Surat: Despite the introduction of electric lamps, the demand for earthen lamps remains unchanged. Loktej Surat, Business News

As soon as Shraddha Paksha is over, Navratri, the festival of devotion to Mataji, and Diwali, the festival of lights, will come. In both these festivals, the lamp (diya), a symbol of light, has more importance. However, demand for earthen lamps is being seen against electric lamps in Gujarat including Surat. Due to this, the dying lamp business is back on track. With time, the process of making earthen lamps has now become electric instead of wooden. Traditional artisans are now increasingly using it for faster production.

To promote the art of artists, an exhibition of crafts has recently started in the Science Center of Surat. There is also a stall of a lamp craftsman from Ahmedabad at the same place. Manubhai Prajapati from Ahmedabad has studied only till class two and joins his grandfather’s pottery business only after he gets the hang of it. Manubhai, who has been making lamps for the last 64 years, says that earlier lamps and earthen pots were made by rotating the clay by hand and pouring clay on it, but due to lack of time and space, many artisans used electric wheel instead of wooden wheel. Making earthen lamps.

He says that earlier also lamps were made in the same way. Before Chinese and other fashionable lamps came into the market, we used to make different types of lamps using our imagination. Along with traditional lamps, we also make lamps that do not move due to wind. We are giving shape to the lamps by making better designs than what we see and the demand for these lamps is also being seen. Artisans like us are benefiting from organizing such exhibition sales by the government.

Manubhai says, “This art is no longer seen in cities, so we are called to some schools to show it to the students and we teach students how to make pottery using modern sticks. This kind of activity has been going on for years. It has been a source of livelihood for many artisans.