Indian sand artist Sudarshan bags Gold medal in International Sand sculpture championship

Bhubaneswar, July 13 (Agency) Renowned Indian sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik has won Golden sand master award with a gold medal at International sand sculpture championship/festival, held at St. Petersburg (Russia).Twenty one World’s master sand sculptor participated in this championship held from July 4 to July 12 on the theme “History, mythology and fairy tales”. Pattnaik,the only participant from India has created a 12 feet high sand Ratha ( chariot) of Mahaprabhu Jagannath with his devotee and poet Balaram Das. Balaram Das who was the author of Dandi Ramayan was a great devotee of Lord Jagannath in fourteenth century A.D. It is said that once during Ratha Yatra (Car Festival), he tried to climb the chariot of Lord Jagannath to offer his prayer. Since he was not allowed by the priests of the chariot to climb it and was also insulted, Balaram came to the beach (Mahodadhi) and carved the statues of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra on the Golden sand.

He then worshiped these statues. His devotion was so strong and deep that the original statues vanished from the chariot and appeared at that place where Balaram Das was worshiped. Pattnaik said he had a dream to create a sand sculpture of Mahaprabhu Jagannath and the founder of sand art Balaram Das in a foreign land. The sand artist said since the world famous Ratha Yatra is being celebrated in Puri,he with the blessings of Mahaprabhu created a sand Chariot of Mahaprabhu Jagannath during this festival. So far Padma awardee sand artist Sudarsan has participated in more than 65 International sand art championships and festivals around the World and won many prizes for the country. Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi has congratulated Sudarshan for bagging the gold medal at the international sand art championship and said he has made Odisha and the country proud for his talent. Majhi hoped that in future also Sudarshan will depict his sand art talent winning many more medals both in national and international championship.