വി​ഗ്രഹങ്ങൾ പിറവിയെടുക്കുന്ന കലാ ​​ഗ്രാമം | Stones come to life as gods in this village

Myladi, a village in southern Tamil Nadu, is where Gods ‘take birth’. Expert artisans here create idols, sculptures as well as decorative pillars out of stone for temples. The entire village reflects divinity all around. Sculptors work in shacks surrounded by paddy fields. Smoke and dust billows out of the workplaces as the wind blows steadily outdoors. The village is located on the Kanyakumari–Koodankulam highway and can also be reached via the road to Anchugramam which deviates before Kanyakumari. Majority of the menfolk in the village are stone sculptors. Over the last six centuries, Myladi has been the centre of ‘Krishnasila’ art. Krishnasila is a kind of stone used in temple architecture. Massive temples, grand temple towers and elaborately carved temple gates have been created, along with the idols. “There is no temple in Tamil Nadu or Kerala which does not have at least one sculpture created here,” any artisan in Myladi would say proudly.