Durga's Silver Dress

Here is the Ganesha idol at the Mother's Shrine at Ramana Ashram today.

And here is a very special statue of Durga, which is a big favourite for alot of devotees

And in close up.

A devotee is arranging to have a silver dress and ornaments made for the Goddess, and in this respect a couple of gents have travelled from Salem in order to take a wax impression of the idol. Below in one cauldron is a large quantity of pure beeswax and in the other cauldron, lots of hot water.

The wax is slowly softening up in the hot water.

And now it is being crushed, kneaded and further softened.

An Ashram priest already cleaned and washed the idol and now one of the Brahmin experts from Salem is covering the idol with the softened wax.

Its now completely covered, including the buffalo head underneath Durga's feet which was visible in the second photograph of this series.

After a short time the wax has hardened enough to give a good impression for the experts and they gently take the covering off the idol and examine it carefully. They are satisfied with the impression and after taking several smaller individual impressions of Mother's hand etc., they leave to return to their place and within 40 days will return with the silver dress and ornaments.

To get an idea of what the silver dress and ornaments will look like, I am posting the gold dress recently made for Sri Rajarajeshwari at one of my favourite Mother Temples at Arunachala i.e. Sri Rajarajeshwari Koil, located off the GiriValam roadway just before Adi Annamalai. She looks absolutely exquisite. Just hope Sri Durga ends up with an equally gorgeous dress, albeit a silver one.

Click on this photograph for enlargement