Hasta Shilpa Heritage Trust Village In Manipal

Kishor Gordhandas

4 December 2008, 16:20

A trip to Manipal would be incomplete without a visit to the Heritage Village as it bears witness to the skills in craftsmanship and creativity of our ancestors. These structures are a symbol restoration and conservation and will serve as an inspiration for posterity, in the words of Shri Vijaya Nath Shenoy, a retired banker and founder of this project.

Hasta Shilpa is the house that Vijaya Nath Shenoy himself constructed. In 1991, Mr. Shenoy formed the Hasta Shilpa Trust and made the heritage house a property of the Trust, dedicating it to the nation, and terming himself as only a caretaker. This village consists of more than 15 structures, which can be divided into functional structures and craft structures. Shenoy says, ‘The heritage village is not owned by any single person. It belongs to entire nation and no one person can take responsibility for it.’
Manipal Village 2.jpg
There will be eight Museums built for the preservation of traditional arts, tribal arts, folk arts, and contemporary arts. The Museum of Folk Arts, that is still under construction, will display the traditional arts and crafts, paintings and textiles of the region. Other museums will include one housing original Tanjore Paintings ranging in age from 85 years to over 225 years old, another has been dedicated to Raja Ravi Varma Archival Museum, and another museum will display lovely hand painted Indian Ganjifa Cards.

“We relocated 26 dilapidated structures in order to house the collections with the intent of preserving samples of indigenous arts and the techniques involved in their construction”, said Shenoy. Construction on the various museums began in December. 2007, and is now more than half-ready. The trust of Manipal has already 100 Litho Stones with the impressions of Raja Ravi Varma Paintings, and a few older Mysore Chads (Ganjifa cards) of 19th century.
Kishor Selecting Cards.jpg
It was only by chance that Mr. Shenoy found out about my collections of Ganjifa Cards. An article I wrote on Ganjifa, Cards Of Honour, on Chamundeshwari Chad, Mysore appeared in the Sunday April 9th edition of The Deacon- Herald that brought my collection to his attention and it inspired him to contact me by e-mail. So now Shri Shenoy’s dream of a Ganjifa Art Gallery is a reality. It is now ready and contains some 40 sets of Ganjifa Cards belonging to different Indian States with descriptions of each set, and displayed thematically!

Starting from the left hand side of the west wall, there are framed sets of Dashavatara Ganjifa cards of 120, 144 and also 192 cards belonging to Sawantwadi, Maharashtra; Raghurajpur, Chikiti, Parlakhemundi in Orissa; Bishnupur in W. Bengal, Nirmal in Andhra Pradesh, and a printed set of Ca. 1940 of Pune, Maharashtra. Then there are Moghul Ganjifa Cards from Sawantwadi, Maharashtra; Nirmal, Andhra Pradesh, and Ath-Rangi Sara, from various places in Orissa.
Manipal Villgag Musical Instruments.jpg
And there are variations, such as, Arundhati and Saptarishis, Navadurga, Navagraha, Rashi, Naqsh, Sonepur Ramayana Ganjappa, and some such other Traditional Ganjifa cards, with details about each set. There are some rare, original painted single single Chads of Mysore Chads, belonging. to the time of Maharaja Shri Krishna Raj Wodeyar, III of Mysore (1794-1868) and two very lovely hand painted modern Mysore Chads,

Further along there is a Navin Rama set of 36 cards and a KrishnaRaj Chad of 72 cards, made by a modern award winning traditional Ganjifa cards artist from Bangalore. On the south side of the wall are prepared racks to contain several empty colourful wooden Boxes, meant for Ganjifa cards by the Ganjifa artists, and a small room adjoining to this Gallery will contain literature about Ganjifa cards, many articles, and other material for research and study purposes.

Comment

  1. I red in a french newspaper an article about your work in Hasta Shilpa and I congratulate you for your geat energy, Br Vellut belgian architect.

    — Vellut Bruno · Sep 14, 05:37 · #

  2. very good way to art lover learn new in life best for art lovers [ i licke very much ] keepitup

    — harbanssinghjolly · Mar 2, 02:09 · #

  3. Congrats on the good work. Needs more publicizing.
    All the best.

    — Dr. Krishna · Mar 6, 20:34 · #

  4. Dear Sir,
    I would like to know about “Jute Handicrafts“regarding my research work.
    I shall be highly obliged if you kindly send some text documents.
    Thanks.
    Utpal sen

    — Utpal sen · Nov 11, 21:56 · #

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