Bhagyanagar
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
Ganesha worship
The Times of India, September 11, 2016
Meat is right, for these Ganesha worshippers
While it is traditional to offer modaks and kosambris to Ganesha on Chaturthi+ , here is a village where liquor and non-vegetarian food are offered as "naivedya" to the deity.
On the third day after Ganesha Chaturthi, a sub-sect of the Kshatriya community offers chicken and whisky as part of "naivedya" to the deity. It is a tradition that has been followed by their ancestors and continues till date. Families believe that by offering liquor and chicken, Ganesha is pleased and will bless them with wealth and joy.
They believe Ganesha is not satisfied with just vegetarian dishes and hence needs to be offered non-vegetarian food, in addition to the milk and tender coconut water that is generally offered. Surprisingly, this is not a one-day menu. In fact, the family, which organises a five-day Ganesh festival, ensures that liquor and non-vegetarian food are offered as naivedya from the third day of the festival to the fifth day. The menu changes each day as one day chicken is offered and on the others, fish or mutton is offered. A bottle of liquor is placed in front of the idol during the entire festival. During that time, liquor is also sprinkled on the idol as part of the naivedya. This tradition is only practiced at home. The liquor and non-vegetarian offering is not offered during street celebrations."
"This custom is not followed in the entire village but only by a certain community. Around 100 families of the Kshatriya community follow this tradition," says Gangadhar Bandihal, who has been witnessing this practice in his village for several years." Although there is no particular reason as to why this tradition is followed, it is a custom that is practised for years by ancestors.
Hair industry
2023
Basavaraj Kattimani, August 5, 2023: The Times of India
You walk away from a hair salon without a second glance at the clumps of your hair on the floor, but a wig made from that same hair could be the pride of a follically challenged person one day. It could also form the trendsetting new look of a movie star.
It’s not surprising then that hair processing is a Rs 3,000-crore business in India. Places like New Delhi, Chennai, Elur in Andhra Pradesh, Bhagabanpur and Murshidabad in West Bengal, and Dig in Rajasthan are its major centres.
Hub In Karnataka
Another place with a 70-year history of hair processing is Bhagyanagar in Karnataka’s Koppal district. This small town lies 125km from Hubballi and 380km from state capital Bengaluru. It is the lone hair processing centre in Karnataka but accounts for 40% of the hair processed in India.
Until Independence, the families that took up hair processing were mainly into farming. But when their land was acquired for the Tungabhadra dam around 1950, they were resettled on the outskirts of Koppal at a place that was later named Bhagyanagar.
Some of the new settlers were taught hair processing skills, and the business made a small start. In 1960, only 5-6 hair processing units operated out of houses here. Gradually, new technologies and machinery were brought in, and Bhagyanagar today has more than 200 hair processing units where 6,000-8,000 people work. Other units have sprung up in Koppal city, Kinnal, Hiresindhogi, Alavandi, etc, within a 25km radius.
Floor To Head
The hair processed in Bhagyanagar travels to China, Africa and Myanmar, where it is turned into different types of wigs and hair extensions, and then shipped to Europe and America. This is because, as Muttanna Vaddar, a hair processing unit owner, says, “Indian hair quality is very good. It has a huge demand in China, Africa and other places.” In fact, in ancient Rome women paid a premium for wigs made from black Indian hair.
But this long journey begins in a hair salon or a temple where devotees get their heads tonsured after taking a sacred vow. People from some communities collect raw hair from each salon in every street across Karnataka, says Parashuram H Pawar, who runs a hair processing unit in Bhagyanagar.
Parasappa Vaddar is a hair aggregator who buys hair from the street-level pickers and then sells it to the processing units. He says the pickers are paid in kind – “hairpins, combs, plastic items, utensils and hair bands” that they can sell for a living. Vaddar collects 50-60kg of raw hair per month. There is a premium on younger looking hair, he says. “While the units pay Rs 2,000-2,500 per kg for white hair, black hair is priced above Rs 5,000 per kg.”
The temple trusts have longer and better hair to offer because devotees get their heads shaved, not trimmed, after taking a vow. The trusts sell hair by calling tenders, and a batch can go for as much as Rs 25,000 per kg, says Pawar.
Laborious Process
Raw hair is processed in several stages, starting with cleaning. It is washed, dried and sorted by length and thickness. Some hair sets are just six inches long, others can be as long as 26 inches. And the sets are sent in packages of different weights, ranging from 300g to 1kg. On average, a worker processes half to one kilo of hair in a day. The smaller units employ 20-30 people, while the bigger ones might have up to 100.
“We process hair at home or at the unit,” says Kavya Hanagi, a hair processor. That means washing the hair with shampoo and smoothing it with coconut oil. “One person can process 300g of hair at most in a day, and we are paid Rs 100 for every 100g of hair. Some do it as a part-time job, others full-time. But we always get work.”
Hairpieces Next Goal
Although Bhagyanagar has been very successful as a supplier of raw hair – Muttanna Vaddar says their output is lapped up by exporters from Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kakinada, Eluru, etc – this has hindered the growth of the local wig making industry.
“We are facing a shortage of raw material since raw hair collected from India is being smuggled to Myanmar and China.
The government should curb it so that we get enough raw material to keep our units running,” says Vaddar.
Pawar says the government should also impart training in wig making “so that we can generate more employment”. (With inputs from Chamaraj Savadi)
