Awards

C. V. Raju receiving the award from the President of India,
Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

For C.V. Raju, the migration of artisans from his native village Etikoppaka was a painful affair. And even more agonising was the very thought of an ancient art coming to a virtual extinction.

Etikoppaka is famous for its wooden carvings and artefacts, especially the toys, mythological figures and carvings that are created to resemble the shapes that were excavated at the sites of Mohenjodaro and Harappa. Raju's childhood evolved amidst the creation of these uniquely shaped and coloured artefacts, and thus he developed a special bonding for the creator and the created.

After completing his higher education in a city he returned to his village to take care of the family farm. It was during those initial days that he observed the deteriorating economic condition of the artisan families due to lack of a proper marketing set-up. Almost 200 such families were on the verge of migration to urban lands to work as unskilled labourers in the unorganised sector to keep the wolf from the door. Seeing the impending threat to his much adored craftsmen and the ancient art itself, Raju launched Padmavati Associates to help them get a fair deal for their the products in national and international markets.

Using his resources and contacts he worked out a good demand for the products on the international arena. This move stemmed the erosion, and the artisans found a renewed hope to live.

But the smooth sailing was suddenly upset with a few importing countries rejecting the products on the basis of lead content in the synthetic dye based colours used.

The age-old practice of using tree-based dyes was replaced by the versatile synthetic dyes in 1910. Raju seized this opportunity to restore the old practice of using tree-based colours.

This concept was relatively new to the current generation of craftsman as they were more at home with the synthetic colours. Raju had to go back to the basics and found out from some of the surviving old artisans that the colours were extracted from a tree called `divi-divi' that has become extinct now.

As the adage goes `Necessity is the mother of all inventions', he attended a couple of workshops and training programmes and with his acquired knowledge experimented with tree and plant based dyes and finally came up with a few colour concentrates. The concentrates invented did not require any binding material like titanium dioxide and were lead-free. He also invented a technique to preserve them in cake form to avoid any possibility of development of micro toxins when preserved in slurry form.

The natural dyes are not only lead-free but also add shine to the colours and have an advantage of getting a wide variety of colours, tones, and shades (except white and pink). The colours have better lustre and are transparent than synthetic dyes.

There are specific procedures for preparing the dyes and they differ from colour to colour. To prepare a concentrate of red or orange, one kilo of Bixa Orenella is mixed with two litres of water and boiled on a small domestic oven for 20 to 30 minutes. The concentrate is cooled and filtered and then mixed with lacquer.

To improve the fastness of the dye the extract is kept in an earthen pot and mixed with wooden ash and stored for a period of three to six weeks. To get a deeper shade the period of storage is extended to six months. Ever since Raju's innovative methods were adopted, the artisans of Etikoppaka have never looked back.

For all his commitment, effort and innovative approach, the National Innovation Foundation has bestowed him with the State Award at a glittering function held at New Delhi on December 17, 2003. The award was given to him by the President of India, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.