By Venkatachari Jagannathan
Chennai, Jul 25 (IANS): The sculpting industry in the world famous sculpture town Mamallapuram, formerly Mahabalipuram, is hoping for good business from the international and domestic chess fraternity.
More than 2,500 persons connected with chess, players and officials, of several countries are congregating in Mamallapuram where the 44th Chess Olympiad is being held.
Further the elections to choose the office bearers for the International Chess Federation or FIDE will also be held.
The players and officials will be in and around Mamallapuram from July 27 to August 10.
"We are expecting good business from the chess fraternity. And we are adequately stocked up," Mayan Rajesh of Mayan Handicrafts told IANS.
Located on the Coromandel coast, Mamallapuram, sporting the Unesco World Heritage Site tag, is famous for its stone carvings and temples of the Pallava dynasty period.
A majority of the monuments at this town were built during the period of Narasimhavarman-I from 630-670 AD.
But Mamallapuram is not just an open-air museum of stone-cut sculptures.
It is also home to a vibrant stone sculpting industry catering to different segments of the domestic and overseas markets.
There is also the Government College of Architecture and Sculpture in the town.
The industry players also said, for the past 15-20 days the business was affected as there was disruption in power supply due to laying of new lines for Olympiad for providing uninterrupted power.
The road work also affected tourist traffic to Mamallapuram which in turn impacted the sculpture business.
"Unlike in 2019 when our movements were restricted and even asked to close shop when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping had their talks in Mamallapuram this time no such demand has been made on us," Rajesh added.
In 2019, the state government had asked the industry players to display giant sized sculptures like Buddha, elephant, Goddess Meenakshi, near the Shore Temple in Mamallapuram and in other places.
But this time, no such thing is being done, said the trade players.
They have been asked to keep their street clean to attract tourists and in turn business.
The local authorities are catching the street roaming cows and beggars are also being asked to move away.
Rajesh said the trade is adequately stocked with fast moving sculptures of Buddha, Ganesha and various animals.
Indian model pillars are also in good demand, he added.
The Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown had affected the trade very badly as there were no tourists and exports.
The business is now slowly picking up.
Industry officials broadly divide the market segment into: temples, institutions (hotels, resorts, colleges, government and others), residential (individual homes and apartments).
The institutional segment -- hotels, resorts, educational institutions -- are the new market segment logging good growth for traditional and modern sculptures.
Exports mostly happened through word of mouth, after tourists who visit Mamallapuram purchased or saw the readymade sculptures.
Exports happen to countries like Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Mauritius where there is a sizable Tamil population.
As regards the home segment, there is demand for garden sculptures and wall fittings.