Market survey of demand and supply of Ganesha Idols

Manjunath P*, Pramod Subbarao^$, Harish Bhat^#

* Email: manjunathbhounsley1972@yahoo.com
$ Email: pragsrao@hotmail.com
# Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Malleshwaram, Bangalore – 12,
Email: harish@ces.iisc.ernet.in

Methodology followed:

Interviewing a few of the makers and vendors of Ganesha idols from different localities in Bangalore.

Idols categorised into:

• Large (4 feet and above)
• Medium (Between 2 and 4 feet)
• Small (Less than 2 feet)

Sampling Date and Time:

12^th September 2004, Morning.

Year by year, the demand for Ganesha idols are increasing in number and the artists are busy catering to the diverse needs of the customers. Pottery town (near Lingarajpuram), Kumbarpete (near Majestic), Magadi, Yalahanka and Nagavara are some of the main places where the Ganesha idols are made in large numbers.

To get an approximate estimate of the number of idols made in a year, we conducted a survey on 12^th September 2004 with the following results.

Pottery town (Near Lingarajapuram)

1. Laxmi, a 35 year old has been involved in the idol making since eight years. This year she has made 9,000 Ganesha and 1,500 Gowri idols most of them being below 2 feet height.
2. Venkatesh, a 30 year old gets Ganesha idols made of Plaster of Paris (PoP) from Mumbai,  and Tirupathi. He has employed 28 artists from Kolkata to paint the Ganeshas. These artists spray paint the idols. All the Ganesha idols are above 3 feet and this time there are more than 3,000 idols.
3. Selva, a 40 year old has made more than 10,000 Ganesha idols this year, all being below 2 feet in height.
4. Kuppa, a 28 year old has made more than 9,000 Ganesha idols, all being below one foot.
5. A 70-year-old resident recollected that Pottery Town was created in the early 20^th century by the English to employ potters in a common place. There are 36 potter families in this area. Each family makes a minimum of 10,000 Ganesha idols every year. Most part of the year, these families are engaged in making earthen pots, flower pots, other idols and etc. During Ganesha festival, these families make (36 * 10,000 = 36,000) Ganesha idols. All these idols are marketed for a wholesale price. Many of the big Ganesha idols are made as per the orders on hand. The demand for the idols has increased since few years.

Pottery town caters 60% of the demand for Ganesha idols for Bangalore, thus a whopping number of 6,00,000 idols are made each year.

Kumbarpete (Near K.R.Market)

There are about 8 families engaged in making Ganesha idols. These families make the idols to meet 20 % of the demand for the idols, thus making 1,20,000 idols.

Nagavara

This is another place where Ganesha idols are made in large numbers and they cater to the 20% of the demand, thus making 1,20,000 idols.

Artists from places in and around Bangalore make about 5,000 Ganesha idols.

Most of these idols are marketed wholesale while few of them are retailed. The clay required for these are procured from Yelahanka. According to most of the artists, majority of the people do not buy unpainted idols. To make the idols attractive and marketable, the artists use oil paints to colour them.

From the survey, it is seen that:

• 6,00,000 ganesha idols of small and medium sizes are made every year.

• Assuming about 80% of small and medium sized idols are sold every year, thus (85% of 6,00,000) = 5,10,000 idols are sold.

• Assuming there is demand for 5% of big Ganeshas in addition to the number of small and medium idols made in above areas, we have (5% of 3,60,000 + 5% of 1,20,000 + 5% of 1,20,000)  = 18,000 + 9,000 + 9,000 = 36,000 large ganesha idols are sold every year.

• At the end of the season, 5,10,000 + 36,000 + 5,000 = 5,51,000 are made and sold.

• Assuming about 98% of the total Ganesha idols sold will be immersed, we have total of 539980.

• Ganesha idols are immersed in various lakes, in homes and in wells across the Bangalore City.