I first met Mohapatra (Raghunath Mohapatra) in Bhubaneswar in 1981.
I was then designing The Oberoi hotel in Bhubaneswar, and was looking for a traditional sculptor for work in the lobby. I made inquiries, and eventually found Mohapatra. We got talking and built a rapport. I explained to him that I wasn't looking for an exact copy of artworks which people would often ask the sthapatis—predictable things like carving in the likeness of the Konark wheel. I wanted to use his craft skill, but not in clichés. The way I worked out the whole interior architecture of the hotel, it took the same form of the mandir—from the mandap to the maha-mandap to antralaya to the garbha-griha.
After many conversations, he understood what I wanted, and made this request. “You trust me on this and let me make this exquisitely carved piece in wood with my own hands.” It was Arjun and Krishna on the chariot, with the latter revealing the Bhagavad Gita. When that hotel was complete, The Taj Magazine wrote about it, hailing it as the prettiest new hotel in India. That is a rival group writing about The Oberois. Since then, the hotel has remained unchanged.
Back when it was completed, a Japanese filmmaking group chanced upon it and made a film. After that, Mohapatra was called to Japan and he went on to build a massive Buddha statue there. He worked on so many stunning temples in India and the US since then. He was given the Padma Vibhushan in 2013, the first sthapathi ever to be given the second highest civilian award. It’s such a great thing.
We went on to work on many projects together, including the Indian restaurant at The Grand Hotel (now called the Oberoi Grand) in Kolkata. It was done in khiching stone. Even in my courtyard in Delhi in Golf Links, he worked on a beautiful carving of a surya under a tree, among other things like a miniaturisd replica of a mandir which is in the tanks of the great Lingaraja Temple. He made exquisite, smaller works for my clients. I got him to make these two beautiful stone diyas, six-feet-high, in the traditional Tamil style at the PMO’s entrance in Delhi. For private residences, I once commissioned him to do 25 panels, eight-nine feet high, on the life of the Buddha for a prominent lawyer’s Jor Bagh residence. He also made a magnificent, eight-feet sleeping Vishnu in Captain Solanki’s house. I remember him making a Krishna statue for another client. It was carved from a single stone. It took him six to eight months. And there were these chains on it, all distinctly separate. He could so easily switch scales.
We shared a long, working relationship spanning 40 years. Mohapatra was also my “gurubhai”. He always said, “You are my sister from a previous lifetime.” He came from a long line of sthapathis—his forefathers built the famous Konark temple. He wanted to build a second Konark. He even bought land for it. He said, "I don’t want to depend on the government and all. God has been very kind to me.”
He was a deeply spiritual man. We had the same guru, who is now over 100 years old in Cuttack. I call him babaji. Mohapatra once told me the story of how when he was a young boy of 12, he left home and went to the Himalayas and roamed for some 10 to12 years. He said, “Little did I realise that the guru I was looking for was in my own state in Odisha.”
Every time Mohapatra called me, he would never say pranam or something like that. He would greet me with a whole, deep prayer. He introduced me to babaji 20 years ago at a time when my eldest daughter was going through a bad marriage. He then said, “My guruji will help you.” Meeting babaji was one of the most life-affirming events of my life. The last time I spoke to Mohapatra, which was about a month ago, I had inquired about babaji’s health and he checked on my family
Mohapatra was also a guru for the poor. Till the time before he died, he would get up at 4am, make food for over 150 people and wouldn’t take a single penny from anyone. His one regret was that he was not educated. He couldn't read and write in English. So, he made sure his children got the best education. Two of his sons died this month due to COVID-19. Early on, Mohapatra had lost another son, a young chap who had a heart-attack on a train. I have known his sons since they were little boys. Known them for years because they too worked with their father. In the 90s, Mohapatra was so thrilled because our dog had given birth, he took two of the pups for his children.
Mohapatra is the greatest of the sthapathis because of the fineness of his craft. It is absolutely exquisite. There’s no other word for it. A brilliant craftsman. Yes, he has done huge temples. Yes, he made huge Buddhas. And yes, he has carved so many statues. But what will remain is that he taught his craft to others.
When I met him first, he only had two sthapathis working for him. And over these 40 years that I have known him, he trained 2,000 sthapathis. That will be his greatest legacy.
— As told to Sneha Bhura
