ festival.
‘Hubli Ka Raja’ resembles Lalbagh Ganesha of Mumbai — sitting in style on throne and blessing devotees.
With just over a week left to greet Ganesha in households, members of the Dajiban Peth Gajananotsava Samiti are eager to install the ‘tallest’ Ganesha idol.
Artists from a tiny village called Rendal near Ichalakaranji in the neighbouring Maharashtra have been making the idol for two months, adopting traditional methods.
The artistes use grass, limestone and plaster of paris among other things to make the idol.
The family of Ganapatrao Kumbar which is into the profession of making idols is spread across Hubli, Belgaum, Ichalakaranji, Chikkodi, Pune, Kolhapur and Karad in the region.
“The team makes as many as 25 idols every year. ‘Hubli Ka Raja’ is the tallest among all of them,” says Milind Kumbar, an artist, who has been making Ganesha idols for years.
The Dajiban Peth Gajananotsava Samiti, which has been celebrating the Ganesha festival for 37 years, has been installing the tallest Ganesha idols of the city since 2008. “The height of the Ganesha installed by the Samiti last year was 21 feet. However, in order to avoid problems during immersion, the height is restricted to 23 feet.This time around `3.50 lakh is being spent for making the giant idol.
The number of visitors is increasing every year, says Samiti’s president Shyam Pawar. People offer cash and jewellery during darshan. Silver jewellery collected so far weighs around 20 kg, say Samiti members
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