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Children studying gurukul style in the shade of a tree, farmers having lunch in the fields, cowherds milking their cows...The scene is that of a typical Indian village - yet not a soul stirs. With its lifelike sculptures, the Siddhagiri Museum in Kolhapur district, around 400 km south of Mumbai, is India’s answer to Madame Tussauds in London.
"Though the idea was derived from Madame Tussauds, the concept is taken from Gandhiji’s philosophy on the importance of the rural economy," explains Adrushya Kadhsiddheshwar Swami, head of the Siddhagiri Gurukul Trust that has constructed the unique museum. "Gandhiji wanted each village to be an independent entity, playing its role in the national economy," he adds. The museum also depicts a number of ancient Indian sages. For instance, under a huge tree, a class under the traditional gurukul system is in progress. "This is the great Maharshi Patanjali conducting a class in the ancient Indian style," says Adrushya Swami, the 27th head of the Siddhagiri Math, which has been a Hindu pilgrim centre for years. A few metres ahead is the life-size statue of sage Kashyap treating a sick infant even as his distraught mother looks on, and on the opposite side, Maharshi Kanaad can be seen conducting a scientific experiment, and Maharshi Varahamihir is shown conducting astronomy classes. The ‘commercial area’ of the village has shops in which items of daily use are bartered. A cowherd milks his cows and barters fresh milk; a blacksmith is hard at work while his wife looks from a room inside. The museum calls itself an open-air exhibition centre. "This is an attempt to portray how the ancient Indian rural economy functioned, it was completely self-sufficient, each individual had a productive role to play with appropriate returns and there was no discrimination," says Adrushya Swami. Unlike Madame Tussauds, there are no "internationally known super-icons" who serve as models but ordinary folk who lived and worked in ancient Indian villages, he adds. Also, unlike Madame Tussauds where wax is the main material, all 1,000-plus statues at Siddheshwar museum have been made of rocks and bricks, stuffed with wire gauze. The statues have been shaped with wet cement by nearly 80 skilled masons. After the cement dried and solidified, a team of around 60 artists took over with a battery of colours. They painted the finest details on each subject, whether human or animal or the environment around. The bare minimum lighting used enhances the effects to present a natural appearance. Despite the extreme hot, cold and rainy conditions in southern Maharashtra, the museum statues have withstood the ravages of the climate in the past two years since it was set up, informs Sanket Sagvekar, a trustee "Built on an eight-acre plot within the 31-acre Siddhagiri Math complex, which is an 800-year-old pilgrim centre, the entire project cost around Rs 10 million, mainly raised through donations in cash and kind by devotees," Sagvekar adds. Adrushya Swami says the museum will keep pace with modern developments. A mini-museum has been created for this. "There are banks, fruit and agro-processing centres, bustling markets, cyber cafes, modern schools, colleges and other infrastructure that can help elevate our villages to global villages. This can curb the influx of the rural population to urban centres and truly pave the way for the all-round development of India," Adrushya Swami opines. The museum has been steadily growing in popularity - from a trickle of a few hundred visitors, it now attracts an average of 15,000 visitors daily from which the Siddhagiri Math earns a sizeable income. The money is ploughed back, partly into augmenting the museum with new exhibits coming up regularly. The rest goes into constructing other infrastructure for the villages in the vicinity. The Math now wants to
spread its wings outside the Kolhapur region. There are plans to set
up similar projects at or around major urban centres like Mumbai, Pune,
Nagpur and then around the country, Sagvekar adds. — IANS
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