The Idol Makers | Five hours drive from the bustling noisy city of Chennai (formerly Madras), Swamimalai is a sleepy temple town deep in Tamil Nadu. It has a rhythm of a time that has been - bullock pull carts along dirt tracks, peasants winnow grain under the wheels of passing trucks and women bend low in fields. This is the heartland of Tamil Dravidian culture; the landscape linked organically to its religion with every field, every village, paying homage to a deity. A sacred geography links its towns where great palaces of temples provide, in the eyes of the faithful, a real home for the Gods. The Spathy family have been idol makers since the time of Rajaraja Chola...

Read more here

A finished icon of the God Shiva shown here in the form of the dancing Nataraja
The family priest gives a blessing to Radakrishna and Srikanda Stpathy and their wives in the family shrine in the Stapathy h...
Casts of heads in the workshop
A craftsman pours wax into a mould from which a statue will be cast from bronze
A craftsman carves an icon from wax in the workshop
A worker carves a wax mould of an icon
Workers sealing a wax mould of an icon with clay ready to be fired in the pit
A craftsmen moulds local clay around the wax image of a diety
Workers cast an icon in the pit at the workshop of the Stpathy family, Swamimalai
Moulds of various statues on shelves in the studio
Master craftsmen Radhakhrishna Stpathy and his brother Srikanda mould an icon in wax in their workshop in Swamimalai. The cur...
Radakrishna Stpathy directs the breaking open of a icon mould at his workshop
A priest by a shrine at the Murugan temple, gives ritual blessings to pilgrims in Swamimalai
A personal photograph in a toolbox of a craftsman in the workshop
Master craftsman Pranava Stapathy works on a large statue of Hanuman
Master craftsman Pranava Stapathy
Master craftsman Radhakhrishna Stpathy, prays at dawn before carving eyes into a statue of the dancing Nataraja and thus 'awa...
The Airatesvara Temple in Dharasuram, Kumbakonam - one of the finest Chola temples
Just after dawn, two farmers lead their cow through the sleepy temple town of Swamimalai, Tamil Nadu the renown centre for br...