Lord Vishwakarma, the son of Brahma, the chief architect of the world, is a divine craftsman who designed Dwarka, which is now submerged in the Arabian Sea, and the Maya Sabha for the Pandavas. The ancient cities of Indraprastha, Hastinapur and Lanka were designed by him.
Another popular folklore related to him is that he sculpted the Jagannath Puri idols. He is also attributed to have designed and built several weapons for gods like Shiva's Trishul, Vishnu's Sudarshan Chakra, Ravana's Pushpak Viman and Indra's Vajra (thunderbolt).
While the god of architecture is worshipped all over India, it has always been a very popular festival in Odisha. In places like Paradip, Rourkela, Cuttack, Hirakud, Nalco Nagar at Angul and other industrial sites, it is a major festival with a lot of religious customs and traditions that lasts for a full week. For the locals, it is not an occasion to be missed at any cost as it is marked with many other celebrations and programmes. Gigantic gates, illuminated pandals and huge tableaus are seen in the industrial townships. Workers worship the mustachioed Lord Vishwakarma to increase their efficiency and productivity in the fields and factories on the occasion which is followed by two days of merriment and revelry.
However, due to the corona pandemic, this year too, celebrations on Friday are likely to remain subdued. The authorities have manadated that the puja has to be conducted indoors. Besides, the size of idols shall be less than four feet and there would be no use of public address system. Even the immersion procession has been prohibited. In the idol centre of Old Town of Bhubaneswar, the forlorn artisans await customers with the small-size idols. There are hardly any takers as community pujas are not allowed.
The dwarf-size idols mounted on Lilliputian elephants are a far cry from the grand idols that were worshiped. “Every year, I used to get orders to make anything between 200 to 250 Vishwakarma idols.
But this year, I have got orders for only 20 idols, that too only small ones of two to three feet,” said Krushna Maharana.