Stone lamps with ambient glow carved in Coimbatore are gaining light ahead of Karthigai Deepam festival
At Pugazhendhi Grinder Stoneworks workshop in Sanganoor, Coimbatore, blocks of stone are chiseled and shaped at the lathe to craft the lamps that are popular during Karthigai Deepam festival of Thiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu.
Upgrading the existing lighting with a distinctive touch of stonecraft, the meticulously carved lamps at Pugazhendhi Grinder Stoneworks in Sanganoor, Coimbatore are to be dispatched across various parts of the state and abroad.
Artist P Maheshwaran, who sources black stone from nearby Namakkal and Karur for his workshop, makes stone lamps as tall as 12.5 feet. These coarse and sturdy Stone lamps have been around for a long time, the artisans also make their brass, bronze and clay counterparts in Tamil Nadu which are more popular because they come handy. He learnt the craft from his father who came across stone lamps during his travels to Kerala 15 years ago.
Karthigai Deepam is a light festival celebrated during the Full Moon evening in the Tamil month of Karthigai (mid-Nov to mid-Dec) when the Moon is in the star Krittika or Kirthigai. Astronomically, this star is known as Alcyone, and it is the brightest star in the Pleiades constellation. The festival is celebrated with utmost fervor in South India.
Here, grinding stones, mortars and pestles are sculpted from massive rocks. Their specialty, however, are lamps made of stone, for which orders pour in during the Karthigai season.
Lighting of lamps is the integral ritual of this festival. Apart from the celebration of mighty Lord Shiva and his son Muruga, the lamp lighting also has the spiritual significance on this day, as the devotees perceive the lamp as ego, the oil in the lamp denotes our inborn nature that cultures the ego and the flame manifests the spiritual wisdom that can inflame the ego (wick) by burning out the innate behavior (oil).
