Bhubaneswar: As part of his contribution to the celebration of Rath Yatra in Odisha’s Puri, eminent sand artist Sudarshan Pattnaik has attempted to set a new record by creating sculptures of chariots and Lord Jagannath.
Pattnaik created 125 sand sculptures on Puri sea beach on the eve of Rath Yatra in Puri on Thursday. It took him and the students of his Sand Art Institute 14 hours to create the miniature sculptures and a massive sculpture of Lord Jagannath.
The artist, who has received recognition worldwide, aims at breaking his own record of creating 100 sand sculptures of chariots which have entered the Limca Book of Records.
Speaking on his creations, Patnaik said sand art is believed to have been originated during Rath Yatra in 16th century. Balaram Das, a devotee of Lord Jagannath and famous poet, was once humiliated by servitors and not allowed to pull the chariots during Rath Yatra. He then went to the beach and sculpted chariots on the sand, he added.
So far, Pattnaik has participated in more than 60 international sand sculpture championships and festivals around the world and won many prizes for the country.
On the occasion of Rath Yatra, sand animation artist Manas Sahoo has depicted the construction of Jagannath Temple and the chariots of three sibling deities and how the Lord is coming out of the temple to give darshan to the devotees through his creation. It took him 10 hours to make a video of the duration of 1 minute and 16 second.
