Nagpur: Bamboo has long been used for building shelter, houses, weapons, and also as a food. The city-based Shree Saibaba Seva Mandal, Nagpur, has made bamboo sacred by building a temple out of it.
“The 200sqft temple built inside the Sai Mandir (Wardha Road) premises out of bamboo is the first such in the region replacing the earlier concrete structure. The ‘Prana Pratishtha’ (bringing life to the temple) was held on Monday to reinstall idols of Maa Durga, Lord Ganesh, and Dattatraya,” said Avinash Shegaonkar, secretary of the temple.
The bamboo temple is the result of joint efforts of Green Planet Social Foundation (GPSF), an NGO promoting bamboo development, Maharashtra Bamboo Development Board (MBDB), temple trustees, and Ganesh Harimkar, an architect who designed the temple.
“It’s a small dream come true for us. We had earlier planned a bamboo walkway from the entrance to the temple point at Shirdi. Somehow it did not materialize. When the structure at Sai Mandir was to be replaced, bamboo concept came to our mind. We approached the MBDB, which readily agreed,” said Yashodhara Dhanwatey, director, Green Planet.
“This is God's work commissioned by the divine in every sense of the word and we are a mere channel of delivery sent to reconstruct what was destined to be. The humble bamboo is stronger than mild steel and has multiple uses,” Dhanwatey said.
“City’s Sai Mandir is the only temple trust to have reconstructed old temple completely with bamboo. In less than a day, the design iterations were presented and approved and in less than a week the reconstruction started. It took 25 days to complete the work costing Rs 8 lakh. MBDB provided artisans while labour cost was borne by the trust and know-how provided by Green Planet,” said Anand Fiske of GPSF.
The temple depicts arches, domes, delicate weaves, and bends. The structural potential of bamboo is explored by the use of arches and curved support members.
The roof is supported by bamboo arches from the front and both sides and rested on the existing wall at the rear side. Traditional bamboo weaving is used as an infill panel between arches. Cutouts for shikhar (domes) are left in the roof keeping in mind the philosophy of temple architecture.
The three shikharas are conceptualized from the form of coconut and made out of bamboo weaving layered with epoxy varnish and cloth from inside. The arched back panel is made using bamboo mat board finished in polyurethane and bamboo weaving grill is bordered in arched profile and is backlit with LED.
A platform for idols is cladded with bamboo plyboard and bamboo wood flooring is used for flooring.