Self-taught artist recreates the magnificence of Tamil Nadu’s temples in miniature

Kaviarasan from Dharmapuri shows his carved graphite sculptures at Manidha Neyam IAS Academy in Chennai on Monday. | Photo Credit: VELANKANNI RAJ B

On surfaces as tiny as pencil lead, chalk, and sandalwood, intricate temple sculptures come alive through the work of a self-taught micro artist in Chennai. 

S. Kaviyarasan, 27, hopes to take his art to international competitions and showcase the State’s sculptural heritage. The artist, a native of Dharmapuri, began practising when he was ten years old, driven by a fascination with the sculptures he saw in temples. 

“I started trying to carve when I was in class five. I looked at sculptures in temples and practiced on my own,” he says, sitting cross-legged in a classroom in the Manidheya Neyam IAS Academy, Chennai, where he came in 2022 to prepare for government examinations, run by former Mayor Saidai Duraisamy.

He studies the details of sculptures, their design and the ideas they convey, using them as the starting point for his miniature works. “When I go to temples, I look at the sculptures and try to understand what they are trying to tell us, and how they have been designed,” he says.